Working Dogs

One of the more interesting farm visits, for me anyway, so far has been to a farm that sort of specializes in working dogs. Farming dogs? you say. Not exactly. The farmer sold out his previous farm to dairy. Maybe I will get explain the whole dairy industry thing later, but if I do not get a chance and you are interested be sure to ask us about it when we get home. Anyway, this fellow sold out to dairy and took his enormous wad of cash and bought this 800 acre hill farm. He is improving this farm, adding new fence, installing a center pivot irrigation system to water the pastures, etc. - but his real passion is his old hobby of dog trialling. Dog trials are very popular here for many reasons. One is simply sport, and it is a sport that is suitable for older folks who might not be able to hold their own any longer on a rugby field or whatever. Another reason is that so many people rely on these dogs to make a living, and they spend so much time with them that they just want to show them off. Money is another big reason, their is very little money to be made directly from trialling, but like other forms of animal industry, breeding is huge and there is a big market for finished dogs. A lot of people are unable or unwilling to train a good herding dog, so they will just buy one that is already trained. Good ones run upwards of $5,000, and the dog trials are a great way to prove their worth.

We learned what he looks for in a dog, how he trains them, etc. We also got to see some demonstrations of training, herding, heading, backing, and huntaways. Some brief explanations:

Huntaway - Hunting is the art of driving the stock AWAY from the shepherd. This is an unusual attribute in a herding dog - it goes against the natural instincts that have been bred into the herding breeds. The huntaway is uniquely New Zealand breed. Simply stated, most herding dogs are trained to go out, round of the livestock and bring them back in to the shepherd, who is standing at the gate he wishes them to come through. The dog does this instinctually, sort of like a retriever bringing back a downed bird. The need for a huntaway stems from the nature of NZ's sheep country. It is so vast and so rugged, you can not just open the gate and send the dog out, he might not come back for days. We have been of farms where we would drive for over an hour through a pasture that had over 5000 sheep in it and we never saw a single one. Pastures might encompass thousands of acres in the high country, and the mountains and ravines and rivers that can reside in an area so large. Consequently, the shepherd and his dogs set out to find the sheep. When they do, they then have to drive them vast distances over rugged terrain, it wouldn't do for the shepherd to have to walk backwards all the way home at the front of the mob while the dogs kept trying to pull the sheep in. It just made sense to train the dogs to push or hunt the sheep away from the shepherd. This requires a lot of subtle skill, because the dog works with his back to the shepherd, so he can't see him. The dog also has to keep the mob under control, it doesn't do any good for the dog to scare the sheep so that they scatter to the four winds trying to get away. Huntaways have a powerful voice, and they bark almost constantly while driving, they actually use their voice to move the mob - casting it from side to side so they do not have to expend as much energy running back and forth to keep the sides of the mob under control. Pretty neat stuff really.

Heading / eyeing dogs: This is the stereotypical herding dog. They are the ones who run out and gather up the stock and bring it in. There is a subtle difference between heading and eyeing, heading applies to all types of stock, while eyeing is used mostly on very sensitive, spooky animals. A lot of the high country sheep farmers might only bring their animals in once a year for shearing, if they can fin them. On our last visit they had just found a merino ram in the high country who had not been shorn in something like seven or eight years! They named him Shrek, and wrote childrens books about him and made him a celebrity. These are wild animals for all intents and purposes, and don't take very well to a pack of noisy dogs chasing after them. What works is to play off the predator/prey relationship between sheep and dogs. A good eyeing dog will sneak up on, then posture and stare at sheep until they respond by gathering together, seeking safety in numbers. The dog will then silently move around the mob as necessary to keep them all moving away from him and in the direction of the shepherd. This is game of finesse and patience, but is captivating to watch. A good eyeing dog seems to move the sheep so effortlessly, as if by magic...

Handy headers are used in many roles, heading of course, they help in hunting but do not use their voice, they work the yards, but seldom do any backing. Some of them are taught to throw or toss sheep. This is incredible to even contemplate. If the shepherd sees an animal that has a problem or needs to be singled out for some reason, he can communicate this to the dog who will enter a mob of hundreds of sheep and grab the sheep and pin it to the ground and hold it there for the shepherd!

Backing dogs: so named because they mount the mob of sheep and will run on top of the sheep and drop down where needed to clear traffic jams. These dogs are used in the yards, to load sheep on to trucks, get them into the chutes for dipping, shearing etc. They are always a crowd pleaser because the work is up close, and exciting.

Aidan loves the dogs and befriended a couple of heading dog pups while we were on the farm.