Lately, they've been breeding this male to a couple English Shepherd females which the local vet had imported. Nice dogs also. They don't seem to have been screwed up breeding for pet attributes resulting in watered down intelligence and functionality.
I'm not sure who the guy with the hair and bell-bottoms is
but this late-seventies photo shows one of the best dogs I have owned; Mozart, an Old English Sheepdog..
![[Linked Image]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Sharpshin/dogs/scan0058_zps5c0e9fc2.jpg)
Both my sisters are into horses and work around the moneyed Eastern horsey set (mostly wealthy women, some homosexual men, mostly owning thoroughbreds). Mozart there was brought in from England by one of these ladies.
He proved too high-energy for her to handle so one of my sisters took him, and shortly thereafter he became my dog. We got him when he was two.
The AKC by that time had already turned this breed into inbred, oversized, defect-plagued non-functional masses of hair. I suspect the English breeders had more integrity because Mozart weighed in at around fifty pounds and was both fast and agile.
He had the brains of a good working dog too and never needed a leash, readily learning commands. He was the boon companion of my high school years and after I went off to college, I still recall how depressed he became when he saw me packing to leave when I was home on visits. We still have many funny stories in our family concerning the antics of this dog, he was one of us.
By the time I came home from Africa Mozart was stone deaf and could barely walk, still the same cheerful and faithful dog though. A year later I took him on his last ride to the vet, it was time, and it was for me to do. He smiled at me the whole way there as he always did and followed me right in. He died with his head in my hands. I surprised myself by sitting in the truck and weeping when I came out of the vet, I didn't think I would.
One dog I'll be looking for for sure on the Rainbow Bridge.
Birdwatcher
