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In January
1985 a multiple-best-in-show-winning Old English sheepdog, Champion
Daralin Talisman's King Boots, was brought before a district
judge in Birmingham, Michigan. Boots, eight years old and 100
pounds, stood accused of mauling to death Gertrude Monroe, 87
years old and 95 pounds, in her house the preceding month. Katherine
Schwarb, Monroe's daughter and Boots' owner, told Judge Edward
Sosnick that her mother had landed on the dog after suffering
the massive heart attack or stroke that caused her death. Boots
had bitten Monroe only once and only in self-defense at that,
said Schwarb, 60.
The prosecution
contended that Boots had bitten Monroe eight times about the
head and neck after she had accidentally tripped over him.
Monroe, the prosecution also claimed, had died from those
bites. The county medical examiner agreed, adding that his
autopsy had disclosed no evidence of a heart attack or stroke.
The prosecution, therefore, wanted Boots destroyed by lethal
injection because he was a vicious dog. During the hearing
Schwarb's housekeeper, Judith Piet, 22 years old and 257 pounds,
testified that Boots had bitten her after she had tripped
over him in 1984, causing a head wound that wanted several
stitches to close. Schwarb claimed that Piet had sustained
the injury when she hit her head after falling over the sleeping
dog.
Judge
Sosnick decided that Boots' life could be spared as long as
he was relieved of his testicles and 16 of his 42 teeth and
kept under house arrest by the Schwarbs. Michigan Humane Society
Director David Wills called the dentistry "cruel and unusual
punishment." Seven months later Boots died suddenly of unknown
causes. He had been in good health up to the time of his demise.
Forever
Youngish
What cruel
irony that King Boots' hearing splattered the Old English
sheepdog's reputation with garish paintballs. The sheepdog
is justifiably revered, in the words of one observer, as "a
playful, affectionate, fun-loving 'clown,' who delights in
frolicking with his family and neighborhood children." Indeed,
Old English sheepdogs - and, hopefully, their people - enjoy
an adolescence that "often extends to approximately age three"
and a playful demeanor that survives "well into [their] golden
years."
During
the breed's early history temperament was often less placid
than it is today, a fact that made the Old English sheepdog
a good herding dog in places where wolves feasted on flocks
of sheep. As the breed evolved from a herder to a drover,
its temperament improved.
Drovers
Come Lately
The Old
English sheepdog's early years are not so early as its name
implies. Old English the language was spoken from the 7th
through the 12th centuries, but Old English the breed was
not known until seven centuries later. According to breed
authority and historian John Mandeville, dogs resembling today's
Old English sheepdog were first exhibited at shows in Great
Britain in the mid-1800s. Even then the ancestry of the dogs
was cloudy if not entirely obscure. A painting of a Duke of
Buccleuch, on which engravings produced in 1771 were modeled,
shows the duke with his arms around the neck of a dog that
resembles present-day Old English sheepdogs. Unfortunately
paintings don't have captions, so little is known about the
dog or its function at that point in history.
Some observers
claim that Old English sheepdogs were first developed in Devon
and Somerset counties and the Duchy of Cornwall in the west
of England. The breeds from which the sheepdog sprang are
not identified, though some people maintain that Scotch bearded
collies played a significant role in the sheepdog's development.
Others claim that a Russian dog called the Owtchar
also contributed to the Old English gene pool.
By the
beginning of the 18th century, accounts appeared describing
a "drover's dog" that was employed to drive sheep and cattle
into city markets. Such dogs were exempt from taxes, and their
owners docked the dogs' tails to document their occupation.
Docking
the tails of many kinds of livestock dogs was a common practice
among herdsmen. The name bobtail, by which the Old
English sheepdog is popularly known today, was applied to
any of the herding dogs whose owners had had the dogs' tails
removed. Another reason for docking tails, allegedly, was
that some stock dogs had inherited the inclination to chase
game from their remote ancestors and could be seduced easily
to chase game instead of attending to their duties. Herdsmen
believed that dogs used their tails as rudders and that removing
the tail decreased a dog's maneuverability. Whether or not
tail docking discouraged dogs from chasing game is a matter
of conjecture, but when the word bobtail was first used in
reference to dogs, in 1843, it could have been applied to
most of the dogs employed as stock workers.
