History
The early history of the Smooth Collie, like that of many dog breeds, is largely a matter of speculation. The most common view of the breed is that they are descended from a population of shepherds' dogs brought to Scotland by the Romans around the 5th century. Even the origin of the breed's name is unclear, variously claimed to describe the early shepherd dog's dark colour ("coaly"), or derived from the name of a breed of sheep with black faces once commonly kept in Scotland ("Colley"), or derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "useful." The word may could also trace to Gaelic or/and Irish - in which the words for "doggie" are, respectively, càilean and cóilean. This would be more consistent with the breed's origin in the Gaelic-speaking Scottish Highlands than an Anglo-Saxon term.
The modern history of both the Smooth and Rough Collie began in the reign of Queen Victoria, who became interested in the shepherds' dogs while at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. In 1860, she purchased some of the dogs for her own kennel. With the Queen's interest, it became fashionable to own Smooth Collies. Thus began the breed's transformation from working farm dog, similar to the modern Border collie, to the dog bred as a pet and for the sport of conformation showing that we know today.
The Smooth Collie today is considered a variety of the same breed as the Rough Collie in the United States, meaning that they can interbreed and some statistics are kept only for "Collie" rather than for both varieties individually. The smooth and rough are classified as separate breeds in other countries, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. The latter is a fairly recent development, however, with the Kennel Club (UK) allowing the interbreeding of the two varieties until 1993.
Read more about this topic: Smooth Collie
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain—that which they immediately recognize and desire. They gratify their own interest; but something further is thereby accomplished, latent in the actions in question, though not present to their consciousness, and not included in their design.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“I believe that in the history of art and of thought there has always been at every living moment of culture a “will to renewal.” This is not the prerogative of the last decade only. All history is nothing but a succession of “crises”Mof rupture, repudiation and resistance.... When there is no “crisis,” there is stagnation, petrification and death. All thought, all art is aggressive.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)