The Icelandic & Germanic languages had the words KUR and KURRE which virtually described an important dog used for guarding property and stock. [See article Name That Breed – A Collie By Any Other Name… ], So I then started researching old articles about Scotch Collies with the assumption that the farther back in time I went, the more they would look like an English Shepherd, having been told that English Shepherds were bred from the original, non-showing, working lines of Scotch Collies. THE TWO DROVERS By SIR WALTER SCOTT CHAPTER I It was the day after Donne Fair when my story commences. The engraving is great, but it doesn’t label the dog anything, so we could say it was an OES but it could just as easily be a Bearded Collie. The Drover's Dog of Northumberland was often referred to as the CUR. The book says that it was originally a drover’s dog, and much bigger than the ‘modern’ OES. A Natural History of British and Foreign Quadrupeds by James Hamilton Fennell, 1841 Epiphany number one, there is no such thing as an old farm collie. Translate texts with the world's best machine translation technology, developed by the creators of Linguee. For example, I started out researching historic articles about farm collies, but I soon realized that the term “farm collie” was not in general use prior to the 1980s, the old term for these dogs it turned out, was “scotch collie”. I would love to see that illustration, if you can get it, email it to shep@farmcollie.org and I will post it here. I remain a passionate advocate for the Scotch Collie, this is my personal website for promoting this amazing dog breed. The tai… [see article The English Shepherd Contrasted with the Scottish ]. I created this website in 2009 to document the history of the breed and efforts to save them. The ranch consists of 7,052 deeded acres and the … Curs are usually not recognized as show dogs, but developed solely for their hunting ability. I think this is more likely the source of the Old English Sheepdog. Epiphany number two, the way show collies looked around 1900 was not an aberration created by crossing Scotch Collies with Borzoi, there were many collies with this look prior to 1860 (this is approximately the date that Queen Victoria got her first collies and when dog shows began). A General History of Quadrupeds by Thomas Bewick, 1807 Learn how your comment data is processed. [7] Their character was described as cunning, clever, ever busy and restless; it was said they could differentiate their master's cattle from those of strangers and they would separate the strange cattle from their master's herds. The bushwoman’s husband, a former squatter turned drover, is away with his sheep. To distinquist these drover's dogs from the rest of British drovers or cur dogs, Howard geve them the name Northumberland Drover's Dog. David Johnathon of Dihewyd traded throughout the Midlands and sold cattle at the fairs of Kingston, East Grinstead and Horsham. They described a type of dog related to the Collie, with shorter hair, a shorter muzzle and sometimes born bob-tailed, but definitely collie-like. However, another now existent herder/drover called the ‘Smithfield Sheepdog’, was reported to have been taken to the U.S and bred with collies to create the English Shepard. Old Time Farm Shepherd is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon and affiliated sites. drover - Translation to Spanish, pronunciation, and forum discussions. MORE PHOTOS. [4][6][7] A defining characteristic of the cur was many were born with short, stumpy tails, which gave the appearance of their having been docked. [10], These versatile dogs are used in a number of roles: for herding livestock, as well as trailing and locating lost livestock in thick scrubland; and in hunting a variety of game, including squirrels, opossums, raccoons, feral pigs, cougars, and American black bears, locating game both by sight and scent.