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Appearance Differences between Imported and US Bred BC's


Dragoon 45
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I have received a lot of comments lately that my older B&W male has the appearance of either an imported Scottish or English BC. As I am not a breeder, I did not know that there was any ready way to tell from appearance the most likely location a BC came from. I did not recognize any of the dogs in his lineage on his papers to know if he is from recently imported blood lines.

 

Some of the comments that I have been told are as follows concerning Cody. He has large feet for his size and relatively slender legs which supposedly indicates Scottish lines. Another comment is that down his back his fur is curly running along a line about 2" wide from his shoulders to the base of his tail following his spine, supposedly a trait of Scottish lines. Also his fur on his chest is curly, again according to one breeder this also indicates Scottish or English lines.

 

Cody is what I always consided just a rough coat BC though on the large side approx 55 lbs. He is still a high drive dog at almost 13 although he has been slowed down by injuries.

 

Is there any credience to what I have been told on Cody's possibly Scottish/English origins or am I being told a bunch of bad information? As Cody is neutered, I am just curious.

 

Cody does seem to like Bagpipe music though. :)

 

Thank You.

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I did not know that there was any ready way to tell from appearance the most likely location a BC came from

 

Is he from show or working lines? Show line border collies tend to be homogenous in appearance (though BCs from England may be different than BCs from the US). When show judges in a specific location reward a specific look, breeders in that area tend to breed that specific look. That is how people tell where a show BC is from.

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No, Actually these breeders are ranchers who own working stock dogs. One of them wanted to breed Cody to one of his females until I told him Cody was neutered.

 

 

They wanted to breed one of their working stockdogs to your untrained 13-year-old dog?

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He had seen his papers and knew both Cody's dam and sire, which as far as I knew there was nothing super in his lineage. Cody was 10 at the time this happened. Cody is a trained, working service dog, just not a stock dog. My rancher friend either knew or thought he knew something about Cody, but he never did tell me what it was. He passed away a couple of months ago. Now if you had known my friend, he would pull the occassional practical joke, but he was deadly serious when it came to his dogs and his livestock.

 

As I said this was suprising to me, I am not a breeder nor am I familiar with the names of the champion working or show dogs. I don't hang around the show dog crowd, never been to dog show in my life. I do attend the occassional stock dog trial to observe. I am medically retired from the military and am unable to physically do farm or ranch work anymore.

 

I am just curious why Cody caused this much interest. I have since got comments from some folks who are UK citizens living here, now working in the oil patch. Most common comment is Cody looks like the dogs they have back home in the UK and US bred dogs don't look right to them. And no, I don't know if these folks are more familiar with working or show bred dogs.

 

After you get a bunch of comments like this for a while, you begin to get curious.

 

They wanted to breed one of their working stockdogs to your untrained 13-year-old dog?

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Personally I haven't noticed any obvious traits that would scream Welsh vs. Irish vs. British vs. US. Perhaps one might see more smooth-coated dogs here since the weather and terrain can make a smooth coat easier to deal with. I know a few curly coated dogs; some were imported and some were bred here. One I know has Aled Owen's dogs (Welsh; that is, not Scottish) in his bloodlines. Two were related; the others are not. There are plenty of dogs being bred in the US, but there are also plenty of dogs being imported. The mixing of imports with "home grown" (all who originally came from imported stock) would suggest that there won't be a distinctive look that is indiginous to only one area. It's certainly possible that as tbe breed was being developed different looks developed in specific areas, but as shepherds became more mobile (automobiles) and trials spread across the UK, I'd guess that local types became more homogenous as bloodlines were mixed across regions. JMO.

 

J.

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You get as much variation in type throughout the UK as you do anywhere else.

 

I've found the further north or higher up you go the more likely you are to see short coated dogs. It seems counterintuitive but that's the way it is.

 

I can see plenty that don't fit that picture though.

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I've found the further north or higher up you go the more likely you are to see short coated dogs. It seems counterintuitive but that's the way it is.

 

Snow and ice packed into the longer fur of a rough coat quickly negates any advantage they might have had. I've found the smooth coats easier to deal with in any climate, but especially in deep winter snow.

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I have had six dogs that I imported. Sava, Coll, Ben, Kiwi and Wynn are smooth coats and Kuro was a super culry rough b/w coat.....I have been over there and their dogs and our dogs look the same...i do not see any difference in the working lines....

 

now the show lines....that is something else.....

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Snow and ice packed into the longer fur of a rough coat quickly negates any advantage they might have had. I've found the smooth coats easier to deal with in any climate, but especially in deep winter snow.

 

I understand that. I should have said "Seems counterintuitive to those who think a dog needs a long coat to keep warm."

 

I much prefer short coated dogs of any breed/type myself because where my dogs are exercised is often very wet and muddy. The short coated ones are virtually clean and dry before I get home 10 mins away.

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