Preliminary biometric characteristics of Border Collies and their dependence on sport activity

Abstract

Biometric measurements were taken on 40 dogs of both sexes, 20 females and 20 males of Border Collies. Half of the population of each sex, i.e. 10 animals (active dogs), were either currently participating in dog frisbee competitions or had recently finished their sporting careers due to age. The other half (part) of the examined Border Collies, i.e. 10 females and 10 males, were animals that were not active in sports (non-active dogs). Most of the dogs came from Polish kennels but there were also Border Collies from other countries. The following measurements were taken: trunk length, height at withers, chest girth, fore limb (metacarpal) girth, thigh length, shank length, foot length and body weight. The collected results were processed statistically and indexes of trunk length, massiveness, eurysomia and boniness were calculated. It was found that Border Collie are characterized by some biometric traits (indexes) similar to Polish hunting dogs and Polish hounds and some of their indexes are also similar to the domestic breeds of Polish sheepdogs and Polish charts. Conducted biometric analysis showed only few, i.e. concerning height at withers of females and body weight of males statistically significant differences between examined groups of Border Collies. Consequently, there was no positive verification of the research hypothesis, which assumed that the value of traits and biometric indicators of Border Collie is different in jumping dogs in connection with their participation in various disciplines of dog competition. However, it can be assumed that for the needs of the developing sports cynology, there will be a need to select dogs with predispositions for athletic performance, and a useful tool to achieve this goal will be the analysis of biometric traits of dogs. The results of measurements collected in this study and the indices calculated on their basis also extend the biometric database of Border Collie dogs.