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A border collie for £8,400? There’s no dog breed like it

The present-day border collie descends from a variety of shepherding dogs and was first named as such at the turn of the 20th century. The breed is renowned for its intelligence, agility, hard work and innate skill for herding sheep. These skills continue to be shaped through many generations of selected breeding lines, an excellent female example of which was sold recently at Skipton dog sale for a record £8,400.

The border collie is but one of many herding dogs that have evolved through time. Each pastoral region worldwide has developed its own breed of shepherding dog for its specific farming conditions, such as the Italian marrema, the New Zealand huntaway and the Australian kelpie.