Breed History
The history of the Bearded Collie goes back to 1514, when two Polish Lowland Sheepdogs were brought to Scotland by Polish traders....
From this pair, a hardy breed of canine that would one day be affectionately referred to as the Beardie by its owners developed in Britain. For hundreds of years, the dogs were used for herding and to perform other farm duties, but no artistic or literary mention of the breed would surface until the latter part of the 18th century. A 1771 portrait of the Duke of Buccleigh shows two dogs that are unmistakably Bearded Collies, and sports and livestock journal submissions from the early 1800s began to establish the breed standard. The Bearded Collie was further described in 1891 in the book Dogs of Scotland by author D.J. Thompson Gray. In 1912, the Bearded Collie Society was founded in Edinburgh, but the society was forced to disband shortly thereafter due to the outbreak of World War I. The Bearded Collie did not make it onto American soil until the late 1950s, and was not bred in America until 1967. Two years later, the Bearded Collie had become popular enough to warrant a club in its honor, and the Bearded Collie Club of America was founded. In 1977, the American Kennel Club officially recognized the breed. Since then, the dog has found great success as a show dog and as a competitor in herding trials.