WORKING DOGS

© Warren Fahey 2008

The Scotch Sheep Dog

(From Wood’s Natural History Mammalia volume by the Rev. J.G Woods, circa 1862.)

More familiarly called the Colley, the Scotch sheep dog,is not unlike the English Sheep-Dog in character, though it rather differs from that animal in form. It is sharp of nose, bright and mild of eye, and most sagacious of aspect. Its body is heavily covered with long and woolly hair, which stands boldly out from its body, and forms a most effectual screen against the heat of the blazing sun, or the cold, sleety blasts of winter winds. The tail is exceedingly bushy, and curves upward towards the end, so as to carry the long hairs free from the ground. The color of the fur is always dark, and is sometimes variegated with a very little white. The most approved tint is black and tan; but it sometimes happens that he entire coat is of one of these colors, and in that case the dog is not so highly valued.

The "dew-claws" of the English and Scotch Sheep-dogs are generally double, and are not attached to the bone, as is the case with the other claws. At the present day it is the custom to remove these appendages, on the grounds that they are of no use to the Dog, and that they are apt to be rudely torn off by the various obstacles through which the animal is obliged to force its way, or by the many accidents to which it is liable in its laborious vocation. In the entire aspect of this creature there is a curious resemblance to the Dingo, as may be seen on reference to the account of that animal in subsequent pages.

It is hardly possible to overrate the marvellous intelligence of a well-taught Sheep-dog; for if the shepherd were deprived of the help of his Dog his office would be almost impracticable. It has been forcibly said by a competent authority that, if the work of the Dog were to be performed by men, their maintenance would more than swallow up the entire profits of the flock. They, indeed, could never direct the sheep so successfully as the Dog directs them; for the sheep understand the Dog better than they comprehend the shepherd. The Dog serves as a medium through which the instructions of the man are communicated to the flock; and being in intelligence the superior of his charge, and the inferior of his master, he is equally capable of communicating with either extreme.

One of these Dogs performed a feat which would have been, excusably, thought impossible, had it not been proved to be true. A large flock of lambs took a sudden alarm one night, as sheep are wont, unaccountably and most skittishly, to do, and dashed off among the hills in three different directions. The shepherd tried in vain to recall the fugitives; but finding all his endeavors useless, told his Dog that the lambs had all run away, and then set off himself in search of the lost flock. The remainder of the night was passed in fruitless search, and the shepherd was returning to his master to report his loss. However, as he was on the way, he saw a number of lambs standing at the bottom of a deep ravine and his faithful dog keeping watch over them. He immediately concluded that his Dog had discovered one of the three bands which had started off so inopportunely in the darkness; but on visiting the recovered truants he discovered, to his equal joy and wonder, that the entire flock was collected in the ravine, without the loss of a single lamb.

How the wonderful Dog had performed this task, not even his master could conceive. It may be that the sheep had been accustomed to place themselves under the guidance of the Dog, though they might have fled from the presence of the shepherd; and that they felt themselves bewildered in the darkness they were quite willing to entrust themselves to their well-known friend and guardian.

The memory of the Shepherd's Dog is singularly tenacious, as may appear from the fact that one of these Dogs, when assisting his master, for the first time, in conducting some sheep from Westmoreland to London, experienced very great difficulty in guiding his charge among the many cross-roads and bye-ways that intersected their route. But on the next journey he found but little hindrance, as he was able to remember the points which had caused him so much trouble on his former expedition, and to profit by the experience which he had then gained.