Suffolk blue pastoral dog info

[Saluki71 110]

I’m looking for information about the Suffolk blue dog, I don’t know if this is what the locals called it or if it’s an extinct breed. 

Many info would be greatly appreciated. 

 

[darbo 4,774]

Never heard of a suffolk blue but heard of a dorset blue shag.

Edited November 1, 2017 by darbo

[colliejohn 840]

Looks  like a beardie type, many parts of the  country  had different  terminologies for dogs bred and worked  in that area.Regards Collie  John.

[Saluki71 110]

Maybe the Dorset blue is the one, a friend of mine bought two lurchers from a guy in Beverly a few years ago and it’s supposedly in the breeding. 

Thanks for the information. 

 

[cold pint 330]

Dorset blue, Welsh gray, Smithfield ect all some what relate to what we know today simply as the beardie 

[Phil Lloyd 10,738]

Seen a few Blue Shags locally, back in the day. I doubt many stockmen bother with them now...

I used a real hard-bitten example over my Mercedes bitch, back in the 1980s,...produced some real characters...

[Neal 1,866]

When I first read this thread a couple of days ago I was fairly sure I'd never heard of a Suffolk Blue. Since then I've done some research in all my pastoral dog books (of which, being a bit of an Inspector Morse type book reading nerd, I've got quite a few) and I still can't find a trace of it!

The only thing I did find was a reference to Galloway shepherds etc relocating to Suffolk to such an extent that it was sometimes referred to as The Lowlands, which fits with the above comment about beardie blood.

 

[Phil Lloyd 10,738]

2 hours ago, Neal said:

When I first read this thread a couple of days ago I was fairly sure I'd never heard of a Suffolk Blue. Since then I've done some research in all my pastoral dog books (of which, being a bit of an Inspector Morse type book reading nerd, I've got quite a few) and I still can't find a trace of it!

The only thing I did find was a reference to Galloway shepherds etc relocating to Suffolk to such an extent that it was sometimes referred to as The Lowlands, which fits with the above comment about beardie blood.

 

 

Whilst I commend you upon your most exhaustive research,...I would place scant faith or credence in the plethora of antique data,..much of it is simply hearsay, presented in different forms...I can only talk from personal experience... Historically, I can remember seeing what was commonly called, a Dorset Blue, ..it was at a country livestock market and stood out like a sore thumb amongst a sea of border collies. Indeed, my own father frequently had Collie pups of a Bare Skinned variety, as well as a few Shag types, in the same litter of Welsh sheepdogs.

Locally I have seen heavy coated herders, high on the South Downs, twixt Hampshire and East Sussex, but, I will admit,..that was a very long time ago.

I believe it to be a foolish mistake, for enthusiasts of the pastoral bred, working lurchers,  to lump the Beardies and Smithfield Droving curs into a well-accepted family clique,..when in fact, they were originally created to fulfill, vastly different tasks.

I feel sure that there might still be, a few individual specimens that resemble these ancient herding types, ..possibly lying around in the most unlikely of billets, their owners blissfully unaware of their primitive lineage...

Maybe that is the best way to leave them.....