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History and Origin
In the 18th century, the collie?s natural home was in the highlands of Scotland, deep
in the hills and the mountains, where he had been used for centuries as a sheepdog.
It is possible that the Romans brought sheepdogs with them when they invaded Britain
and that these dogs then interbred with the local dogs and thus are the ancestors
of today?s collies. Eventually two types of collies developed from these common
ancestors - the Rough Collie, the long-haired variety that worked directly with the
flocks; and the Smooth Collie, the short-haired variety that was used primarily as a
drover dog to drive livestock to market. Bred for centuries for their working ability
rather than the status of their pedigree, their exact origins have been lost. The
farmers who relied on these dogs were totally dependent on their pastoral pursuits,
so the dogs were bred for strength, endurance, intelligence, devotion and loyalty.
The origin of the word "collie" is also open to speculation. It has been spelled many
different ways: Coll, Colley, Coally and Coaly. Coll is the Anglo-Saxon word for black
and one theory holds that "Collie" comes from the black-faced Colley sheep and therefore
the dogs responsible for their well-being became known as "colley dogs". Another theory
suggests that the original working dog was black and therefore was called "Coallies".
Whatever the origins, around 1875, the name Collie was firmly in place.
The collie was known as the "working man?s dog" and belonged primarily to the middle
class worker whose funds were limited for breeding and exhibiting dogs. As interest in
purebreds and pedigrees grew among the Victorian upper class, peasant "working" dogs
were looked down upon as "as improperly bred, or worse, not bred at all." Collies however
were considered an exception to this elitist attitude: "Because of their exceptional
aptitude for following complex verbal and visual commands, collies were regarded as a
"step up" from other peasant breeds, a professional working class of dog."
The breed was given a royal boost in the late 1800?s when Queen Victoria first saw the
Collies when visiting at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. She was so impressed with the beauty,
intelligence and faithfulness of these sheepdogs that several soon joined her Royal Kennels.
With her patronage the Collie had an upsurge of acceptance and popularity and it is to the
English dog fancy of the late 1800's that the breed owes its development as a popular show
dog.
1840 the "Collie Club" was founded in England by manorial enthusiasts, which on their part
achieved the acceptance of the breed 1858.
In 1860 the Birmingham National Dog Show Society held classes for different varieties of
herding dogs: "Scotch Sheep-dogs". This was only the 3rd formal dog show at which
conformation was judged and the first all-breed show. Five collies were benched at this
show.
One of the first show collies was a dog named "Old Cockie", born in 1868. He was a major
influence on the early development of the breed, not only as a show dog but as a sire.
He is also the dog that is credited with introducing the sable colour. All show collies
trace back to "Old Cockie" through his grandson, Charlemagne. Other notable collies of
the period were dogs such as Bess, Old Mec, Old Hero, Carlyle, Trefoil, Twig, Tartan,
Tricolour, Tramp, Marcus, Scott, Duncan, Hunt?s Lassie and Brackenbury?s Scott. From
Trefoil, whelped in 1873, the collie chart progresses right down to the present day dogs.
The early English pioneers in the breed took the ordinary sheepdog and started the
development of the breed we know today as the Collie.
In North America, the collie breed was dominated by rich patrons who imported the best
from England who eventually became the progenitors of some of the early prestigious kennels.
The Collie Club of America In. was organized in 1886 and was the second breed parent club
to join the American Kennel Club. In the late 1880?s, J.P. Morgan imported the English sable,
"Sefton Hero", for which he paid the record price, at the time, of $5,000. Hero went on to
become the Winners Dog at the first Collie Club of America show, held in New York in 1894.
Collie Family Tree
Collie history is not made up solely of sheep-herding and show dogs. During the First World
War, Britain launched a nationwide recruiting campaign for eligible dogs to answer Germany?s
troop of 50,000 dogs trained and ready for combat. Two thousand dogs were volunteered by their
owners with the first week of the WWI, including Airedale terriers, "Scotch Collies",
Old English Sheepdogs, and a plethora of mongrels. England?s fleet of Scotch Collie sentries
was credited with saving troop water supplies from contamination by enemy spies, and at one
point in the war Germany attempted (but failed) to bomb the Collie kennels at West Hartlepool.
Popularity as a family dog grew during the early 1900?s not least of all due to the writings
of Albert Payson Terhune, whose stories almost invariably starred the heroic feats of one of
his collies and although sentimental, were wildly popular. The collie?s reputation for
bravery, loyalty and intelligence was further enforced when ?Lassie? became a household name
after the release of the film, "Lassie Come Home" in 1943. Popularity soared through the
40's and 50's when the TV Lassie series idealized the Collie as a family dog. The health of
the breed suffered somewhat as indiscriminate breeding took place to capitalize upon the
breed?s popularity. Their loyalty, intelligence and versatility will ensure their place in
hearts and home forever.