The Group judges know that most of the Rough Collies they have in the group ring are basically unsound. Why do the breed judges ignore sound animals? Is it because their own Collies are unsound. I suspect that they think that their own dogs are perfect so that a cow hocked or straight shouldered dog to them is perfect and deserves the top award.
We now have bitches winning top awards that are far too low in the front. A problem that the breeders in the USA had a few years ago because the most popular sire at the time was throwing this fault. Fortunately they decided to try and correct the fault with one dog in particular improving the shoulders. It is a straight shoulder that is the problem here. But I find that most judges have no idea where the shoulder is and here I have to say that many of the top all-rounder judges are just as ignorant.
We had a similar problem in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Mainly because one dog that was the top winner in the country at that time Ch Mywicks Meadow lancer was himself a very unsound dog. One look at his photographs will prove my point. Fortunately we had a litter born in 1965 that changed the breed so that for a time we had very high quality sound Collies in the ring. This was the litter that produced Ch’s Royal Ace and Romney of Rokeby. Before Meadow Lancer came on to the scene the breed was doing quite well with some very nice Collies winning top awards. We had the Beulah’s, Ladypark’s and Westcarrs doing the breed proud in the showring.
But, I have just had another thought on what is going wrong. The Rough Collie is very loose limbed. The breed is almost unique in the way that limbs are so flexible. They are entirely different from the Smooth Collie in this respect. Also the breed has very small feet in relation to their size. I have to wonder if the judges who judge other breeds as well can understand this feature of the Rough Collie. I suspect they see this as a weakness when in actual fact it is a strength that the breed need for their job of herding. They need to be very flexible as they are always up and down on the job. The Border Collie does a similar job but they are small and have much larger feet which gives them a more solid construction.
This is a photo of a sable & white dog born in 1943. For me he is the ideal Rough Collie Dog. Why has the breed been allowed to come down from this type of nobility. There are no photographs of todays dogs that come even close to the majesty of this dog. If he was alive and shown today he would be unbeatable.
Was it the suspected crossing with Samoyeds that produce the deep stop so common on the poor quality specimens we see today? This is the only reason I can think of that produced this type of head that was so highlighted by kennel owners who owned both breeds.
And what has happened to expressions that was in my early days the most important feature of the breed?
The main problem here is that it is not possible for the Collie to have a deep stop and a correct expression. The head has to be clean on the sides with no discernible cheek bones for the eye to be in the perfect position for a perfect eye that produces the perfect expression. A deep stop means that the cheeks are going to be prominent with the result that the eye is in the wrong position to create that perfect expression.
Corydon Collies 