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Sheep Dogs
It
is almost unheard of for a farm in the UK not to have a dog or two around to
help with moving the livestock from place to place. While there are plenty
of farms in the US where humans on horseback or on four wheels do the stock
moving we believe there is no more economical nor more fulfilling way to move
livestock than with a good dog.
We use Border Collies on our farm because they are both the best suited to
the kind of work that we have for the dogs and the most capable of competing in
large
open field stock dog trials. We also love them. We have
Seven dogs at the moment Ben, Hope, Moss, Joe,
Chip, Bear and Barkley. Joe and Bear are the two that currently compete in
Open sheep dog trials.
Ben is retired, Hope is retired from trialing but helps with teaching students, Moss is retired from competing on
big courses but still does small trials and works around the farm. Chip is
a BC/Aussie Cross and is mostly a pet and Barkley is Ravens farm work dog.
We also have three livestock guardian dogs, Edgar a Maremma is quite old and
blind but still knows his job and won't leave the fields and retire, Sophie is an Akbash, Great Pyrenees Cross
and Mongo the youngest is 3/4 Ahbash.
Ian also gives herding lessons to people interested in training their dogs for farm work or trialing. Current and former student dogs include Border Collies, Australian Shepherds, Bearded Collies, Corgies, Cattle Dogs, German Shepherd Dogs, Samoyeds, Shetland sheepdogs, Belgian Terverens and Sheepdogs, and several herding breed crosses.
If your don't live within live close enough for regular lessons or are looking for something more intensive you might want to consider a mini camp or a herding vacation.
