KENAI
English Shepherd

The breeds · herding

UKC Herding

English Shepherd.

UKC: a "total" breed to be judged on both its ability to work livestock and its structure; herded valuable stock and protected isolated homesteads. ESC standard: bred for generations as all-purpose working farm dogs: herding and protecting stock, dispatching vermin, guarding the home, watching children; the ability to handle all types of livestock and a variety of tasks is the defining feature. ESC history: practical versatile workers for farmers, never primarily show or trial dogs. SFJ: bred for herding, hunting and guardian ability; ubiquitous on American farms until the 1950s. Wikipedia: principally a sheep and cattle herder, also watchdog, ratter and companion; UKC registered since 1927..

Breed sets the odds. The parents set the dog. Every number here shows its source, its spread and how sure we are. Nothing on this page is a prediction about one dog.

0INHeightdogs null, bitches null. An ideal from the standard, not a range.
40–65LBWeight, all linesbreed dogs 40 to 65 lb; breed bitches 40 to 65 lb.

The body

What the breed is built like. Registry standards give an ideal, not a range.

Height at the shoulder

dogs 18 to 23 in · bitches 18 to 23 in

Breed clubUnited Kennel Club

Female row spans UKC and the Wikipedia breed-wide range. The UKC ideal is a range, so center is blank.

Weight

dogs 40 to 65 lb · bitches 40 to 65 lb

Breed clubUnited Kennel Club

Female row spans UKC and the Wikipedia breed-wide range.

Coat

UKC: thick, glossy and soft; straight, wavy or curly except short and smooth on the face, skull and front of legs; soft fine undercoat; evidence of excessive grooming is penalized. Five colour patterns: black and white, black and tan, black white and tan, sable and white, tan and white. Wikipedia: long straight or wavy double coat with feathering on legs and tail. SFJ: a wide range of colours and sizes.

Breed clubUnited Kennel Club

Heat tolerance

3 of 5 · UKC: thick, glossy, soft coat, straight, wavy or curly, with a soft, fine undercoat for protection from the elements; good furnishing under the body and hind legs, plume tail.

DerivedUnited Kennel Club

Derived from the coat (medium double coat, feathered = 3). No measured data.

The dog at home

What the breed asks of a day. The first thing most homes get wrong.

Energy

UKC: energetic, intelligent, very active, agile, courageous and gritty; very watchful as a guard of the home; companionable to its master. ESC standard: agile and quick with the stamina and grit to cover many miles over all types of terrain; calm in disposition under long hours of demanding work; not obsessive about herding and can rest quietly at the master's feet when there is no work. SFJ: mellow enough not to bother stock when there is no work.

Breed clubUnited Kennel Club

No AKC page (not an AKC breed), no RKC band, no C-BARQ mean: text only.

The work

What it was built to do in the field, and what a test or trial asks of it.

Role

UKC: a "total" breed to be judged on both its ability to work livestock and its structure; herded valuable stock and protected isolated homesteads. ESC standard: bred for generations as all-purpose working farm dogs: herding and protecting stock, dispatching vermin, guarding the home, watching children; the ability to handle all types of livestock and a variety of tasks is the defining feature. ESC history: practical versatile workers for farmers, never primarily show or trial dogs. SFJ: bred for herding, hunting and guardian ability; ubiquitous on American farms until the 1950s. Wikipedia: principally a sheep and cattle herder, also watchdog, ratter and companion; UKC registered since 1927.

Breed clubUnited Kennel Club

UKC, ESC, SFJ and Wikipedia agree on the all-purpose farm dog.

Primary game

Livestock, in general: ESC standard: handles all types of livestock. Wikipedia: principally sheep and cattle. SFJ: suited to the small diversified farm (chutes and tight spaces for the small wiry type, more bone for keeping larger predators at bay).

Breed clubEnglish Shepherd Club

Stock dog first; the hunting work is under also_used_on.

Also used on

ESC Hunting page: valued for tracking, hunting and treeing; 1950s advertising brochures show English Shepherds treeing squirrel, coon and possum ("will tree anything and everything"); some also work upland birds such as grouse as flushing dogs within gun range with a retrieve after the shot, given prey drive, above-average obedience and a gradual introduction to gunfire. SFJ: kills rodents around the farmyard and trees small game. UKC: low heeler, very free with the teeth, watchful guard. ESC standard: can trail lost or injured animals; guards against predators and pests. Wikipedia: ratter and watchdog.

Breed clubEnglish Shepherd Club

Raccoon is named by the ESC Hunting page ("coon"). The ESC page is a breed-club statement; no field-trial or treeing-contest record was read.

Range

Close. ESC Hunting page: the upland-bird dog works within gun range. Stock work is up close, loose-eyed and low heeling (ESC standard).

Breed clubEnglish Shepherd Club

Range is stated by the ESC only for upland-bird work; for treeing no range statement was found.

Search pattern

Stock: ESC standard: works stock in an upright, loose-eyed manner (not crouching with strong eye), generally a natural low heeler, will gather or drive as needed, forceful when necessary but not too rough. UKC: strictly low heeling. Game: ESC Hunting page: treeing dogs are worked on small game; upland-bird dogs are worked as flushers within gun range. No source read describes the voice or cry on the tree line.

Breed clubEnglish Shepherd Club

Single dog, not a pack. Voice on a treed animal is not stated by any source read.

Field trial standard

No field-trial standard read. UKC: judged both on ability to work livestock and on structure, type, balance, soundness, gait and temperament. ESC history: never primarily show or trial dogs. ESC activities list: herding, hunting, barn hunt, tracking, search and rescue. SFJ: never an AKC breed, so not widely shown.

Breed clubUnited Kennel Club

How common the problems are

Evaluated dogs skew toward breeding stock; the numbers are still the best there are.

Hip dysplasia

20.6% · 20.6% dysplastic of 966 OFA hip evaluations on record (current all-data, accessed Oct 9 2026); 77.8% normal; mild 12.4%, moderate 7.6%, severe 0.6%; breed rank 50 in the OFA table

MeasuredOrthopedic Foundation for Animals

Voluntary registry: affected dogs are under-reported and evaluated dogs skew toward breeding stock, so true prevalence is higher.

Elbow dysplasia

3.5% · 3.5% abnormal of 226 OFA elbow evaluations on record (current all-data, accessed Oct 9 2026); 96.5% normal; grade 1 3.5%, grade 2 0.0%, grade 3 0.0%; breed rank 102 in the OFA table

MeasuredOrthopedic Foundation for Animals

Voluntary registry: affected dogs are under-reported and evaluated dogs skew toward breeding stock, so true prevalence is higher. Small n.

How to read this page

Every value carries a label. Measured means peer-reviewed data on many dogs. Studied means peer-reviewed, smaller or indirect. Breed club means a club or registry states it. Editorial means expert opinion with no measurement behind it. Where two good sources disagree, both are shown and neither is averaged.

Published when the entry rests on the best information available from no fewer than three independent sources, checked by a second pass that did not write it. 4 sources on this page. Found something wrong? Tell us and the correction is logged with its date.

Also called
American Farm Shepherd, Farm Collie, Old Fashioned Collie

Every breed, read the same way.

The breed index grows as entries clear the standard. Gun dogs first.

All published breeds

Your english shepherd, on the record.

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