What a great old picture. Lovely to see the GSD doing herding. Over here there are quite a few supposedly herding the goats - I'm not convinced myself though that they actually do any herding, they seem to wander about doing their own thing and looking very important.........lol.......
I will try and find more info out about the photo. I am on a group on a particular social networking site and one particular poster has loads of fabulous old photos of working dogs. I will ask him if I can share a few more.
Lovely pics (I can't see the first ones now but I saw them on my mobile a little while ago)... strange though, seeing a white dog doing herding when it is sometimes said that dogs who are not predominately black cannot herd as well...
Lovely photos, it's rare to see pics of GSDs doing that type of work. Thanks for posting them. Do you know what the other dog is that looks like a small bear? A Briard perhaps?
I found it really interesting seeing the white GSD as well. GSDs do work sheep very differently (and with very different sheep) to BCs so perhaps therein lies the difference. However, I have never really seen a predominantly white sheepdog working sheep so don't know whether there is any truth to the theory or whether it is complete fallacy. Our Jake has no problems controlling and working sheep and he has a predominantly white head ...
It does look rather like a Briard, doesn't it? I am trying to find out a bit more about the various photos and will certainly report back.
I found this interesting excerpt ... http://www.bordercollie.org/health/kpwhite.html "The rationale against white dogs in sheep herding is that the sheep will not have sufficient respect for a dog that is the same color they are. (Marjorie Quarton, in All About the Working Border Collie: "There is a popular idea that sheep . . . won't move for a white dog, having no fear of a dog of their own colour." This strange idea, like most prejudices, falls apart when you examine it. Most importantly, it assumes that sheep are always white. The flock I work most often is composed of black, brown, white, and parti-colored sheep. If we needed a dog that is a different color than the sheep, it would have to be pink! The sheep have no problem recognizing each other in all those colors; why should they have trouble recognizing a different-colored dog? I have also heard it said that the white dog is OK for herding as long as it has a colored head; the sheep apparently look mostly at the head to determine the dog's color. But many great herding dogs have been black with an entirely white head! What are the sheep looking at in that case? I once helped start an all-white Border Collie in herding; she had some problems based on early obedience training, but the sheep had no trouble knowing that she was a dog. I imagine that in the next few years, when more and more new handlers come into the sport of herding, that we will see more of these white dogs on trial fields. The new handlers don't know that white dogs aren't any good at herding; the dogs certainly don't know it, and the sheep apparently don't either."
Of course, Bobby Dalziel's Wisp (twice International Supreme Champion) had a predominantly white head also. It clearly never hampered him
Have to say I agree with this. After all sheep don't bark, nip and run around and herd other sheep do they, and I would have thought that it was these behaviours rather than colouring that would persuade the sheep have respect. Thanks again for some great photos!
