Living with Border Collies E-Book

Barbara Sykes

• Herausgeber: The Crowood Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 287

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Simple strategies for managing your Border Collies' instincts How do you introduce a Border Collie into your home? How do you manage their working instincts in a domestic setting? This book will equip you with the understanding and practical strategies to effectively manage and train your Border Collie, whilst still having fun with your dog and building a strong partnership. Understanding the breed is fundamental to being able to train your dog. Part I of the book explains why Border Collies were bred and how their genetic features impact their character. Part II then offers practical training strategies for: lead walking and recall; introducing a rescue dog in your home; Border Collies and children and finally, trouble-shooting problems and setbacks. Barbara Sykes is an esteemed Border Collie trainer, consultant and authority on the breed. She has lived with Border Collies all her life and has spent the last fifty years training, trialling and rescuing hundreds of dogs. In her sixth book, she takes a fun approach to dog training and emphasises the importance of creating a positive relationship with your dog. Although developed with Border Collies in mind, these techniques are applicable to any breed, making an owner's life easier and a dog's life happier.

Leseprobe

Living with

Border Collies

Living with

Border Collies

Barbara Sykes

First published in 2021 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

[email protected]

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2021

© Barbara Sykes 2021

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 982 2

Cover design: Sergey Tsvetkov

Dedication

To all the great dogs and handlers of the past: without them we would not have this amazing breed. Their expertise and knowledge passed down from generation to generation is something to value, and I hope I can help to keep their knowledge alive within the pages of this book.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Sarah Ainge for reading each chapter to make sure I didn’t miss anything from my notes, my very patient granddaughter Hannah Matthews for proof reading and making sure my sentences didn’t turn into paragraphs, and our brilliant vet Peter O’Hagan BVMS Cert AVP (GSAS) MRCVS for his valuable input for the health and welfare of the Border Collie.

Photos: The author, Andy and Sarah Ainge, and Ian Hughes.

Diagrams: Bev Ibbotson.

Contents

Preface

Part One: The Border Collie: Past to Present

1 History of the Breed

2 Sheepdog Trials

3 Colour Genes and Character

Part Two: The Border Collie in your Home

4 The Companion Border Collie

5 Understanding the Instincts

6 Choosing your Dog

7 The Next Step: Preparing for your Dog’s Arrival

8 Health and Welfare

9 Your Puppy

10 A Rescue Dog in your Home

11 Border Collies with Children

12 Managing the Instincts

13 Lead Walking and Recall

14 Understanding Problems

15 The Amazing Border Collie

Further Information

Index

Preface

We always want to find out more about someone or something we love, and the more we find out, the better we understand the person or object of our love. This book is about the Border Collie as a breed: to know it is to love it, but to understand it you need to know what it thinks, and why. For the ease of writing I will be referring to them mainly as ‘he’ or ‘him’ for no other reason than it can take away the value of a sentence sometimes by using ‘he, she or it’. I also refer mainly to them as a collie, which was their original title and is an easier reference than using Border Collie each time. I also use the word ‘guardian’ rather than ‘owner’, for reasons that I hope will become obvious as you read the book.

My previous book Training Border Collies was, as the title suggests, about training, and some of the chapters can be read in any order. This book is different as each chapter contains information about the breed, and to miss a chapter could mean not fully understanding information further into the book. I sincerely hope that I have made each chapter interesting and informative enough that no one will want to miss a chapter. Border Collies are all very different, and throughout the book are photographs of different colour genes. I hope you find it interesting learning about each one. As with everything there are always exceptions to a rule, but it is amazing how accurate you can be when you study and get to know the different colours and characters.

I do refer to farmers and shepherds and the working dog, but that is where the foundation of the breed lies. They are working dogs, and if you can find the key that turns the lock into that working mind you will get even closer to understanding your own dog. I know there are some people who shouldn’t have a dog both in farming and companion homes, but my experiences and writings are about those who revere their dogs.

Finally, although this book is not specifically about training, it is about understanding problems, what may have caused them, and how to solve them. Although other breeds won’t have the complication of different colour genes and characters, a lot of the information in Part Two of the book will be helpful to guardians of other breeds.

