All American Shepherds
By Tom Stodghill
Excerpts From Dog World, Judging issue, June 1957
Note: In addition to breeding “purebred”/registered English Shepherds, Tom Stodghill also experimented with cross-breeding, as illustrated by the “All-American Shepherds” described below.
“…First of all, Stodghill’s All American shepherd is a combination of the very finest old-line black-tan English (ESCOA Registered) shepherd and the most choice imported border collies from Scotland. …
Up to date I have only used the black border collie with just a touch of white in the chest; these border collies are a creeping type dog, bred especially for sheep and they do most of their work with their eyes and getting so close to the sheep that they can move the sheep in any direction without touching the sheep with their teeth.
These border collies are very desirable to work turkeys, chickens and just any kind of small animals that a dog can move without touching WITH THEIR TEETH….
It is just natural with a border collie to keep an eye on their master as well as to keep an eye on the job at hand…
There are a few things the border collie can’t do as good as the English shepherds and is the reason I have combined the two breeds. The Border collie has the “know how” to drive cattle and to make a cutting horse dog but the border collie hasn’t got the nerve it takes to turn cattle for a cutting horse and to move rough cattle. Another thing the border collie isn’t as good a pet and companion as the English shepherd.
In the winter time water never gets too cold for these English shepherds to retrieve ducks, and they know how to handle a coon in the water. Courage, these black-tan English shepherds that I have used in my breeding program don’t know what it is to quit when a Brahma bull kicks them; I don’t believe a bull ever lived that these English shepherds can’t move…
When these old-line black-tan English shepherds go after a cow they never look back and if you don’t want that cow in the lot, you better not tell them to go get her; these dogs don’t watch you, they stay after the cows… (photo (R) of Mr. Stodghill’s “Bimbo,” a black/tan ES)
If the English shepherd is worked every day they will carry the cows in slow but if they are not worked every day they will carry the cows in fast…
In my All-American shepherds, I have only used my very finest black-tan English shepherds and the most choice imported (from Scotland) border collies, black with a tiny bit of white… The first mating… the black-tan pups are more hard-headed like the English shepherds where as the black is more of a sissie like the border collie.”
Note:
Mr Stodghill advertised his “English Shepherd Old-Line” pups for sale priced at $50 – 100… his All-American Shepherd Pups were $500.