"Can you see them Pep?"
The Border Collie for hundreds of years has been bred to work stock. Even though many new venues now enjoy the presence of this most incredible dog, we must not forget its ancestry, and strive to do all things which maintain the world's greatest sheep dog as a working Border Collie.
Blue Moon Farm
Located in Jugiong NSW Australia.
We run appoximate 40-50 cross bred merino and wiltshire horn ewes with another 70 yearly lambs. Our stud ram is a registered Dorper.
Our dogs are required to regularly assist with all duties, including lambing and shearing. The terrain of our farm includes open pasture and hillside with rocky outcrops, natural and improved pasture and some brush. Our larger fields require outruns of over 800 yards and many situations lead to out of sight work. All leading to a varity of challenging conditions that test the dogs abilities. With out the help of our dogs I would be lost.
Deborah Sutton-Kelly Cell phone 04 00 45 1113
New South Wales, Australia
Border Collies
by Baxter Black
Excerpt from Cactus Tracks & Cowboy Philosophy: Commentary by NPR's Cowboy Poet and Former Large-Animal Veterinarian
Just a word about one of the greatest genetic creations on the face of this earth...the border collie.
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Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall fences in a single bound.
The dog that all sheep talk about but never want to meet. The fur that legends are made of. Makes coyotes cringe, sheep trip the light fantastic, and eagles soar somewhere else.
Invested with the energy of a litter of puppies, the work ethics of a boat person, and the loyalty of Lassie, they ply their trade on sagebrush flats, grassy fields, and precipitous peaks from sea to shining sea.
"Away to me!" I command. They streak and sail, zipping like pucks on the ice. Black-and-white hummingbirds, in out, up down, come by.
Sheep. With head up, one eye cocked over their shoulder asking directions. To the gate through the race. Mighty dog moves behind the bunch like a towboat pushing barges around a bend.
And heart. Do they try? "Just let me at'em, Dad!" Stay. "C'mon, I'm ready!" Stay. "Can't you feel me hummin'! Listen to my heart! It's purrin' like a cat! I am primed! Aim me, point me, pull the trigger!"
"Away to me!" It makes me feel like Robin Hood. He leaves my side like an arrow.
Workin' dogs is like manipulating a screwdriver with chopsticks. Like doing calligraphy with a plastic whip. Like bobbing for apples. Like threading a needle with no hands. Like playing pool on the kitchen table.
There are no straight lines in nature. Only arcs. Great sweeping curves of sight and thought and voice and dog. Always having to lead your command about a dog's length.
Sheep bunched like logs on the river. Dogs paddling in the current. Always pushing upstream. A ewe breaks loose. Then another, another. The logjam breaks. Dogs and sheep tumble about in the white water.
Calm again, they start back upstream.
Border collies. Are they truly smarter than a chimpanzee? Cuddlier than a koala? More dedicated than Batman's valet?
Can they change course in midair? Drag Nell from the tracks and locate the missing microfilm?
Yes. I believe they can. They are the best of the best, the epitome of "above and beyond the call of duty." Head dog. Top Gun. I salute you, for man has never had a better friend.
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Originally aired on National Public Radio on June 28, 1994
Pep's grandfather Bingo"I never saw the movie Pig"
That'll Do!!