If a pair of Salukis were the dogs on Noah’s ark, surely those sighthounds (and the aardvarks, armadillos, and anteaters) were safely ushered onboard by a reliable herding dog or two. Who better to lead all of Mother Nature’s creatures to safety than one of the supremely capable breeds of Herding Group? Perhaps it was the Canaan Dog that organized the menagerie, but others certainly could have done so just as reliably—if antiquity’s most famous boat had been built in the Scottish Highlands or the Australian Outback. For wherever there’s a need to move large groups of animals en masse, there’s a hardworking herding dog ready (and able) to take up the charge.
In honor of the purebred dogs that have allowed human civilizations to flourish in unique environments and diverse civilizations around the world, the following excerpt from The Dog, authored by James Dickie and published in 1933 by the J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, is reprinted here, in part, to demonstrate the important contributions made by herding dogs throughout the course of human history.
“Job referred to the ‘dogs of his flock,’ and Homer waxed lyrical thus:
Th’ unwearied watch their listening leader keep
And, couching close, repel invading sleep,
So faithful dogs their fleecy charge maintain…
What Job’s dogs did is not clear:
But now they who are younger than I have me in decision, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
Job’s mastery of picturesque opprobrium is fortunate in that it proves the existence of sheep-dogs in very early days.
It seems fairly certain, however, that Job’s dogs, like those mentioned by Homer, were used for guarding sheep rather than for rounding them up and driving them.
In Tibet, large black and tan dogs, like mastiffs, are used for this purpose; in the Pyrenees a large dog, not unlike a St. Bernard but much more hairy, guards the flocks. The Russians keep sheep-dogs for the same purpose as do shepherds in every country where carnivora large enough to tackle sheep exist.
It is certain that man owned dogs and used them for hunting before he learnt to grow crops, and it would appear that the dog was the first animal to be domesticated.
As soon as his master possessed flocks and herds, the dog would naturally help to guard them, thus the sheep-dog may claim to be the second oldest type of dog, the oldest being the hunting dog, which was the friend and assistant of man in those dim days when, himself hunted by animals, bigger and stronger than himself, he lived by hunting.
The first duty of the first sheep-dogs was to guard the flocks from attack… It is clear that the sheep-dog was always privileged, as he is today, for the working sheep-dog pays no tax.
Presumably, the arts of driving and rounding up sheep gradually developed as the dogs’ masters needed such assistance, and the dogs came to understand what was desired of them. It is noticeable, however, that these arts are most highly developed where the question of defending the sheep from attack is of least account. A Tibetan or Pyrenean sheep-dog would make a poor show at such work next to a dog from anywhere in Britain. It is stated, however, that Russian sheep-dogs do the double job well.
Thus, sheep-dogs have developed differently in various countries and localities. The Shetland Sheepdog is tiny; he must be agile, and he has nothing to fight. In countries where guarding is the chief function the sheep-dog is big and powerful. Where active sheep may have to be collected from a far-away mountain face, but where no wild beast threatens, we find a smallish, fast-moving dog, the British working collie. In districts where the country is enclosed and where pace is unnecessary we find the British bobtail.”
Through the articles and interviews assembled in this issue, SHOWSIGHT has endeavored to celebrate the ancient and adventurous dogs of the Herding Group through the words of the breeders, judges, and exhibitors who know them best. We hope you enjoy!
