Sunday, October 01, 2017

Show Vs Work: Border Collie



Show line "Barbie" Collie at top.

Working Border Collie at bottom.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Interesting how much more vertical the 'stop' is on the show collie head. Similar to golden retriever etc. Has this been achieved purely by selection within the breed or did they add something else secretly?

Donald McCaig said...

The "show line" Border Collie's correct name is "Barbie Collie"

Donald

Edze said...

Thanks!
I just came back from fetching a sheep with three lambs ( apparently she adopted one over the summer). We drove them on a trailer after I found them in the highlands; they graze free range over the summer here in Iceland. Had to drive them a couple of kilometers to the road over the height (hilly landscape with moors, valleys, rocky slopes, little lakes and brooks). Couldn't have been possible without Gláma, my seven year old bordercollie.
I would like to see them try that with that wig on your first picture...
By the way, my compliments to your blog. Interesting reading.

Kim said...

It's hard to believe that chunky dog on top is a border collie!!

Edze said...

Well Kim, I would argue it isn't.

PipedreamFarm said...

The kennel clubs select for genes that produce a phenotype and call that a breed where a different phenotype (produced by another selected set of genes) is a different breed. In both breeds there are genes and phenotypes the kennel clubs do not select/specify (health, personality, working instincts, etc).

By this logic we can easily say the selecting for appearance while ignoring instincts produces one breed; and ignoring appearance aand selecting for instincts produces a different breed. However, most people only "judge a book by its cover".