Can anyone clarify the history of dog breeding for me?
Early breeding efforts were less scientific than they are now, but basically, the fanciers and people who needed the dogs to work a specific job would blend two dogs together because they had inherent abilities they wanted their dogs to have. For example, if Smith had a dog that could herd sheep well without much human intervention, and Brown had a female that was almost as good, but could run faster, the farmers would breed their dogs, and the pups that had the traits needed, would go on to work and were again bred to produce the traits that best suited the herders. Now, let’s say this fantastic herding dog was born, and it was long coated, and brown was moving to South Africa to raise sheep in England’s newly aquired territory. He took his dog with him, but he was a black and white dog who had this long coat. The villagers had a short, sturdy dog, but it was more of a huntin dog. They crossed these two and got some long haired and some short haired. Then they bred the lkong haired mo
