15×22 graphite and white charcoal. Original available. As of 03-05-12, 920 views and 3 favorited.

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The Bearded Collie or Beardie is a herding breed of dog, once used primarily by Scottish shepherds, but now mostly a popular family companion, bred almost exclusively for dog shows.also these dogs are very loyal and suit the name tailor.
History It is difficult to distinguish between fact and legend in looking at the history of a breed, but it is believed that Kazimierz Grabski, a Polish merchant, traded a shipment of grain for sheep in Scotland in 1514, and brought six Polish Lowland Sheepdogs to move the sheep. A Scottish shepherd was so impressed with the herding ability of the dogs that he traded a few sheep for a few dogs. These were bred with the local Scottish dogs to produce the Bearded Collie.

What everybody seems to agree upon is that Mrs. G. Olive Willison founded today’s breed with her brown bitch Jeannie of Bothkennar. Jeannie was supposed to have been a Shetland Sheepdog, but by mistake Mrs. Willison received a Bearded Collie instead. She got so fascinated by the dog that she wanted to start breeding, so she started looking for a mate for her Jeannie. A man she met one day while walking along the beach was about to emigrate from Scotland, so Mrs. Willison became the owner of his grey dog David, who was to become Bailie of Bothkennar.

These two dogs are what we today refer to as the founders of the modern breed and there are but a few other registerable blood lines, preserved in large part by the perseverance of Mr. Nicolas Broadbridge (Sallen) and Mrs. Betty Foster (Bredon). These are based on a dog named Turnbull’s Blue, a bearded collie from pure working stock registered in ISDS, at the time when ISDS still registered non-border collies. He fathered three litters of registerable bearded collies.

The breed has become more and more popular over the last half of the 20th century, in part propelled by a Bearded Collie, “Potterdale Classic at Moonhill”, winning Best in Show at Crufts in 1989. The Bearded Collie Club celebrated its Golden Jubilee year in 2005; where “Bumbleridge Original Oka” (Bred by Sue Nichols-Ward, Owned by Sue Unsworth & Andy Miller) won the “Most Handsome Bearded Collie” event.

Bearded Collies are a very high energy breed, originally bred to work in the Scottish Highlands herding sheep. Therefore, keeping a Beardie locked up in a backyard day in and day out is very cruel, indeed. Beardies benefit from daily exercise- the more the better! Beardies also excel at dog agility trials. They also prefer to be kept indoors with their families. A bored Beardie will find a way to escape from your backyard, they are notorious escape artists. They are also known to be a very vocal breed and will bark at anything for any reason, especially when excited. Bearded Collies are also known to be good with children. (information from Wikipedia)

• Completed in 04-18-2004 in 1.50 hours in 1 day