news about mist

added by David on Tuesday January 17, 2012 at 11:04 pm

Mist is now over eight years old and I’ve certainly been aware that she’s a lot slower now than a few years ago. But over Christmas she her coat seemed to be dull and her eyes runny, she has also certainly lost weight. She’s keen to come indoors at every opportunity, but once inside she has on several occasions raided the larder and pulled sugar bags down, ripped them open and eaten the contents. It all resulted in a trip to the vets last week, and it didn’t take long for the diagnosis to be made which we were half expecting, Mist is diabetic, and she’d been seeking out the sugar to eat which her body was telling her that she was lacking. It’s a bit of a shock, but it could be far worse. Treatment of diabetes in dogs is very similar to it’s treatment in humans, Mist now has to have two meals a day, twelve hours apart, and after each meal she has an injection of insulin.

Already we can see an improvement in her, she seems happier and her coat is already shinning. It’s also been recommended that she is speyed, so they’ll be no more puppies for Mist, but apart from that she should be able to lead a normal active life. And for Mist there is an upside; along with Jake she has now moved into the house, she sleeps in the porch and enjoys the extra attention of being a house dog.  And with any luck she’ll be able to feature in the displays next summer, but she perhaps won’t be working quite so hard.

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fly and alf

added by David on Wednesday December 21, 2011 at 12:14 am

Up until the past couple of years I’ve always had a pair of ‘brace’ of sheepdog who work well together. A good brace team is difficult to achieve, as there are so many different aspects which need to come together. First of all you need two good sheepdogs, preferably of a similar age. The y must be the sort of characters which allow a partner to take on some of the work, with each dog keeping naturally to one side of a flock of sheep. They need to be a similar working speed and of similar temperament, not the sort to be offended if their partner is reprimanded. And on top of that they need to have been trained on different whistle commands from an early age, and be willing to accept only their own commands and to ignore their partners…..all in all it’s a difficult thing to achieve! Ten years ago I was very lucky to have had a great brace, Greg and Swift, who competed for England in the international sheepdog trials.

I’ve always found that pairings work better  if the two dogs get on well, and it’s always been apparent that Fly and Alf are the best of friends. When the y are walked together they like nothing better than to find a large stick and carry it around between the two of them, chasing wildly around the field as they play. At work I occasionally think that I can see the signs that they have the potential for a brace team. Alf is a very steady dog with a great natural feel for his sheep and although he has a long way to go in his training, he seems to be a natural counter to Fly’s over zealousness.

It’s a long way in the future, Fly still needs to calm down (even though she’s nearly four) and Alf has many more commands to master yet. But it’s  a great thought, and I’ve always dreamed of having another brace team like Greg and Swift

Alf and Fly brace stick carrying

and brace working

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horses for gorses

added by David on Thursday November 3, 2011 at 11:28 pm

Although I do like to keep my livestock down to the animals which I understand best, sheep and dogs, for the past few months I’ve been the keeper of a pair of Exmoor ponies. They were introduced by the National Trust to some of the land at Mortehoe, which  I rent from the Trust, with the intention that they help to clear some of the scrub that covers much of  the area. They are beautiful animals,  which are bred to live on the wilds of Exmoor, outside in all weathers. Unlike the sheep they have the strength to push their way through the overgrown paths and amongst the gorse, and it is hoped that over a period of time they will break up the scrub and allow the sheep to graze these areas again.

But there is one major disadvantage of having these animals on the farm. They are very inquisitive and every time that I gather the sheep together they appear from nowhere and run through the middle of the flock scattering them in all directions. The dogs react to this in various ways: Mist just ignores them, Fly tries to round up the ponies (the ponies aren’t very impressed and in turn chase Fly) Alfie on the other hand doesn’t know quite what to make of them. He gathered up a small flock this week and was obviously most surprised to find a couple of ponies amongst the flock. By the  look on his face, I think that he’d rather stick to sheep!

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colin and zola

added by David on Monday October 24, 2011 at 5:06 pm

With the summer displays now over I can turn my attention back to all things farming, like preparing the ewe flock for ‘tupping’ and making a start with the training of Zola and Colin. The two of them have had a little training over the summer, but from July they have become increasingly more sheep obsessed. Zola in particular thinks of nothing else than work and tries to take any opportunity to take herself to find sheep.

