History

I have shipped registered English Shepherd pups to every state in the U. S. A. I haven’t ever had enough pups and trained dogs to fill all of my orders, and the demand got so great for these black and tan English Shepherd dogs that I decided to organize the English Shepherd Club of America. I first wrote Mr. Frederick Preston Search about organizing, and he was so interested in the club that he wrote me a letter every and even offered to put up the cash to pay the expenses of getting started. On the 22nd day of August, 1950, Professor Joseph Fox was here breeding a female. While he was here, the mail came, and I received a letter from Mr. Search wanting to organize the club. I asked Prof. Fox if he would help out, and he said he would help all he could, but he couldn't be secretary because his schoolwork took too much of his time. Prof. Fox asked me to be secretary and Mr. Search president. Professor Fox acted as Texas state board member.

"The King of the Cattle Dogs", the Gold Nugget Strain of Black and Tan English Shepherds, is associated in the minds of Tennesseans with progressive farming. Both are fast becoming associated with the name of John Blankenship. To us, the history of these superior dogs parallels the history of our families, and it is the history of our best friend.

Most of you are more interested in dogs’ pedigrees than in mine, so I'll get through mine as quickly as possible.

There will always be a tender spot in my heart for English Shepherds. The first dog I can recall as a child was a black and tan English Shepherd named Fan owned by my father, John Ursery.

I live in the Hardy’s Chapel Community of Overton County, Tennessee, where I was born and raised. I work on the farm and teach school.

We do not train dogs, but all the English Shepherds we have had would do anything we ask of them.

Twelve months ago this past January, I was moving 75 yearling steers every morning from a barn where we were feeding them silage and meal to a crimson clover pasture about a quarter mile away. They liked to have run me and my horse to death. It was then that I decided I wanted a good working stock dog.

In this age of progressive farming, the English Shepherd is coming into its own. Simms Chapter of Future Farmers of America, with Owen Dorrough as its teacher of Vocational Agriculture and Chapter Advisor has started an English Shepherd Project. This undertaking is believed to be the first of its kind in the F. F. A. world.