Old Hemp
Old Hemp or simply Hemp (German "Hanf" ) was an English border collie . He lived from September 1893 to May 1901, was popular as a stud dog due to his outstanding herding skills and is now considered the progenitor of his breed . It was owned by the breeder Adam Telfer , where he tended sheep as a working dog and showed an unusually calm working style that was picked up by other breeders and is now common with Border Collies. Old Hemp's offspring also turned out to be excellent herding dogs .
Life
Old Hemp was born in Northumberland in September 1893 . His mother was a closed, "strong-eyed" bitch named Meg, his father Roy was a black, white and brown herding dog, "loose-eyed" and of a friendly character. In contrast to that of most border collies today, Old Hemp's fur was three-colored, with white only being present on the forehead, snout, chest, paws and tip of the tail (the so-called trim ).
Old Hemp came into contact with sheep for the first time at the age of six weeks and soon showed excellent herding qualities. When driving sheep he behaved calmer and friendlier towards the herd than other herding dogs of the time. The term border collie style has established itself for this calm, confident work . In some situations he was so focused on his work that his whole body was shaking.
Hemp's abilities kept baffling its owner. Telfer once said of Hemp as follows:
“He flashed like a meteor across the sheepdog horizon. There never was such an outstanding personality. "
“It shot like a meteor over the herding dog horizon. There has never been such an exceptional personality. "
It was clear to Telfer that he wanted to use Hemp for breeding because of his qualities.
The book author Eric Halsall was also impressed by Hemp:
"None who saw him [work] ever forgot him ... Almost faultless in [his] work ... he was born with such knowledge of his craft that he never required training and went to his work naturally."
"Nobody who has ever seen him work could forget that again ... He made practically no mistakes at work ... He was born with such knowledge of his trade that he did not need any training at all, he was natural on it. "
progeny
Hemp is considered to be the progenitor of the Border Collie breed . The International Sheep Dog Society started a stud book in 1915 in which Old Hemp is the ninth entry of about 300,000. The only reason he is not the first is that other, actually later dogs, had already been registered before him.
Old Hemp's herding skills also caught the interest of other dog handlers. He was so popular as a stud dog that the number of his immediate offspring is estimated at more than 200. His features, his medium-sized physique and his rough coat have been preserved in many of his offspring and have become characteristic of the breed.
monument
In 2012 a Facebook campaign was launched with the aim of erecting a monument to Old Hemp and his breeder Adam Telfer. Unveiled on September 8, 2015 in the presence of numerous Border Collies and their owners, the memorial stands in a parking lot on the A68 in the immediate vicinity of Woodhouse, West Woodburn, Northumberland, where Old Hemp lived.
Awards
It is not known whether Hemp ever took part in a Herding Trial . One of his grandchildren named Sweep, also from Telfer's breed, won the championship of the International Sheep Dog Society in 1910 with Telfer and in 1912 with another dog handler .
Adam Telfer later owned another dog named Hemp from his own breed, also one of Old Hemp's offspring. The younger Hemp won the international championship in 1924. Almost all of the 29 dogs that won the championship from 1906 to 1951 were descended from Old Hemp.
Individual evidence
- literature
- Eric Halsall: Sheepdogs: My Faithful Friends . Patrick Stephens Limited, Wellingborough 1985, ISBN 978-0-85059-431-7 .
- Footnotes
- ↑ a b c Halsall (1985) : p. 31
- ^ Ria Horter: Border Collie (Dutch) (PDF). In: de Hondenwereld , April 2005. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
- ^ A b c Colin Seis: Working Dogs: Training for Sheep and Cattle . Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995, ISBN 978-0-7506-8920-5 , p. 12.
- ↑ Halsall (1985) : p. 32
- ↑ Natalie Ann Comeau: Breeds on duty: Border Collie . In: Dogs in Canada , December 30, 2010. Archived from the original on July 10, 2011 Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved March 15, 2011.
- ↑ Michael Devine: Border Collies , 2nd. Edition, Barron's Educational Series Inc, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7641-3644-3 , p. 7.
- ↑ Halsall (1985) : p. 145
- ↑ a b c Old Hemp . The Border Collie Museum. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
- ↑ Halsall (1985) : p. 13
- ↑ The Border Collie . In: Border Collie Society of America . Archived from the original on December 14, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 14, 2011.
- ^ John Herries McCulloch: Border Collie Studies . WSN, 2006, ISBN 978-1-85829-066-9 , pp. Iii.
- ^ Austin Bennett: One Man's Way: The Interviews . WSN, 2007, ISBN 978-1-85829-068-3 , p. 137.
- ↑ No 12 - The father of the breed . In: International Sheepdog News . Archived from the original on September 29, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 17, 2011.
- ↑ Halsall (1985) : p. 86
