"As to the sheep: These ought to be either of the Welsh breed, the black or of some grey-faced Scotch variety, or Herdwicks, taken from various flocks. Each dog drives three different sheep, two being from one farm, and the third from another. This arrangement makes the task more difficult, the sheep not knowing each other, and when one breaks away, considerable skill is required to get it to its companions again. Sometimes the latter cannot be done, so the worker of the dog by whistling, calling, or by movements of the arms, lets his favourite know that the two must be driven to the one. This may prove successful, and by order the sagacious collie continues his task. Possibly the sheep may run away entirely, and, followed by the competitor, gallop until the latter is out of sight and out of hearing too. Then, after a tedious wait of a quarter of an hour or more, in the far distance the three sheep and their canine driver may be seen, the latter bringing his charge back to his owner, irrespective of course to be followed, or anything else. All he knows is that his duty is to fetch the sheep, and this he does.

"Another difficulty comes when one of the three sheep cannot move as fast as the others, and, being hard pushed, ultimately gives up entirely and lies down; in which case the best dog in the world cannot make it rise again until thoroughly rested and so inclined. One batch of sheep may almost of themselves go the course, and require little driving by the dog, whilst au contraire, another lot may be just as stupid and wayward, willing to be taken in any direction but the right one. Sometimes the collie is unable to make a start at all through his perverse flock separating and trotting away in different directions immediately they are loosed from the liberation pen. Again the competitor may perform his driving task admirably, but is quite unable to consummate his work of making the sheep enter the pen at the end of the trial. Repeatedly at this penning the best work is shown, and the patience of the dog must be well supported by that of the shepherd.

"To be successful at these trials the dog must be sagacious, well trained, quick of hearing, and sharp in his sight, patient, and have a peculiar power in commanding his sheep. That some collies possess the latter important qualification to a greater degree than others I am confident, and, although there is a considerable amount of good or bad fortune in obtaining an easy, or the reverse, batch of sheep, still the very best dogs appear to make even the most stupid little "Welshman" or "Scotchman" know that no larking will be allowed, and that they must go exactly where the dog wishes. This is a power similar to that possessed by some men over animals - the performer in the menagerie over his lions or tigers to wit - and in breeding collies for working, I should certainly use those dogs which possessed this extraordinary and unusual gift to the greatest extent. A barking dog is useless at such meetings, and one that loses its temper, rushes at and attempts to bite his sheep is equally (or sooner) put out of the stake.

"In training or practising a collie for work of this kind, care must be taken that the lessons are given in both directions, i.e., the dog be taught to work from left to right and vice versa. I have seen an otherwise good dog make a wretched performance when it came to compete on a course which lay in a direction contrary to that in which its early lessons-had been given. The most difficult thing to teach is to make your dog drive the sheep away from you any duffer almost will bring them up to you, but taking them away altogether for a half a mile or so up to a certain point, and then turning them towards the home journey, requires great skill, more so than is required at the pen when the trial is terminating".

So much for trials with sheep, which I should like to see adopted in every county, under proper and reasonable management and conditions. But I do not like to see the rule which is in force in many places, where the shepherd working his dog is compelled to hold a rope in his hand, which allows him to go so far and no further, under pain of disqualification. If without such a silly rule a committee cannot make the handler keep within a prescribed area, they are certainly not fit to occupy the position they are supposed to so well grace.

At the Llangollen meeting a class is provided in which the shepherd has to work a brace of dogs together. Two lots of sheep are first gathered, then separated again, the one lot of three, marked with "ruddle," having to be first secured, then the other lot, which numbers half a dozen, are to be driven within the hurdles in a similar manner. Personally I have not seen such interesting work when the two run together as I have done when working separately.

I have sometimes wondered why the management at the Birmingham show, held three weeks or so before Christmas each year, does not provide special classes for sheep dogs that have won prizes or performed creditably at trials with sheep. This is the only one which gives special classes for field trial winning pointers and setters, and it would certainly be a feather in the cap of the executive were they to encourage working collies in a similar manner. If the committee of a dog show cannot afford to do this, why does not one of the much vaunted collie clubs come to the rescue? Talk to the members of such societies, and they will dilate upon the excellence of their own particular strain, so far as the work connected with shepherding is concerned; but I am sadly afraid that for the most part such is merely talk, and the real purpose of the collie clubs is to provide prizes for their own members, whether the dogs which win them are of any use in the field or not.

At the show at Curzon Hall, in November, 1893, there were a lot of useful collies on view, and I was much struck with the awards, which, except in about one solitary instance, were made to dogs which from their appearance of docility and intelligence might be as useful in the field as they are handsome in the judging ring.

As to the points and description of the collie, both the Collie Club of England and the Collie Club of Scotland have formulated their own scales and descriptions, and as they differ somewhat, both are reproduced here.