The Bearded Collie is a breed that dates back to eighteenth-century Scotland. The term ?collie? refers to all Scottish sheepdogs and the Bearded Collie is the offspring of two varieties of collies that descended from the Old English Sheepdog, the Komondor, the Polish Lowland Sheepdog, and a variety of sheepdogs native to Scotland. One of these variations was an older, smaller collie used in the Highlands of Scotland and the other was a larger collie that was used in the Lowlands.
The modern standard for the Bearded Collie was developed in 1898, one year after the breed was first shown competitively in Edinburgh. Surprisingly, the breed almost became extinct in the early nineteen hundreds but was was then re-established in 1944.
In 1955, the British Bearded Collie Club was formed and importation of the breed into the United States began in the late 1950?s. The first U.S. birth of a litter of Bearded Collies occurred in 1967 and the Bearded Collie received recognition from the American Kennel Club in 1976.
