First let me say welcome to one of my long time passions. While I have been working dogs and stock for most of my life It has always been a big part of what I do to work with stock in as stress free manner as I can.
In the early Days I started out with Kelpies which are a great work dog and a very useful tool on most stock properties, I have found if working and looking after your stock is a priority then I have found that Border Collies seem to be easier on their stock.
Over the years I have managed several properties; some bigger then others and I have found it has always paid to work stock in a calm correct manner.
While taking time to get the basics right, the efficiencies of getting the job done easily and quickly will come. Quiet stock are happy stock so they will produce more both in weight gains and fertility. All this is important to the number one part of any production system the bottom line.
I have tried several lines of dogs over time and work with hundreds of others while running training schools in Qld. The biggest thing is teaching people how to work and understand stock, then bringing a third party into the picture – the dog. It can be very difficult to get the picture right if you do not know what you are even trying to achieve.
So as you go through this website remember two things. The dogs that I breed and select for come from years of experience and they have been selected and bred to work and look after stock. So while having some of my dogs with the class to work a 3 sheep trial it is by no way my main focus. My Border Collies have been competing successfully in yard and utility trials for several years and with very little exposure to cattle. My dogs are there to prove that they can handle a cattle trial course as well.
So with all this I have decided to work on breeding a truly general purpose Border Collie. Over the years I have seen a split in the selection process with people selecting collies specifically for different field, so you have three main fields at the moment. Cattle, 3 – Sheep and now more and more people in Australia are breeding from imported collies and starting to look at a ISDS style of course and dogs. (I will go into this in detail at a latter date)
What you tend to find is that each selection process despite being targeted to a specific field tends to leave, and lose other traits that have being the foundation of the border collie breed for a very long time. So my question is are you better off working right with the basics or rushing around looking for a miracle when the foundations have been lost?
Recent Comments