PART ONE

The Border Collie:Past to Present

CHAPTER 1

History of the Breed

Every working breed of dog has its own history. The more we know about each breed and its background, the easier it is for us to understand how to use their instincts to our advantage. An empathy with the origin of a breed can help in enhancing a partnership, and it can help with training and problem solving. While each breed may have a trait that will require a little extra patience and understanding, without those traits it wouldn’t be the same dog. For example, a breed of dog that was originally bred to track and kill vermin should not surprise us when it wants to dig or go down holes. A Border Collie may want to stalk other dogs, or stare for long periods of time at your next door neighbour’s cat, but these are instincts that are part of its heritage. If we try to breed them out we risk losing the very essence of what made us fall in the love with the breed in the first place. But if you understand those instincts you can redirect them in a way that is beneficial for you and your way of life, just as the shepherds did years ago.

The history of the Border Collie is a fascinating account of a breed of dog whose herding skills are just as valued today as they were over a century ago. They all have different skills and individual characters, and the mystery of these will unravel throughout the following chapters. The fact that they can vary in colour, size and general appearance can make it easier to identify and understand some of their characteristics. We need to look to their ancestors for the answers, and not just to parents or even grandparents, but often to much older relatives.

Have you ever been told that you are just like your grandmother or your aunt or uncle? Perhaps in looks or in temperament? I know I’m supposed to be like my paternal grandmother but then… what was she really like? I know one of my ancestors loved being on the water, whereas I am definitely one to keep my feet firmly on Mother Earth; however, I do love horses, dogs and farming, as did another of my ancestors. I am a mixture of both sides of my family, and am fortunate that I can trace them back, but tracing back your dog’s personality can be so much easier.

A Border Collie is different to many other breeds – in fact it is the only breed that is as diverse as we are. Different colour genes carry down through generations, each one denoting different characters, strengths and vulnerabilities. Understanding a Border Collie simply as a dog is not always enough to give us that bit extra we need to really understand our own dog. They need understanding for their instincts and amazing intelligence. This is their heritage passed down through generations, and those generations probably go further back than we can imagine.

The Birth of a Breed

The shepherd’s dog was first given the title of ‘collie’ in Scotland, but how this title originated is uncertain. It is thought it could be derived from the Scottish breed of black sheep called colley, which is quite probable, as ‘colley’ is an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning ‘black’. However, ‘collie’ is also thought to mean ‘useful’ in the Celtic language, making the term ‘collie dog’ a ‘useful dog’. History has played a huge part in the breed we have today, even down to the original title of Collie.

Records and archives put dogs working sheep and cattle in Scotland centuries before they became known in England. Archives show us that the working sheepdog known today as the Border Collie was working in Wales in the mid-nineteenth century, with the first ever recorded sheepdog trial being in Bala in 1873.

With the help of archives and recorded dates, we know that dogs have been working sheep and helping shepherds for centuries, and not all the same breed. There is recorded evidence of Beardies, rough collies and Old English Sheepdogs, so how did it evolve from the shepherd’s dog to the Border Collie we have today – a dog that is able to run sure footed and with speed over rough mountainous land, to be gentle with lambs yet able to stand up to awkward ewes, and to work in all weathers without tiring. A breed that the shepherds, who spent long days on the mountains, were, and still are, proud to call their working companion.

Have you ever stopped to wonder who decided how much of what ingredients to put into a bowl to make the perfect cake? If you have, you will know that it didn’t just happen, and it wasn’t luck: it was trial and error until the perfect cake was produced. But if the baker didn’t keep a note of what exactly went into that mix, then he or she would’ve had to start again.

It may seem strange to compare a Border Collie to a cake mix, but the theory is the same: the mix has to be right, and you need to keep a record so you know what to add and what to leave out. Thanks to those shepherds who really understood the power and intelligence of the dogs they were working with, they bred very carefully and kept a record of the successful pairings. Those records are still being kept today by the International Sheepdog Society (ISDS), and if every Border Collie today had a known family tree it could be traced back to those foundation dogs, and to one in particular: Auld Hemp.

Auld Hemp.

Laddie was born over a hundred years after Auld Hemp, but look at them closely and you will see there is very little difference between them.

