English shepherds

[myBCboys]

What is the difference between this breed and border collies? Just saw this for the first time on the web and well, the dogs look like border collies! They look like my dogs!

What's the difference?

Thanks.

[Barb Scott]

You can find a comparioson of Border Collies, English Shepherds, & Australian Shepherds at:

http://www.nesr.info/whatbreed/

Barb S

[myBCboys]

Well I am pretty sure they aren't Aussies. But they still could be Eng. Shepherds! I found the chart a little confusing but thanks for pointing me to it. I might just have to study it a bit more.

And really it doesn't matter. The boys are wonderful and we are so happy with them.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

The ones around here tend to look like tall Border Collies and hold themselves more erect. There's also generally something different about the head, maybe a less distinct stop?

 

The best way to tell is to get them on stock! All similarities go out the window! I like how a well-bred English Shepherd works but it's an acquired taste, they are very upright and pushy. They aren't hill-gathering dogs but the properly bred ES is also bred to "tree" critters and guard the farm. This is the main difference between the Border Collie and the ES: where the Border Collie is a specialist, the English Shepherd is a Jack of all Trades (and master of none - how many of you have heard of the ES named among premier sheepdogs, hunting dogs, or guardians?).

 

There's a lot of breeders here in North and South Carolina. I'm not sure why - I used to keep up a correspondence with the secretary of NESR and she wasn't sure why we had so many, either. We therefore ended up with an overabundance of ES in rescue, also. At least once or twice a year I'd write Jan and tell her we had this beautiful, mellow dog that had this funky way of chasing sheep! They were terrific people, by the way.