Collie
History
Collie refers
to various breeds of herding dog originating primarily
in Scotland. The exact origin of the name is
uncertain, although it probably originates in Early Scots
col(l) (coal), meaning black. Another explanation sometimes
put forward is that collie was a regional word in Anglo-Saxon
for "something useful." The fictional Lassie,
star of movies, books, and television shows, was a rough
collie, which helped to popularize Collies in the United
States and the United Kingdom, as well as in many other
countries. Lad of Sunnybank also deserves credit for making
the collie popular and was a real dog written about by
Albert Payson Terhune.
The highlands
of Scotland were the natural home of the collie, where
the sheepdogs had been used for centuries
by shepherds, but the modern form of the breed was mostly
developed in England in the late 1800s. This early form
of the breed was usually referred to as the Scotch collie
(or Scottish collie) in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Scotch collies were heavier and less fine-boned than today's
rough and smooth dogs. The ancestors of the modern Collie
were first exhibited as "Scotch Sheep-Dogs" in
the 1860 Birmingham (England) dog show.
Collies come
in two varieties of the breed based on coat length in
America; in the UK these are shown as separate
breeds. The rough collie is the collie seen in films and
on television (e.g., Lassie). The downy undercoat is covered
by a long, dense, coarse outer coat with a notable ruff
around the neck, feathers about the legs, a petticoat on
the abdomen, and a frill on the hindquarters. The smooth
collie likewise has a double coat, but the outer one is
short and dense, albeit there is a notable ruff around
the neck. Both rough and smooth varieties are available
in four distinct colors. Sable collies are generally the
most recognizable, the choice of the Lassie television
and movie producers. The sable color on these dogs can
range from a light blonde color to a deep reddish-brown,
with any hue in between possible. Tri-colour dogs are mostly
black and white with tan markings. Blue Merle collies are
best described as tri-colour dogs whose black has been
diluted to a mottled gray-blue color. White collies are
usually mostly white on the body with a head coloration
of any of the three previous. A lesser-known variant of
blue merle colouring is that of the "phantom merle" -
a seemingly tri-colour dog, with only perhaps a slight
merling of one or two areas of fur, which actually carries
the gene for merling, which is a dominant dilution gene.
If bred to another dog with a merle gene, the resulting
pups may be "double-dilute", which can result
in devastating and lethal neurological conditions. In America,
a dog with the phantom merle coloring is described as being "cryptic
for merle."
As modern-day "Lassies",
both rough and smooth collies have become successful
assistance, and therapy
dogs. At least one guide dog school, Southeastern Guide
Dogs in Florida, currently trains smooth coated collies
as guide dogs, and a number of collies are currently partnered
with disabled individuals around the United States.
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