For all
the references to "Sheepdogs, Short-tailed English" in 19th
century English chronicles and literature, there was no official
standard describing what these dogs should look like. Nevertheless,
by the 1890s the Old English sheepdog was beginning to emerge
as an identifiable breed in England, yet even then it was
called the "Short-tailed English Sheepdog" and was lumped
in, more or less, with collies at dog shows. Collies, in those
days, were known as rough-coated sheepdogs or smooth-coated
sheepdogs, depending on their coat type.
Only
in America
Bobtails
were accepted for registration by the American Kennel Club
(AKC) in 1885. As they had been in England, they were shown
as a variety of the far more popular collies. Before long,
however, bobtails began to acquire a popularity of their own
in this country; and American interest in the breed caused
the English to reconsider their blase attitude toward the
ragged, no-tailed dog from the pastures. American enthusiasm
for bobtails also helped to increase their market value, and
prompted the English to become more serious about the breed.
As Old English breeders gave more thought to the bobtail's
appearance, especially as it appealed to American buyers,
the breed began to gain the respect of dog fanciers in its
homeland. Stockmen no longer selected dogs simply on the basis
of their working ability or the presence of the highly prized
"wall" or blue eye. This unusual eye condition, stockmen believed,
was an antidote against blindness. People no longer put much
stock in this canard, but many bobtails retain wall or glass
eyes or eyes of two different hues, one blue, the other brown.
Life
Among the Lions
William
Wade, a wealthy industrialist from Pennsylvania, promoted
the "new sheepdogs from merrie olde England" in the United
States. He purchased several sheepdogs in England and brought
them to this country, then he hired Freeman Lloyd, who had
written the first official standard for the breed in England,
to draft a pamphlet extolling the sheepdog's virtues. Wade
had the pamphlet printed and distributed in New York City,
which was then the mecca for pedigreed dogs.
J. Pierpont
Morgan, another lavishly prosperous American, also developed
an interest in bobtails and added to their prestige. Wade's
and Morgan's attention to sheepdogs represented the first
wave of interest among wealthy and influential Americans on
the East Coast, where keeping an Old English sheepdog became
de rigeur. The high point of the breed's social prominence
occurred in 1904, when Old English sheepdogs owned by the
Morgan family, the Vanderbilts and other social lions were
exhibited at the Westminster Kennel Club show. The first champions
in the breed were recorded by the AKC that year, and the Old
English Sheepdog Club of America was organized.
The
Beast of the East
The Old
English sheepdog remained an eastern status symbol through
the 1950s. Relatively few dogs were bred or seen west of Philadelphia.
The picture began to change rapidly, as so many other pictures
did, in the 1960s. Americans of ordinary social status began
to discover the amiable temperament, sense of humor and uncanny
intelligence and courage of this amusing dog. Said discovery
was augmented by the appeal of owning a dog that was most
often seen on the estates of America's wealthiest families.
Consequently
AKC registrations of Old English sheepdogs began to rise,
from a few hundred a year in the 1950s to 15,000 annually
in the mid-1970s. The rich man's status symbol had taken up
residence in family rooms across the country. The fact that
average Americans were not financially able to employ help
to care for such big, hairy dogs eventually dimmed the breed's
star and trimmed registrations. Last year the AKC enrolled
2,132 new Old English sheepdogs, a number that ranked 60th
among the 145 breeds then recognized by the AKC.
Not
a Wash-n-Wear Breed
The Old
English sheepdog, as breed aficionado and author D.R. Segal
has written, "requires more attention than any other animal
on Earth with the possible exception of a thoroughbred horse.
If an Old English Sheepdog does not get the kind of attention
he requires, he turns into something that resembles a split
bale of cotton. People ask how many minutes per day are required
to keep an Old English Sheepdog in respectable repair. The
answer is 'all of them.'"
