Herding sheep? Easy. You grab one and the rest just follow, well, like sheep, right? Oh, no. It’s complicated, but don’t worry – there are cute puppy pictures as well!
Neil Ross is a champion sheepdog trainer.
Neil Ross barks out the commands
A no-nonsense Scot who is one of the last full-time shepherds in his region in Inverness-shire, he also spends years training his sheepdogs. And it shows.
Running with the hounds
Neil’s skill is evident
It takes at least two years to train a sheepdog. The first year is spent training to voice commands – lie down, away to me, a few bits of swearing and general chat seemed to be the standard. The second year is training to a specific whistle
Each dog has its own whistles and there are eight commands, so if you have eighteen dogs, as Neil does, that’s a lot of whistles. However, stop is stop and universal for all.
Most shepherds would only use one or two dogs for herding
Neil’s skill isn’t limited to handling the dogs. He can fling a mean sheep around too.
Neil is also a full-time shepherd and can swing a big fat ewe like a bag of feathers
Now we know how to keep hold of a sheep
Not missing a trick, even though he’s just a pup
And never mind those Aussie shearers with their electric cutters – Neil scalped this one in pretty short order, while maintaining a constant monologue on the evils of mechanical razors!
The sheep get sheered twice a year. The new growth is left on for winter warmth
Ta dah! Sheered in one piece
We were more interested in the smaller fleeces.
Who wants to feed the baby lambs? Me, Me..oh and that little kid
Feeding baby lambs is nice and all that, but where are the puppies?
All I want for Christmas…
Bucket of puppies
Stick with me kid, you’ll be fine
Neil’s yard was good training for us, as the next day we were off to a real sheepdog trial.
Unusually for our Scottish trip, the weather was not being kind to us, but the show trial must go on.
Sheep herding happens come rain or shine
Soon the grey mists lifted and we could see the dogs in action.
Fixed intent as he waits his turn
Ready for anything
There are five main components to the competition:
The lift – where the dog races down the field, coming up behind the sheep and moves them off their standing position…..
Far down the field the dog lifts the group of sheep and brings them to the top end of the field
The drive – bringing the sheep back up the field to the shepherd and around the standing post…..
Waiting in the long grass
The sheep must be herded down a long field and brought to the shepherd. Some look surprised to have arrived!
Gates – taking the flock through two gates….
The dogs are not allowed to touch the sheep but herd them from a distance
These sheep are going full tilt – which can lose points if technique goes full tilt with them
The pen – getting the sheep into a pen. Some encouragement from the shepherd with the gate rope or his stick is permitted, but not encouraged…..
Using the gate or your stick too much gets points deducted
Splitting the herd – in some competitions, specific sheep with coloured collars have to be split from the main group, but at this trial it was simply a question of going in two-by-two….
Splitting the sheep herd is not nearly as easy as it looks
Some were mighty impressive and some were having a bad day.
A very stylish shepherdess
These sheep were stubborn as mules, and eventually ran out the clock on Vivian and her dog.
Each dog has it’s own whistle – but points are deducted for whistling too much
And some simply got on the wrong side of some pretty grumpy sheep.
They don’t all follow like sheep – some fight back
But the level of skill amongst them all was undeniable. Dog and trainer in perfect harmony. If you ever get the chance to go to a sheep dog trial – grab it, we promise you’ll enjoy it!
Okay, okay – here are the puppies again!
Bucket of puppies