Auld Hemp was bred by Northumberland shepherd Adam Telfer. He was born in 1893, and his destiny, apart from being an amazing sheepdog, was to become known as the ‘Father of the Breed’. There is no doubt that Adam Telfer understood the breed, and that he knew what was needed to improve the skills of the working dog as it was then, and how to create balance when breeding for the future. In other words, he didn’t just throw ingredients into a bowl to make any old cake, he looked at all the possibilities and only included what was needed, and then balanced it to produce what many have called a canine genius.

Auld Hemp was described as being of medium build, tri-coloured, and with a quiet power when working sheep. Today we can take videos of dogs working and can hand them down from generation to generation, but we have no digital record of Hemp. However, if we see a dog running up a fellside, gathering a flock of sheep and bringing them all safely home, we are looking at his legacy, and for that, we don’t need to have seen him working, as his intelligence and his skill live on in every true-bred Border Collie today. While it may seem impossible that all collies are descendants of this one dog, it is a fact that all dogs registered with the ISDS can be traced back in the stud books, and at some point you are likely to find Auld Hemp at the foundation of your line.

The breed as we know it today is traceable back to Hemp, but of course he is the result not just of his parents, but also of their ancestors – of whom we have little or no records of lineage. Dogs were working sheep in England and in Wales before Auld Hemp was born, and they must have been dogs with some calibre for there to have been sheepdog trials. The trials may not have been as keen in competition as they are today, but no shepherd, then or now, will put his dog against another unless he knows it has the ability to match any competition. Any search into the past will have a point where the records can’t take you any further without there being a degree of uncertainty. Historical archives prove with certainty that dogs have been working with shepherds for centuries, and a dog that was more of a herding dog than a droving dog was slowly evolving. But from that date in 1893 when Hemp was born we have records that track the breed to the present time with certainty.

Auld Hemp was soon recognized by local shepherds for his skills. I think there can be little doubt that, when travel was by horse and cart and information was bound by distance, word of mouth would have helped spread the news of this amazing dog. Knowledge of his strong but gentle working skills certainly attracted the attention of shepherds from a little wider than the usual local areas, all hoping to introduce his calm strength into their own line. As a result he is believed to have sired over 200 puppies. Now let’s think about that breeding foundation for a moment: 200 puppies, sired by Auld Hemp who went on to work, and a percentage of them to breed more puppies, and all relating back to Hemp.

The foundation for the breed was there all those years ago, with branches spreading out on Hemp’s tree of life. We will discover in a later chapter how important it was that the bitches brought to him were not all the same – they will have had different strengths, characters and work abilities. The Border Collie you see in a local park may appear to be just the same as the one living next door to you, but because their genes are from different ancestors, this could mean that their characters are totally different. But as their heritage can take them back to Auld Hemp, so will they have an ancestral line going back to their maternal ancestors – the females who produced puppies by him. Border Collies may vary in appearance, colour and height, but they should all have the physique that enables them to do the work they were bred to do. If not, they will struggle to keep up with sheep, and will not have the stamina needed to be able to work on steep undulating ground for great lengths of time.

Throughout the history of the breed there have always been key dogs such as Auld Hemp who have left their mark, whether this is their outstanding working ability or their prowess on the trials field. A good shepherd who understands breed lines will know when to breed out to fresh bloodlines, and when to breed back in again: a knowledge of the ancestors of each dog means they can balance the line without inbreeding. Referring back to my opening paragraph, where I know I bear a resemblance in appearance to some of my ancestors but my character to others, some of the Border Collies of today will bear a resemblance to certain key dogs in their bloodlines. I have heard it said that few collies today look like Auld Hemp, but if we look at the two photographs, Laddie, who was born a century after Hemp, certainly looked similar to him, and also had the same quiet way of working sheep.