My wife Debbie has been in charge of walking the pups over the summer. It’s a task which she doesn’t always find pleasurable, as Zola is prone to jumping any fence or gate on the farm in order to seek out a suitable flock of sheep to round up. Having found a flock, she will resolutely keep on the far side in order to avoid capture, a technique which she can keep up for half an hour or so, while Debbie gets more and more exasperated as she tries to catch her.

Colin is a little more laid back. He accepts that walking time is for recreation, but when he goes out for his training sessions he’s just as keen as his sister. He has a very gently way about his work, but has a good feel for his sheep and when he choses to use his speed he can be quite fast. When it’s Zolas turn to train, she’s full of energy, lightening quick and strangely for such an obsessive dog she is very responsive.

So with Alfie’s steady progress and both Zola and Colin showing great promise at this early stage, I’m really encouraged by my current crop of young sheepdogs. There’s a long way to go yet, but hope fully by this time next year we might have a champion in the making

Colin at Work

Zola

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world sheepdog trials

added by David on Thursday September 22, 2011 at 2:02 pm

You may have spotted  that the Sheepdog Society held it’s third (tri-annual) World Sheepdog Trials last week, near Penrith in Cumbria. I made the long journey north on Friday of last week to catch a couple of days a of the competition, not competing, but just to enjoy the spectacle. This was by far the biggest of the world trials so far, with 26 nations competing. As usual the home nations made up the bulk of the competitors, but it was great to see New Zealand, Brazil and even Japan sending their teams over.

Sadly the weather wasn’t kind to the event, two days before the start of competition, gale force winds flattened eight of the marquees. The Friday and Saturday then saw several inches of rain fall, turning the site to a quagmire. However, sheepdog  triallists are a resilient lot and competition carried on without interruption. There were moments of hight drama. We all gasped when Jim Wilson all the way from New Zealand, was disqualified for his dog “gripping’ (biting the sheep’s wool) when only a second away from earning a place in Sunday’s final.

But the whole crowd roared it’s approval when Irishman James McGee and his dog ‘Becca’ competed a near perfect round, in Sundays final. The course for the final is the toughest challenge that a sheepdog can face. Two packets of ten sheep have to be gathered from two different places half a mile apart. After joining the sheep and putting them around a course, five of the sheep which are wearing collars, have to be shed from the rest before being  penned. The shear stress of working with dog and sheep in front of several thousand people for half an hour, is enough to turn many an accomplished handler to a quivering wreck, but James and Becca put on a run which was well worthy of their title as World Champions.

Great sporting events should serve to inspire, and I left Cumbria full of enthusiasm. My three young dogs are  shaping up well so from now on I’ll start the training sessions with “come on Colin,you’ll have to concentrate if you want to be a world champion”

Jame McGee and ‘Becca’

further details of the World Trials can be found at

worldsheepdogtrials.co.uk

or on the International Sheepdog Society web-site

isds.org.uk

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the origins of sheepdogs

added by David on Thursday August 25, 2011 at 5:12 pm

I’ve always understood that the origins of the Border Collies that I work with, date back a few hundred years, to a time when various hunting breeds of dog were crossed and slowly the herding instincts of sheepdogs started to develop and become honed into a distinguishable breed. However a visitor to one of our sheepdog displays this summer suggested that the history of the herding dog stretches back far longer than a few hundred years.

Kristin Armstrong Oma visited the display a few weeks ago, she is studying past farming societies at Oslo University, and she bought with her the fascinating photo below. It is of a painting in a cave in Valhaug in South Western Norway. It depicts what is undoubtably a man driving sheep or deer but with the assistance of what appears to be a dog in the foreground. Amazingly this cave painting dates back to between 500 and 2000 years BC.

It’s strange to think that the same instincts that I work with now were recognized and harnessed by bronze age farmers, and I can’t help but wonder as I look at the picture whether the dog in the carving is called ‘Fly’  and the farmer is having dreadful trouble in getting her to stop!!

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alfie’s progress

added by David on Tuesday August 2, 2011 at 12:08 pm

I last wrote about Alfie back in the winter when we had worries about his shoulder, I’m delighted to report that his shoulder seems absolutely fine, and he really doing well. He’s a very different sort of sheepdog to his mother Fly. Fly you might remember (or have witnessed if you have ben to a display) is very intense and can be difficult to work. Alfie is far more laid back, and is being a delight to train.

