speci fi cally would say where and those secrets went to the grave with him. American fanciers with the means to purchase the best, such as Mrs. Wil- liam Dreer (Anahassitt), William Galla- gher (Page’s Hill before Nate), and others brought many dogs over from England in the 20’sand 30’s, many of which had a heavy preponderance of Collie blood. As a result, size of pups in litters was all over from very small throwing back to the orig- inal island dogs and pomeranians to very large, throwing to the Collies. Mary Van Wagenen of Sea Isle, one of the “mothers” of the breed in the U.S. estimated that Shelties in the U.S. have about 50% Collie blood. Shelties in the UK tend to be sig- ni fi cantly smaller and lighter overall than those in the U.S. Th is may relate to the fact that regular large scale importations from the UK trailed o ff to negligible in the 50’s and exchange of blood between the two countries has been rare since. Th e Ameri- can standard also altered the size provi- sions based on the major issues breeders had with size variations in litters. Instead of using an ideal size of 14 ½" , the club opted for a wide size range. In the UK, the ideal size was listed as a goal. As a result, many modern day U.S. shelties hover close to the 16 inch maximum while many Eng- lish dogs are closer to the UK listed ideal. Th ose interested in a more detailed his- tory may wish to refer to my book, Th e Shetland Sheepdog In America which includes a chapter on the Collie crosses. Eng. Ch. Eltham Park Eureka, a famous dog three times the Collie Teena. Because Teena was listed as a Collie on his export pedigree and the pedigrees of some of his descendants, he could not be registered in the U.S. When Catherine Moore persuaded the English to remove the Collie notation, other descendants were registered and found their way into American pedigrees.
Ch. Mountaineer O’ Page’s Hill, ROM son of Ch. Kim O’ Page’s Hill finished prior to exceeding the height limit. This handsome dog showed an exceptionally strong resemblance and produce many champions and many very large offspring. He is found in the pedigrees of many American pedigrees.
In England, the desire to bring the Shetland Sheepdog into a type resembling a Collie in miniature was strong indeed. In fact, numerous recorded and unrecord- ed crosses were made with full Collies and type evolved quickly and remarkably. Th e recorded Collie crosses in English records Am. Can. Ch. Nashcrest Golden Note ROM by Ch. Prince George D’ Page’s Hill ROM ex Nashcrest Rhythm. Sable Male. Winner of 1954 National Specialty, 104 Best of Breeds, 7 Group wins (in the full working group), 4 Specialty Bests, sire of 26 champions. Note was sired by Temptation’s litter brother and went on to be possible the most important sire of his era.
were an issue in terms of establishing the breed in the U.S. In fact, then ASSA Sec- retary Catherine Coleman Moore traveled to England to get a change whereby export pedigrees would remove notation of which dogs in the pedigrees were Collies so the AKC would accept the pedigrees into the stud book. Unrecorded Collie crosses also continued in the U.S. J. Nate Levine (Page’s Hill) housed a number of red Arken Collies and suddenly there were red Page’s Hill shelties with more Collie Type and with size issues. Nate as much as admitted things were done but never
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