Towser: Sheepdog

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Towser: Sheepdog by Henry G Lamond, E. P. Dutton & Company, Inc. 1956

 

Found this while hunting vintage copies of Black Beauty on e-bay awhile back.

 

Towser's breed was never stated in the text, and the illustration on the dust cover looked more like a Belgian Malinois than anything to me. I found an ad for the 1st edition, which had an illustration of a dog chained in a kennel. You could only see his head, which was heavier than the dog on the front of my copy.

 

Towser was described running over the backs of sheep while doing work in the yards, and a search of working Kelpies unearthed a few lightish red and a few yellow Kelpies (both appearing to be self-colored.) So I decided he was likely a Kelpie. (He had a sister that was descride as "yellow" and his own color was described as "light red.") He was also described as carrying his tail high and doing quite a bit of barking while working.

 

The book is very interesting for its description of life on a large sheep station in Western Queensland, Australia, shortly after the turn of the century. Towser was allegedly a real dog, as were the deeds ascribed to him. The humans and actual sheep stations were fictitious.

 

I enjoyed the book very much, although it is amazing to me that the dog ever learned how to be such a great stockdog when his training seem to consist of bellowing at him and flinging him bodily over fences. While I know that sheepdoggers, especially the old-time versions are/were not among the ranks of the "click & treat" crowd, it was a bit startling to read about.

 

There is a glossary of Australian terms at the back of the book which makes good reading all by itself.

 

Towser's owner, an overseer named Lake, was the typical "manly man" of the Australian outback. A sort of Gary Cooper, man-of-few-words type. His attitudes toward women were somewhat predictable. Fortunately there were few scenes in the book to encounter them.

 

Lakes thoughts about the countryside, its plant and animal inhabitants are worth hearing, as are Towser's exploits on and off sheep.

[Debbie Meier]

although it is amazing to me that the dog ever learned how to be such a great stockdog when his training seem to consist of bellowing at him and flinging him bodily over fences.

 

 

I believe that this is what so many miss, being a great stockdog is not taught, it's bred in. The teaching has more to do with harnessing the talent so that we can reliably get the dog to respond to our wishes and work as partners.

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I believe that this is what so many miss, being a great stockdog is not taught, it's bred in. The teaching has more to do with harnessing the talent so that we can reliably get the dog to respond to our wishes and work as partners.

Agreed, but in Towser's case I wondered that it did not put him off working with the man altogether!

[Debbie Meier]

It's amazing how driven well bred dogs are.

[Pam Wolf]

The old kick and cuss method of dog training.