According
to Segal a neglected sheepdog is "a stinking, miserable slob"
that wears much of what he eats in his whiskers, has an affinity
for stepping in his water bowl, and, if he is not trimmed
properly, for bumping into things.
"Every
sheepdog I have ever seen would not know what to make of a
sheep if he were to meet up with one," said Segal. "Very likely
he would lick it and trip over an imaginary hole in the ground.
They do, however, like to herd. What they like to herd is
people, and they have a sneaky way of herding people into
little groups without them realizing it."
There's
no practical reason for cultivating the long coat fashionable
in the show ring, but even hair of a sensible length demands
more brushing and/or trips to the groomer than some people
are willing to provide. Brushing is a matter of necessity,
not choice. What's more, the Old English sheepdog sheds, and
owners who are not diligent with the brush will have mountains
of hair with which to contend.
The penalties
for neglecting a bobtail's coat are skin problems. Excess
hair not removed from the paw pads and the insides of the
ears can also cause irritation and infection. Most bobtail
owners learn to combine their regular combing chores, which
consume at least four hours a week, with watching television
or listening to music.
Big-Dog
Needs
Although
the bobtail is a big dog that needs big-dog exercise, it is
not a self-starter in this regard. Given acres in which to
run, the average sheepdog is apt to use less of that space
than a breed one fourth its size. Thus bobtail owners must
play an active part in their dogs' exercise regimens.
A placid
attitude is not without benefits, however, and it allows the
bobtail to adapt amazingly well to most any environment. He
is capable of living a full and enjoyable life in town as
well as country. In addition the bobtail can adapt to the
rigors of the North's coldest temperatures just as easily
as he can to the hot and dry desert climate of the Southwest.
Equable
though he may be, the Old English sheepdog is not a lazy beast
who cares for nothing in life save food and snoozing. Should
someone threaten a bobtail's family, a ferocious guardian
emerges from that great mound of hay. The bobtail is completely
and totally committed to his loved ones, and though he would
much prefer to be a lover than a fighter, no one, but no one,
trifles with his people.
Given
the care and commitment it requires, the Old English sheepdog
can bring great humor and devotion to a household. Once a
British peasant, then an American aristocrat, the bobtail
now belongs exclusively to those who are prepared to love
him best.
Needles
in the Haystack
The Old
English sheepdog is a muscular, thick-set dog that weighs
between 60 and 100 pounds and stands 22 to 26 inches or more
at the shoulder. The American Kennel Club standard for the
breed dictates that "any shade of gray, grizzle, blue or blue
merle with or without white markings or in reverse" is acceptable.
"Any shade of brown or fawn," however, is "considered distinctly
objectionable and [is] not to be encouraged."
Despite
its size, the breed enjoys good health and an average life
span of 10 to 15 years. This is not to say it is entirely
without problems, one of the most common of which is hip dysplasia,
a malformation of the hip joint resulting in a poor fit between
the head of the femur bone and the hip socket, in which the
femoral head normally lies. This condition can be alleviated
by surgery. The best way to avoid buying a puppy at risk for
hip dysplasia is to ask if both the puppy's parents are certified
free of this disease. If they are not - and if the breeder
will not show you the certificates to prove it - keep looking.
Veterinarians
have also reported a sufficient number of cases of "wobbler
syndrome" in Old English sheepdogs to cause concern. This
malady is a cervical vertebral instability (CVI) characterized
by malformation of the lower spine. CVI can be managed medically.
Restricted activity and cage rest for up to one month, as
well as pain-control medicine and anti-inflammatory drugs,
are the treatments usually prescribed. If medical management
offers no improvement or the dog's condition gets worse, surgery
may be necessary.
Deafness
and eye problems, including cataracts, are not uncommon among
Old English sheepdogs. Thus, buying puppy from a breeder who
screens all breeding stock for inherited problems is a must.
Rick
Beauchamp is a freelance writer who resides in Cambria,
California. He is the author of numerous books on canine breeds
and is a judge licensed with the American Kennel Club and
the United Kennel Club.
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