My husband, Graeme, had been after a working line border collie for quite some time. We already have 3 border collies, one a rescue and the other two came from a breeder in the North East, who does not work her dogs. So in March 2011, we welcomed Astra Jaff into our doggy family. He comes from a long line of working dogs and boy do we know it. He is always on the go and ready to work and up for anything we throw at him.
As Graeme was 40 this year, my mam gave him some money to have some sheepdog training lessons, to see how they went. They are both now well and truly hooked. I loose them both for one evening each week, and they come back with stories and more than their fair share of sheep poo!
So a couple of weeks ago I went along and took my camera. I know I like a challenge, but my word, trying to get a decent photo of a dog running around sheep was certainly a challenge. Probably not helped by the fact I was talking to the trainer and an observer for most of the time I was trying to take photos.
Sheep dog training would not be possible without these gorgeous girls.
Jaff raring to go. You may have noticed, Jaff is a tri merle collie. Not a traditional colour for a sheepdog, but he sure has all of the instincts.
Someone needs to tell Jaff they are behind him.
I naively thought he would only have a few sheep to work with. I was quite shocked when I saw this many. Spot the nosey neighbour in the top field.
The lovely Will, showing us how a professional does it
Jaff finally gets his turn.
Proving he can actually stay still (a rare sight with this boy).
I had a great time watching them both in their training. Will hopefully go along at another time and work on getting some better photos, where I can move around more and hopefully capture Jaff in full herding mode a bit more.
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