Now pictures of American Collies of today...
"Lyra" Mjr Ptd Avondale Spiritwind Aurora - a bitch I bred and co-own.
Now if you want to see the split between American and European Collies... now here are modern European Collies..
The Collies of Europe are very different than those in the United States and Canada. Although the standard is nearly the same, the British type has changed radically. Some people say that during the first and second World Wars, fanciers from the US imported many of the best Collies from the United Kingdom, in order to keep the breed safe. England and most of Europe was under attack and breeders there feared for the lives of their dogs. At that time, the Collie looked just about the same as those in the US today. We used them to our best advantage in American breeding programs, with the idea that one day Great Britain and Europe would want their foundation stock back.
However, exporting those foundations was a nightmare, as mandatory quarantines of six months and longer hampered the willingness of both the Americans and the British breeders to subject their dogs to such lengthy confinements in a government kennel. So, the UK rebuilt upon the stock that remained in their country. They also found eager fanciers in Europe, since exportation was much less costly from Britain rather than the Americas. The “new” Collie of the British and European communities was a far cry in quality, temperament, type, and structure, and continues in this pattern even today.
I'm not totally sure I agree with this though, because if you look back at pictures European Collies in the 60's and 70's the Collies looked much more like American Collies than the European Collies of today do...
Today, since importing dogs into Europe is much eaiser to do, its getting more and more common for European breeders to import dogs from the US.
Some of the current winning dogs in Europe....
Their particular complaints about what is available and winning is fairly obvious to the American collie breeder eye: short, square heads with deep stops, faces that look like the Chow-Chow rather than the Collie; low ears, slanted rather than almond shaped eyes, snipey muzzles, lack of underjaw and finish, very clearly lacking in bone and size and, what you can’t see, horrific temperaments. Remember, the dogs pictured above are ALL current European Champions. Structure has been damaged as well. Most of the European Collies are extremely short backed, with straight fronts and rears, no neck, short, gay tails, and cow hocks. Consequently, the movement suffers with so many problems. The European Collie is ill-equipped to do the work for which it was originally bred... not to mention the HUGE open, soft coats that do not properly protect the Collie. People think American Collies have big coats.. their coats are NOTHING compared to the European Collie.
Russian Collie
Another Russian Collie
European Collies
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Originally Posted by BC_MoM
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