| Show early roman writers classified their dogs as watch sheep hunting breeds without doubt one of the earliest uses of a dog was to help herd the stock of his master early references to dogs confirm this when you examine the works of roman writers observes an authority in the chicago tribune you find that they divided dogs into three classifications ficat ions watchdogs watch dogs sheep dogs and hunting dogs it ts Is quite likely that the conquering romans brought these dogs into england the bible also gives us a sidelight on the early use of dogs tor for herding as in the book of job we read jobs reference to those whose fathers I 1 would have disdained disdain ed to have set with dogs of my flocks since dogs have helped tor for many centuries to tend the flocks of their masters a practice that prevailed in many countries it surprising that today we still have a rather large number of working breeds with herding instincts and a real working background the belgian sheep dog bouvier des Fl andres c ollie collie old english sheep dog and others are in this group the border collie found herding sheep on the moors of scotland and elsewhere in the british isles varies considerably in type for example there are long haired short haired and bearded border collies the long haired is the most popular here in america the biggest advancement van cement in making the breed better has been during the last ten or twelve years the source of most of the promotion of the breed has come from new england where there are quite a few of the dogs being used on sheep farms it was in new england that the first american sheep dog trials for the breed were held |
