Search results for "herding"

Despite an outward appearance slightly resembling a wolf, the German shepherd dog is a fairly recently developed breed and, contrary to namve beliefs, it is no more closely related to the wolf than any other breed of dog. The breed is the result of a conscious effort to produce the ideal shepherd, capable of herding and guarding its flocks. Perhaps never in the history of any breed has such concerted effort been put into improving a dog, mostly due to the formation in 1899 of the Verein fur Deutsche Scharferhunde SV, an organization devoted to overseeing the breeding of the German shepherd.

In the early 1800s, vast land areas in Australia became available for grazing cattle. The cattle raised on these lands became so wild and intractable that the traditional European herding breeds that had proved satisfactory on tamer cattle were no longer suited for the job. A dog was needed that could withstand traveling long distances over rough terrain in hot weather and that could control cattle without barking (which only served to make wild cattle wilder).

The Australian shepherd is not really an Australian breed, but it came to America by way of Australia. One popular theory of the breed's origin begins during the 1800s, when the Basque people of Europe settled in Australia, bringing with them their sheep and sheepdogs. Shortly thereafter, many of these shepherds relocated to the western United States, with their dogs and sheep. American shepherds naturally dubbed these dogs Australian shepherds because that was their immediate past residence. The rugged area of Australia and western America placed demands on the herding dogs that they had ...

The derivation of the collie is as obscure as the derivation of its name. One theory of the breed's origins is that it was derived from the same rootstock as the border collie. One theory of the name's origin is that it was derived from a Gaelic word meaning useful, which certainly described the useful farm or stock dogs valued by the Celts who first settled on the British Isles. Although sheep herding and guarding are some of the most ancient of canine services, evidence of the collie dates only from about 1800. Both rough- and smooth-coated "Scotch" collies existed by that time, but ...