Category: Our sheepdogs at work
Farm Dog vs Trials Dog?
Was Carew right to disobey me, when she could see it wouldn’t work? I’d looked forward to Penybont Sheepdog Trial for months. It’s a delightful setting with a friendly atmosphere. The sheep are good, the field’s reasonably straightforward, and once the sheep are in the exhaust pen, they’re well out of sight for other competing dogs. A slight complication is the outrun. If you send… Read more.
A New Challenge for Carew!
Sheep hiding amongst cattle can be difficult to separate! There was a new challenge in store for the dogs yesterday, when we gathered sheep at Dean Farm. The regular gather and drafting of lambs went off without incident. I gave Carew a left-hand outrun, which meant she needed to find a gap in a fence and go off to the sheep at the far end… Read more.
Welcome to our Trials Team, Remus!
Remus has earned his place in our trials team at last! For some time now I’ve been looking for a good dog to replace Kay in sheepdog trials. Now that she’s getting older, Kay seems to be finding the finesse of sheepdog trials a little tiresome. If the outrun’s quite long, by the time she reaches the shed and pen sections of the trial these… Read more.
Carew’s declared fit for Evesham Sheepdog Trial!
She seems sound again now, so we’ll give it a go! After her cattle herding escapade last Sunday, Carew went lame, and we were worried that she might not be fit to run in the Evesham sheepdog trials this weekend. Several careful examinations failed to reveal any sign of injury, foreign body or obvious inflammation but we were concerned that her recovery seemed slow, but… Read more.
Dave stands in for Carew gathering sheep
Dave learns more than how to gather a flock Late yesterday afternoon I had a call from our landlord, John, asking me to gather the sheep for him at Dean Farm today. He wanted to check over the entire flock as he suspected some had fly strike. Fly strike is dreaded by sheep farmers worldwide. When conditions are right, blowflies lay eggs on the sheep… Read more.
When does a sheepdog become a cattle dog?
Carew excels at working cattle – luckily for us! Some of the fences around our rented patch of land have been in a state of disrepair for several years. They’re normally capable of keeping the sheep in, but sadly lacking when it comes to keeping cattle out. At least it gave us an opportunity to(or excuse) to try one of our young dogs with cattle.… Read more.
Long distance motivation – give me ten points ‘stead of three!
With apologies to Chuck Berry Many years ago, I asked a regular prominent member of the Welsh sheepdog trials team for advice on what to do with a dog that sticks on its outrun. “Sell it,” came the blunt reply. I was shocked at the time. I hadn’t realised how difficult it is to train a dog to keep going once it’s got into the… Read more.
Oh, me of little faith!
Or, if you’re a sheepdog trainer, practice what you preach! They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and we’ve been very much aware recently that our regular readers will be wondering why no new blogs have appeared. For this I apologise. I’ve been intending to write a blog for several weeks now, but there’s so much I want to write that… Read more.
Gathering sheep for late shearing
Kay and Carew work hard, gathering sheep at Dean Farm In recent months I’ve missed our trips to Dean Farm to gather the sheep. With far fewer sheep, now that he’s winding down towards retirement, it seems John didn’t like to trouble me, but when I spoke to him recently I assured him that experience in new circumstances and on new ground would benefit our… Read more.