Old Scotch Collies

Shepherd dogs there are of many breeds; small creatures from the Shetland Islands, a little over a foot high; big shaggy dogs of the cold north England sheep country, the Old English Sheepdog; quick, alert Belgian and German Shepherds and, last but far from least, the Scotch Collie.

From the last come most of the working sheepdogs of our own western ranges. Perhaps they only bear a family resemblance to the collie of the show bench, for among sheepmen, a dog is valued for his ability and disposition and intelligence, not for the number of points he might score before a judge in a show ring. Day and night the faithful dogs of the sheep ranges guard the flocks, on duty twenty four hours a day, resting when the sheep are quiet, sleeping when they sleep, but always quick to awaken at the least unusual happening and to arouse the herder.

In the old countries of Europe, in the eastern part of our own land the work of the shepherd dogs is mostly a matter of farm routine. But even today in the vast American West, where the flocks are large and the distances great, the life of the sheepdog is beset with dangers and filled with adventures.

Of these dangers and adventures this book tells. Perhaps Watch, Shepherd of the Range had a bit more than his share of risk and hardship. But that developed his courage and fidelity, which years of quiet ranch life might never have brought out. Those qualities would have been there, no doubt, but might easily never have been tested.

And now, I hope the readers of this book will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. You may ask 'is it true?' and I will answer this: there is not a thing which happened to Watch which has not happened to some dog, sometime, somewhere in the United States.