The International Sheep Dog Society (ISDS)

Auld Hemp, his progeny, the breed title, the archives and the records, are all part of a process that has kept that great dog’s legacy going for over a century, and hopefully will continue to do so far into the future. I can understand how easy it could be to think that the Border Collie of today has no relevance to those Collies of a century ago. However, I wonder how many people say or hear the words ‘Border Collie’ but don’t really know where that title came from. Let’s take this away from dogs for a moment and refer to Florence Nightingale. I think everyone must surely have heard of her and must know she was a nurse, but without delving into her history too much, how many know why she was called the ‘Lady with the Lamp’? Similarly we need to look at history to find why the title ‘sheepdog’, which is very descriptive, earned the title of Border Collie.

The ISDS was formed at Haddington in Scotland in 1906. For several years the Society’s annual sheepdog trials were held in Scotland, with a record of just two being held in the north of England. During those early days there would still be other types of collie or working dog, and they too would probably have been competing at the sheepdog trials. In 1915, the ISDS secretary James Reid, for the purpose of keeping accurate records, chose a title to distinguish the working sheepdog from other breeds. What better title for a breed of collie that was born on the borders of England and Scotland than the one we know today, the Border Collie? Although at the time it may have been just a prefix to the word ‘collie’ to distinguish it from other collies, I don’t think anyone could have predicted that over a hundred years later it would be a breed as famous in lands far further afield than the borders where it began.

Records of breeding have always been kept, but originally these would have been on paper and handed down to the next generation of shepherds or breeders. When the ISDS created their stud book they ensured that not only did they have all the relevant information in one place, but they were also safeguarding that information for the future. The first annual stud book was issued in 1949, but two earlier books have dates of puppies stretching back to the 1890s.

All litters of puppies with registered parents can be registered with the ISDS and their details printed in the annual stud book. I think it’s important to point out that although the breed now has an official title, the ISDS still holds dear their original title. Every registration card includes both ‘working sheepdog’ and ‘Border Collie’ in the certification. We will find out later why that certification holds a huge relevance, because a dog resembling a Border Collie may not always have the ability to work sheep, but a dog that can work sheep will always be a Border Collie.

Shepherding Past and Present

There have been huge changes in farming and shepherding over the centuries, but even with modernization and machinery, one thing that has remained constant is the sheepdog. The stamina, intelligence and shepherding skills that were so important in the past are just as important now. Even in this era of technology the working sheepdog still proves itself to be indispensable.

The majority of shepherds in the past will have been hill shepherds, working and living on terrain that called for hardy sheep, strong men and determined collies. The hours of work would have been from first to last light, and in harsh winter weather or at lambing time, those hours would continue through the night. It isn’t difficult to understand why the dogs that were with these men from dawn to dusk earned themselves the title of the shepherd’s working companion.

Armed with food and drink in his backpack, the shepherd and his dog could be walking the steep and often rough land for the full day. The food would have been basic and just enough to satisfy, as other essentials would also have had to be carried. Little could be done for a sheep that was hurt or in pain, or a lamb needing milk, if the shepherd did not carry the essentials in his bag.

Winter on high land is always harsher than on the lowlands. There are some amazing records of dogs finding sheep that were buried under snow, trapped between rocks, or lame and unable to keep up with the rest of the flock.

I find it fascinating that although so much has changed in farming from past to present, the actual day-to-day work for a shepherd has not. So if the sheep, the work, the shepherd and his dogs haven’t changed, what has? The change is in the way the work is done and the speed with which it is completed, a progress that is enabled by the use of machinery.

I think there are many professions that we can look at and say ‘that must have been hard in the past’, but at the time a faster or easier way was not known. Shepherds of the past began their day carrying a crook and a backpack as they set off to check on their sheep. They could never have imagined that before they had even left the homestead, future generations would be halfway up the hill on their quad bikes. For the shepherd of the past it could have been a lonely life, but today’s shepherd can be back home for lunch, and he can carry any essentials on his bike rather than on his back. Yet for all the technology and machinery, the work for our shepherds today can be just as testing.

Sheep still have to be shorn, and whether this is with hand shears or by machine, it can be a back-breaking job. Dipping, spraying or injecting to keep flies at bay, plus worming and trimming feet, are all part of a shepherd’s job, past or present. In the past most of it would have been very manual, and although shepherds would have needed to be strong men, I can imagine they might have suffered with back pain in their twilight years. Today, shearing machines enable shearers to do the same number of sheep in one day that in the past would probably have taken several days. The small, stone-walled pens in the fields have been replaced by portable pens, and modern sheep farms have dedicated yards, pens and holding areas.