He’s a real natural with sheep, he has a real ‘feel’ for them and holds them together as a flock with movements of his head and eye. He paces his work sensibly, not rushing at the flock and making them run. In fact I did have some worries that he might be a bit on the slow side, bt he’s showing a turn of speed when needed, and as he’s only 13 months old he’s bound to become much faster yet

So although he’s still very early in his training I’m really pleased with his progress and I’m hopeful that this time next he will be able to take Jakes place in the team, and leave Jake to his semi retirement!

And with Zola and Colin showing promise the future of the Borough farm sheepdogs is looking good!

Here’s Alfie in action

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jake’s foot

added by David on Friday July 1, 2011 at 3:55 pm

It doesn’t seem possible that Jake is getting older, but in a couple of weeks time he will have his 8th birthday. He’s still a puppy at heart, he hasn’t lost his passion for digging moles, rolling on his back (near cliff edges) or attempting to bark while carrying a blade of grass in his mouth!  However, it would be fair to say that he is contemplating his retirement. Most of my dogs slow down at his age then retire to a life under the kitchen table at about nine or ten, but Jake has made the move indoors a bit earlier than some of the others, albeit with good cause.

Over the last few months Jake has developed a limp in his front paw. Ann, one of our vets had a look at it, and could feel some arthritis in a joint on his toe. He’s now having various medication, but the toe is obviously still a little sore, so Jake is on light duties only at the moment, saving himself for rounding up the ducks at the displays.

When I said that he has moved indoors, I actually should have said that he has moved into my office. It seems to be his room of preference, and he amuses himself by sitting against the answer phone, which he manages to turn on and off, or if he’s lucky and leans on the right button, he can listen to the messages. What else would you expect from a dog who has spent his life playing the fool!!

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on trial

added by David on Friday June 24, 2011 at 1:17 pm

At three years old Fly has become my most depended upon sheepdog. Not because she is necessarily the best dog in the team, that title still belongs to Mist, but she is full of energy and running and never gives up. Fly’s biggest problem has been her excessive speed and reluctance to listen to her ‘lay down’ command when she’s working a long way away. You can  imagine how dangerous it  can be if she chases the sheep too fast when she’s working on the cliffs, so her work on the coastal ground has so far been limited to what I would describe as the ‘easy jobs’.

But over the last few weeks I’ve believed that she’s finally ready to listen to me, so I decided that it was time to test her at a sheepdog trial. Sheepdogs frequently behave differently when taken to work in a new environment, and when you add in a long car journey, and the excitement of watching the other dogs at work it’s not surprising that the most commonly used excuse for a badly behaved dog at a trial is ’she never does that at home!’

So when our turn came to compete I walked onto the field with some trepidation. We started well, with Fly running 500 yards to the other end of the field to collect the sheep as fast as the wind. Unfortunately, she also returned the sheep to me at break-neck speed!  I spent the next five minutes bellowing ‘lay down’ as Fly decided that the art of sheepdog trialling was to get everything done as quickly s possible. We eventually walked off the course together with Fly appearing to grin from ear to ear, she’d really enjoyed her little outing. I, on the other hand had to face the fellow competitors. There were plenty of little laughs and comments about Fly’s speed, but the most telling comment of all came from a friend of mine ‘What do you call that dog? asked Roderick with a rye smile as I put her back in the Land rover. ‘Fly’ I replied  ’Funny’ he said ‘I could have sworn her name was ‘Lay Down!!’

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colin gets the vote!

added by David on Monday May 9, 2011 at 10:18 pm

When choosing a sheepdog puppy, I like look for the cleverest, bravest most adventurous puppy in the litter, so I’m still don’t know how I’ve been talked into keeping Colin! Of all of the pups in Fly’s recent liter Colin was undoubtedly the odd one out, which was how he came to be given such a silly name. But the rest of the family thought he was great and he soon became their favorite pup. Colin for his part was milking that attention for all it was worth. I suspect that he spotted that his litter-mates were fast disappearing to new homes, so playing the loveable fool would increase his chances of being able to stay put.

So once again I’ve been out voted in the house and yesterday my own favoured dog pup ‘Bud’ went off to a new home, leaving the soppiest, daftest looking (and cuddliest) collie pup in the litter, Colin, to carry the responsibility of being the next ‘great thing’ in the pack.

Well actually that’s not quite true, I wasn’t entirely out voted, as I was allowed to keep Zola as well. She’s not at all cuddly, or particularly cute, but she has already started chasing the chickens and eyeing the sheep…… Now that’s what I call a lovable pup!!

This is Colin!  

 

 

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