The old farm collie was not a
dog
breed in the modern sense of having an organized
breed club and
registry. It was a
North American
landrace descended primarily from the old working collie landrace of
Great Britain. Photo evidence from the 1800s and early 1900s
indicates that the North American old farm
collie
was quite variable in type, probably showing the whole
phenotypic range from Roman
cattle dog type to herding
spitz
type. Some individuals may have shown the influence of other types as
well, such as
setter,
retriever, or
greyhound. Individual family lines may have been quite uniform in
type, and perhaps in many geographical areas certain types became fixed
due to popularity of certain family lines, or simply due to the
population being somewhat isolated by distance or other geographical
barriers.
The decline of the old farm collie landrace apparently began with the rise of
formal
kennel club registries and the subsequent creation of the modern idea of
pure breeds. By the early 1900s, some people were worried about the future of
the old farm collie. Other breeds such as the trial-bred
Border Collie and show-bred
Rough
Collie were popular and seemed to be replacing the old farm collie. In
addition, farmers may have used individuals from these and other registered
breeds to upgrade existing old farm collie stock, as was commonly practiced in
livestock breeding.
At least two pure breeds were developed from the old North American farm
collie landrace during the early decades of the 20th century: the
English Shepherd and the
Australian Shepherd. After
World
War II, agriculture in North America began changing rapidly. The old farm
collie as the common stock dog across North America seems to have disappeared
between the 1940s and 1960s.