borough farm sheepdogs

The Borough farm dogs

At the moment I have 9 sheepdogs at Borough Farm. It sounds a lot, but when you consider that Swift, Gail and Ernie have retired and Fly and Roy are in the early stages of training, it leaves Fern, Jake, Mist and Eddie to do all of the work!


Mist

Top dog Mist!

Top dog at Borough farm is now undoubtedly Mist. She’s five and a half years old and very much in her prime. She’s tireless in her work and always willing to run again, even when she’s obviously exhausted. She’s quite headstrong and can be difficult to hold, particularly if she decides that she knows better than I where the sheep are heading!

The danger of having a sheepdog as willing and reliable as Mist is that there is a tendency to over-use her. I hope that one of Roy or Fly will take some of the burden from her next year.

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Jake… the eccentric.

Jake is one of the most unusual looking sheepdogs that you will come across and he’s an unusual character too. At work his strength is to run far out of site and be relied upon to bring back all of the sheep that he can find. He loves the work on the coastal ground of Morte Point and whines excitedly once he realises that the land-rover is headed in that direction. Away from work Jake is an entertainer, with some ridiculous habits. Biting gate hinges, attacking mole hills with his nose and carrying large objects are just some of the habits not normally associated with the Border Collie. Jake is now six years old, and being a particularly long legged, lanky dog he will probably be slowing down in the next couple of years.

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Frustrating Fern.

Fern should have been the best sheepdog that I will ever own. She’s quick and listens well. She has strength and stamina and always puts the right amount of pressure on the sheep that she is working, managing large flocks or a single sheep with equal efficiency.

However there is a problem. Fern has always suffered from a lack of confidence, which means that she will often head towards the sheep half-heartedly or worst still not at all! Although she is quite capable of running three quarters of a mile to find sheep, she is also quite capable of refusing to move. She’s now ten years old, and I have long ago accepted that it’s a side of her character that I’ll never change. It can be however quite frustrating!

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Eddie

Eddie is currently doing the leg work around the farm, he’s got plenty of running and energy, and is invaluable working in the sheep pens. He is however forgetful and has never really grasped the importance of remembering his left and right commands. He gets them right most of the time, but when he gets in a panic he just guesses which way to go!

Although this may not sound much of a problem, on the cliffs of Mortehoe it could prove disasterous, and for this reason Eddie’s work is limited to the enclosed ground of Borough farm.

The trainees…….

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Fly

Fly is one of my newest recruits, she came to Borough farm at 8 weeks old, and is Fern’s niece. She is now 16 months and is obsessive about her work, in fact she can jump over the six foot tall dog run if she hears that the other dogs are at work and she is being left out! Currently she is lacking a calm approach to her work, which is making her training difficult. This may just be that she is late in maturing and it is early days yet. Some of the best dogs are 3 or more before they are fully under control.  I hope that she does start to take a calmer approach to her work because she has the makings of a great sheepdog!

Roy

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Although I usually have most of my dogs as young puppies, Roy came to me at eight months old as a dog with a problem. He had been bred by a friend of mine in Cumbria, Derek Scrimgeour. Derek had sold him at a few months of age as a pup who was already showing great promise, but Roy was returned to him after three months having started to ‘grip’ sheep, biting the wool on the back leg, obviously a bad habit. He had only been back with Derek for a few days when I took him on, and to start with I worried that he really was a problem dog. I’ve worked hard on his training over the winter and spring, and Roy is now showing the promise that Derek assured me that he had. There’s still a long way to go, but my hope is that by next May, when Roy will be 2 years old, he’ll be a really good working sheepdog.

The retirees…….

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Swift.

Swift is now 13 and is well and truly retired. She now spends most of her time sleeping in the kitchen, but in her day she was a fine sheepdog. Determined and fearless, Swift was great at working on the cliffs of Morte Point, she was in her prime when we made the documentary film ‘the Year of the Working Sheepdog’ back in 2000. Swift also gave me my proudest moment in sheepdog trialling, when she and her working partner Greg came 2nd in the English National brace competition in 1999, and went on to represent England later that year

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Gail

Gail is Swift’s daughter, and like her mother now lives mainly in the kitchen. She’s over 10 now and although I consider her retired, she does make occasional returns to work if one of the others go lame. Gail was a completely reliable sheepdog throughout her working life and although she didn’t have the finesse of her mother she’d always give her best and whatever the task she’d try her hardest to not let me down.

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Ernie

In his day Ernie was the most obsessive sheepdog that I have known. He was a supreme athlete believing that he could jump anything in his path. But sadly all of that jumping, and landing has taken a toll, and Ernie now suffers front joint problems in his front legs. He now spends most of his time around the farm yard, and riding the farm quad bike to watch the others at work.

International Sheepdog Society

All of the Borough Farm sheepdogs are Border Collies, registered with the International Sheepdog Society (ISDS) For registration with the ISDS appearance is not important & working border collies come in all sizes, colourings and with long or short coats