Elaine Reynolds says:
>Could one reason be that the border collies register anything that "works",
>especially if it is B/W?

This is certainly not correct. The Border Collie registries register dogs
whose parents are registered, not by their color. At one time it was the
case that you could "register on merit" meaning, if you could pass a
working test or placed in the top ten in x-number of trials, your dog could
be registerd whether or not it's parents were registered. This may be still
possible, but is not done terribly often anymore. But apropo of this is the
case of the Welsh Sheepdog. Some years back I was in Scotland waiting for a
ferry, and took a photo of what appeared to be a Border Collie in the back
of a car. I asked the owners if it was a Border Collie (it was tri-colored
with a lot of deep tan) and they said no, it was a Welsh Sheepdog. Now this
is long before the advent of the recently formed Welsh Sheepdog Society.
Now, I just got a postcard from a friend who was visiting Wales this
summer, and it is a photo of two dogs seated side by side, one b&w with a
speckled face, and the other blue merle, both with semi-erect ears and
rough coats, and looking ever so much like Border Collies, and the caption
is "Welsh Sheepdogs". This points up the difficulty with taking these
"types" (whether type refers to looks, working style, or country of origin)
and trying to make distinct breeds out of them based on looks, working
style, or country of origin.

Carole Presberg