The Sheepdog at Work

Whether on a farm as a shepherd’s dog or in a companion home, the fundamental nature of the Border Collie remains the same. Understanding his development and his prowess as a working dog can provide clues to some of the behavioural traits displayed in a companion home. Although you might not be a shepherd, live on a farm, or have sheep, finding out more about your dog’s background will not only help with problem solving, but also provide a fascinating journey into the mind of this amazing breed of dog.

More advanced technology and machinery mean that farming is now conducted at a much faster pace, but the sheepdog is the one thing that hasn’t changed, and which every shepherd needs.

Gathering a flock of hill sheep requires the same skills, intelligence and stamina that it did a century ago. Today’s sheepdogs can now hitch a ride on the quad bike rather than walking the first mile or so, but from then on the work is done ‘on the paw’. A large gather to bring several hundred or more sheep down from the hills, and often not all from the same flock, will have several shepherds and their dogs involved. Imagine those dogs with similar commands but different whistles all working together in unity.

Without realizing how good they are at problem solving, it’s easy to underestimate their intelligence, and the ability to be able work out certain situations. Sometimes we may read too much into their actions, but I believe that we should always give them the benefit of the doubt.

When a dog is a distance from the shepherd and behind a flock of sheep, he is out of the shepherd’s sight. Being able to trust the dog that he will do the job he has been sent to do is a huge part of the partnership needed between shepherd and dog. Gathering the sheep together into a flock and bringing them to the shepherd is part of the instinct to herd, but driving them away again is almost contrary to those instincts. We will discover later that some dogs will be better at driving away than gathering, and with different strengths, these dogs need a different approach to managing them in the companion home.

Taking sheep that were to be sold to a market in the days before cars and wagons must have been a huge task. Large flocks of sheep would be moved many miles on foot, often taking days to get to their destination. They would follow well worn ‘drovers’ roads’, some of which are still in existence today, albeit it in name only, and there would be hostelries along the way for overnight stays. Droving was often an occupation in itself, and there are some amazing accounts of drovers paying to return home by carriage or boat but leaving their dogs to return on foot. The dogs apparently retraced their journey. They would stop at the same overnight hostelries, where they would be fed and watered before starting out again. This is not something we would do today, but at the time it was not unusual – and for the dogs, although not an everyday occurrence, it was part of their lives. I think it would also have almost been like having ‘time out’ for them. Making sure a large flock of sheep was controlled, didn’t stray off the track, and being on the move for most of the day, would have been mentally and physically tiring. The trot back home at their own pace would probably have been a nice break for them, and who knows, maybe they took their time.

We may wonder sometimes what it would be like to be able to travel back in time, just as an observer. But I wonder what the shepherds and drovers would think if they could observe how their work is done today. Travel today is done in wagons and trailers, and destinations are reached in a fraction of the time taken by the drovers. But just as dogs were used to gather the sheep and ‘drive’ them from one place to another with the drovers, they now gather them into pens and help to push them up the vehicle ramps.

One thing I am sure that will be different today is the training of collies for sheep work. It takes a lot of time and patience, but I wonder how much, or how little, time would have been needed all those years ago. Farming and shepherding is a way of life, and in the past, the dogs would have spent all of every day with the shepherds, and although the dogs could probably gather a flock, it may not have been as necessary. The shepherd would be on the hill with them, and often working from the back of the flock, with his dog or dogs pushing, rather than herding them. It is still a way of life for shepherds today, but collies have been bred very carefully, so they can multitask. They can run out a long way to gather a flock of sheep, whether on lowland or the hills, and when the time comes for the sheep to return to their pastures, the collies are capable of driving them there, and not necessarily with the shepherd walking with them.

A very old photograph of a group of dogs waiting for their turn to run in a sheepdog trial.

Taken at least eighty years after the previous photograph, another group of dogs waiting to compete. It is a credit to breeders of the past how little the collie has changed.

