History of the breed

The wolf is the common ancestor of all dog breeds known today. This origin is still well reflected in the behaviour of the border collie. Its careful approach to the herd, its stealing walk, hypnotising its victim (eye-ing) with its eyes, … it all belongs to the typical yacht-pattern of the wolf. If two dogs work together, each will instinctively control one side of the herd. Of course it is so that a working-dog has to make his instinct useable for men and it is forbidden that the dog still performs the final yacht-action namely killing of the prey.

In England and Scotland, there appeared already sheepdogs in the 16th century. These dogs are the ancestors of the border collie today. John Keys describes in his Latin-writing “De Cannibus Brittanicus” a medium-sized sheepdog from which the behaviour en the manner of working was similar with that of the border collie today: based on voice- or whistle-commands (and even hand signals) of his owner, the border collie reaches for lost sheep and brings them back to the herd and moves the herd in general. The dogs became indispensable for these kind of jobs and without them some of these jobs wouldn’t be possible at all.

That’s the reason why they start breeding these dogs for this hard labour and a strong selection was carried out. Some of the most important criteria for this selection were the innate drift capacity, intelligence, obedience and endurance.

In this way the border collie developed into a real superdog and this is also the reason why the other British sheepdog like the bobtail and the bearded collies were convicted to a life as family dog or show dog. The border collie “Old Hemp”, born in 1893, is seen as the direct ancestor of all border collies today. He had an extraordinary talent in combination with a calm and self-assured way of working. A lot of people admired and respected the features and that why he was very wanted as studdog in that time.

The first sheepdogtrial dates from 1873. During these trials, the capability of drifting sheep were measured. Trough the years, these trials gained popularity and they started to be organised on the European continent. In every country there appeared national breed clubs and in the shortest time the breed was worldwide spread and its talents were appreciated everywhere.
Many people get fascinated when they see a border collie at work. Trough its natural way of working, its intelligence and its obedience in combination with a very lovely temper and a huge “will to please”, the border collie got the attention of many people who didn’t need the breed for working with the sheep. So also in other disciplines like flyball, agility and even rescue dogs, this breed delivers most of the top-dogs. This shows that the border collie is a versatile and very adaptive dog. Whatever task you give him, he will go for it for 100%.

But the border collie is not only a dog that has an excellent working capability, he also got the “looks”. That’s why some people started focusing on the anatomy and conformation of the dog. Some breeding lines tried to improve the conformation of the dog while not losing the working capabilities. One of such lines is the famous “Beagold line” established by Mrs. J. Collis and Mr. F. Cosme. They bred various show champions and the line is still continued today by various kennels. One of the top winning kennels today is the Belgian kennel “Eyes of the World” owned by Mr. and Mrs. Schevenels- Phengdis. And that’s were our story starts…

 

A few years ago we came in contact with Paul and Nid from the “Eyes of the World” kennels while breeding our first litter. We were already fascinated about the breed but trough their passion for the breed, we got very interested in showing and breeding border collies with excellent conformation and temper. We got our first show border collie in april 2004 named “Eyes of the World Doc Holiday”. The rest of the story you can see on our website. Have fun…