Picpspam: Border Collies!
The next fic I post is going to involve Border Collies, so here are some instructional graphics from my learnings.
Border Collies are working dogs, most often used to herd sheep. When they're on the job, they control the sheep by staring them down (aka "giving them the eye") and approaching them in a "working crouch" like this:
If the Border Collie isn't focused on work, they'll have what's called a "gay tail."
Sure, other dogs hold their tail up like that all the time and it doesn't get a special name, but that's because those dogs are unemployed, ok. They have no sense of responsibility. I mean, sure, they think their job is to bark at that blonde pushing the babystroller down the sidewalk in front of your house, because obviously that baby could have a rap sheet for B&Es, but they don't hold a 9-to-5 gig like the collies do. They don't have a supervisor breaking down their necks all the time and docking their pay because their tail's up.
Anyway, because Border Collies are bred for work instead of show, there's a lot of variaton in coat texture and color within the breed. The first pic was of a "classic" black and white. The second was of a red merle (which is pretty rare in the UK, btw.)
Here's a red and white, so you can see the color more clearly:
Any kindergarten teacher will tell you that's brown, not red, but eh. Dog people. What can you do?
Ditto on the "blue" merle being anything but:
Fun fact! Blue merles are more likely to have heterochromia (eyes of a different color) than other dogs.
And here's some blue merle puppies, just because:
There's also chocolate and various tricolors, but the fic doesn't have any of those.
As usual, Wikipedia is a great starting point for research. I also found a great site for a guy who breeds and trains sheepdogs, and there's a video page that I highly recommend. You know, for very serious research purposes. ::nodnod::
Border Collies are working dogs, most often used to herd sheep. When they're on the job, they control the sheep by staring them down (aka "giving them the eye") and approaching them in a "working crouch" like this:
If the Border Collie isn't focused on work, they'll have what's called a "gay tail."
Sure, other dogs hold their tail up like that all the time and it doesn't get a special name, but that's because those dogs are unemployed, ok. They have no sense of responsibility. I mean, sure, they think their job is to bark at that blonde pushing the babystroller down the sidewalk in front of your house, because obviously that baby could have a rap sheet for B&Es, but they don't hold a 9-to-5 gig like the collies do. They don't have a supervisor breaking down their necks all the time and docking their pay because their tail's up.
Anyway, because Border Collies are bred for work instead of show, there's a lot of variaton in coat texture and color within the breed. The first pic was of a "classic" black and white. The second was of a red merle (which is pretty rare in the UK, btw.)
Here's a red and white, so you can see the color more clearly:
Any kindergarten teacher will tell you that's brown, not red, but eh. Dog people. What can you do?
Ditto on the "blue" merle being anything but:
Fun fact! Blue merles are more likely to have heterochromia (eyes of a different color) than other dogs.
And here's some blue merle puppies, just because:
There's also chocolate and various tricolors, but the fic doesn't have any of those.
As usual, Wikipedia is a great starting point for research. I also found a great site for a guy who breeds and trains sheepdogs, and there's a video page that I highly recommend. You know, for very serious research purposes. ::nodnod::