Old English Sheepdog

The Old English Sheepdog is the shaggy grey drover's dog of southern England, and the tail it was traditionally docked for is the reason it was called a bobtail.

History

It drove sheep and cattle to market in the west of England from the eighteenth century. Drovers' dogs were exempt from a tax that working dogs otherwise attracted, and the docked tail proved the exemption — which is where both the practice and the nickname came from. It is a driving dog rather than a gathering one, working stock by pushing.

Temperament

The breed is known for being good-natured, sociable and clownish, patient with children and inclined to herd the family if given nothing else to move.

Care and training

It needs substantial exercise and, more than almost any other breed, serious grooming: the profuse double coat mats within days if it is not worked through, and many owners keep it clipped. Training is easy enough; the coat is the commitment.

Health

Known tendencies include hip dysplasia, hereditary deafness, hypothyroidism and, in some lines, an immune-mediated condition. These are patterns for the breed rather than a forecast for one dog; the measured facts are in the panel.