The Welsh Grey or Old Welsh Grey was a breed of

sheepdog A sheep dog or sheepdog is generally a dog or breed of dogs historically used in connection with the raising of sheep. These include livestock guardian dogs used to guard sheep and other livestock and herding dogs used to move, manage and co ...

native to

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It is probably now extinct.

Description

Welsh Greys were shaggy, long-haired dogs, similar in appearance to working strains of the Scottish Bearded Collie or to the ancestors of the Old English Sheepdog, and the breeds probably have a common heritage.Hubbard, C. L. ''Working Dogs of the World'', 1947, p.154

As a working dog

Like the Bearded Collie, the Welsh Grey worked in a "loose-eyed", noisy manner very different from the Border and other collie types, with a distinctive short bark.Holmes, J. ''The Farmer's Dog'', Random House, 1995, p.61 As well as being used by shepherds, the breed was also popular with the drovers who took livestock to England.Davies, Jenkins and Baines (eds) ''The Welsh Academy encyclopaedia of Wales'', UWP, 2008, p.220

Decline and extinction

All types of Welsh sheepdog declined in numbers from the early 20th century due to the increasing use of the Border Collie for herding. Dogs of the Welsh Grey breed were still found on Welsh hill farms in the upper Towy valley as late as the 1980s, but the breed is likely now extinct.Carpenter, B. ''The Shepherd's Dogge'', Fall 1994: se
Welsh Sheep Dog
, The Border Collie Museum

Diffusion of breed

Specimens of the Welsh Grey are thought to have accompanied Welsh settlers to PatagoniaDavies, Jenkins and Baines (eds) ''The Welsh Academy encyclopaedia of Wales'', UWP, 2008, p.220 and the Patagonian Sheepdog is in part a descendant from this breed.

External links

National Purebred Dog Day
The Old Welsh Grey – a Beardie Ancestor?

Extinct Types in Wales
ResearchGate
Schematic representation of how Old Welsh Grey and other old UK herding dogs arrived in the regions of Aysén and Magallanes, Chile from the United Kingdom (mainly England, Scotland, and Wales) between 1877 and 1910

References

{{Extinct breeds of dog Dog breeds originating in Wales Herding dogs Extinct dog breeds