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borough farm sheepdogs
At the moment I have 8 sheepdogs at Borough Farm. It sounds a lot, but when you consider that 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!
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.
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.
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!
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…….
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
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…….
Swift.
If you have read the recent post in sheepdog diaries, you will know that we said goodbye to Swift in April this year. Here’s my entry in that diary……
t was with the greatest of sadness that we said goodbye to Swift a few weeks ago. She was over 14 years old and had spent the last few years living in the farmhouse kitchen, where she loved to be fussed by us all.
Swift has been a very special dog for me, in her prime she featured in my first diversification project,’The Year of the Working Sheepdog’. Together with her working partner Greg, she represented England in the International sheepdog trials of 1999, and of course was a major part of the displays at Borough Farm. More recently she was the matriacal figure in Mist’s adventures on Channel Five.
For many years she accompanied me when giving evening talks on travels far and wide. She would sit on a chair studying the slides on the screen, before rounding up the pictures of sheep, or any other sheep substitute that she came across. On one occasion, with no pictures to focus on, she demonstrated her working abilities by rounding up a suit of armour to command.
But above all I’ll miss her fearless working abilities, utter devotion to duty and perfect character, qualities that live on in her grand-daughter Mist.
Swift 1996-2010
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.
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