Cloth from O.E. sheepdogs

Press, 29 September 1979, Page 17

Cloth from O.E. sheepdogs

All About the Old English Sheepdog. By Jean Gould. Pelham Books, 1979. 128 pp. Index, illustrations. $13.80. (Reviewed by Doreen Mansbridge) When Jean Gould’s “All About the Old English Sheepdog” first appeared in 1973, the "Scottish Field Magazine” wrote that for someone with so much knowledge and experience to write on the subject was “an event for the breed.” Six years later the truth of the statement is borne out by a second edition with expanded text and new photographs. Wendy Selby, Jean Gould’s daughter, supplied the drawings and the delightful cartoons were contributed by John Featherstone. A photograph of a beautiful lacey

stole made by the Danish O.E.S. Club from bobtail combings and presented to Jean Gould might fire some local enthusiasts to do something similar, while a British bobtail owner, who fortuitously was a director of a w'oollen manufacturing company, was able to have 151 b of hair spun into wool which produced 17yd of fabric 30in wide.

In spite of the demands their heavy coats would make, at least two O.E.S.s were trained as guide dogs for the blind, a fact which says much for their intelligence. The rising cost of feeding such a large animal has not diminished the popularity of the 0.E.5., and the information contained in the book will help both newcomers to the breed and the experienced.