Like the collies, many farmers today also multitask, and as well as running a farm, they shepherd their own sheep. Modern equipment means that shepherding tasks are now more efficient and can be incorporated with all other aspects of farming. On larger farms shepherds may be employed to work with the sheep and also to work on the farm, but there are still some large units where a shepherd will be employed full time to look after a large flock of sheep. But the farmer, the part-time shepherd and the full-time shepherd all have one thing in common: the need for a good working dog.

Meg Problem Solving

Shepherding on a large estate, I sent Meg to gather a flock of sheep. The sheep came down the hill to me, minus my dog. My husband thought she’d run too far and gone on to the road and been run over, but I had far too much trust in my dog to think that. When I arrived over the brow of the hill, there she was sitting with a sheep that was trapped in some old wire. Did she know I would come looking for her? Did she need to make sure every sheep was accounted for? Or did she sit down not knowing what to do for the best? I knew Meg, and I’m sure she knew I would come looking for her and would help her to get the job done.

Meg’s ancestry goes back to the great foundation dogs; not only was she a great trials dog, but she was able to work out difficult situations in her everyday work as a sheepdog.

The Ability to Focus

One of the Border Collie’s many skills is the ability to focus. Once they know what is wanted of them, they are dedicated to completing the task. I often think how we, as humans, have various thoughts in our minds at once, and sometimes go into automatic pilot working on one task while thinking of another. Once trained and with the knowledge of what is needed, the collie will see only one thing in front of him: the task he has been set. They rarely have what I often refer to as the ‘what if’ outlook. If we put a collie in a gateway and ask him to stop a flock of 200 sheep from getting through the gate, it will not occur to him that he might fail. Obviously the dog needs to be both well trained and able to do the job – only a foolish person would ask someone to do a task they were not mentally or physically able to do. But once in that gateway, the dog will do his utmost to complete his task. We may be more advanced in many ways, but we often tend to safeguard ourselves with the ‘what if I fail’, and if we speak it out loud our manner will be one of uncertainty. The amazing thing about the confidence of a well trained collie is the fact that just standing there with an air of confidence can make the sheep falter.

A sheep has turned to challenge Jim, but he is so focused that it doesn’t occur to him that he won’t succeed in turning it back.

With Focus Comes Power

When a neighbour’s cattle got on to our land, old Rob didn’t attempt to stop them as they ran across the field in a group: instead he waited until they were in a line near the fence, then he stood facing the leader. Imagine the scene of a massive four-legged cow being challenged by a dog that didn’t even reach knee high. Rob held his ground, and the cattle turned round and went back to where they had come from. In a group they may have been bolder, but Rob waited until they were in single file, so his challenge was against the one in front and not the herd. Rob was so focused it didn’t occur to him that they might not stop, even though he was outsized and outnumbered.

Old Rob could work sheep, and could also stop and turn round running cattle; he was also one of the kindest, gentlest dogs you could ever wish to meet.

A Bond of Trust

I was told many years ago, ‘know your dog and trust your dog, and if you can’t do that… what’s the point of having a dog?’ This is an excellent point with regard to both a companion dog and a working dog. The degree of trust required when a dog is working sheep is exceptional, because however well the handler and the dog work together, the sheep rarely have the same degree of unity. Training a sheepdog to be very obedient is the last thing a shepherd wants: he needs his dog to be biddable and to be able to work out a problem and act on it without fear of reprisal, but he also needs his dog trained to such a degree that it will do what he asks without question. That sounds contradictory, and in a way it is, but once explained you will see just how intelligent collies are and understand the amount of trust needed for a good partnership.

There has to be a bond of trust between shepherd and dog. With a large of flock of sheep separating them, each must have complete confidence and trust in the other.

A shepherd can send his dog out to gather a large flock of sheep and he may give his dog a whistle to go to the right, but the dog doesn’t take that command, instead he goes to the left. The dog is at the back of the sheep and can see what is happening, but the shepherd cannot see what the dog can see. The shepherd thought there was a problem at one side of the flock, but the dog knew that a sheep on the left side was about to break loose. The dog goes to the left, brings the errant sheep into check, and then goes back to see if he’s needed on the right. That same dog can go on a sheepdog trials course and take every single command the handler gives him.