Dear Fellow Sheepdog Trainers,
I heard it again and again. From Jack Knox, Herbert Holmes, Alasdair MacCrae: "What is the dog thinking?"
"He's thinking he can around you and get to those sheep.", "He's afraid of that spotty-faced ewe, so he's trying to work the others", "He knows he can get them moving if he buzzes them."
Old age makes you forget the basics I guess.
Some years ago I met Ian MacMillan at a Scottish Nursery Finals. MacMillan, who makes a living as a sheep farmer trains up one dog a year for the nurseries and sells it on. Ian works and trains from a wheelchair.
I have COPD and have trouble breathing. If the shed is difficult I turn blue.
So I bethought myself of a dog that can shed to a man ion a wheelchair and went to Scotland to buy one.
Jake is a pretty good open dog without a good shed.
It dawned on me: I'm not a guy in a wheelchair.
What is the dog thinking?
Slow to learn, quick to forget I am, yours,
Donald McCaig