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Cammen Kay – our unsung hero?

Quietly in the background, with no fuss or bluster, we didn't always give Kay her due!

When we bought Kay, at about a year old, our intention was to train her but not, necessarily, to keep her forever. Yet I think Kay is probably the only dog we haven't ever suggested we could sell.

When Andy first started to plan First Steps in Border Collie Sheepdog Training (as much as we ever plan anything) we picked three dogs to use as demo dogs, and one of those was Kay. Anyone who's seen the DVD will probably remember Kay's debut in the introduction where, I think we can say, she demonstrated exactly what she thought of it all.

Lovely image of man and sheepdog. Border collie yawning.
Kay was quick to demonstrate that life in front of a camera isn't all it's cracked up to be!

Who could have guessed that she would prove to be the ideal pupil, and a lovely character too.

I remember when my son was at primary school. He'd produced an excellent story and, having been highly praised by his teacher, was pretty confident of receiving that week's class prize for achievement. Imagine his disappointment when a classmate was given the prize for seeing and recognising his own name?

I'm not suggesting it was unfair, but I often used to remember it when we were training and assessing sheepdogs!

Kay was surprisingly slow to learn to drive, but with perseverance (from both Kay and Andy) she eventually nailed it and continued to be an excellent driver of sheep throughout her working life. Everything else she just picked up in one or two lessons, so Kay's progress didn't attract much attention.

Sheepdog driving ewes and lambs along a farm track to the yard.
Kay always enjoyed driving our landlord's flock along the farm drive - not too fast, and not too slow.

On the other hand, a dog that was hard to work with (mentioning no names - Max), or frustrated us with a persistent and annoying problem (ditto Carew, Bronwen, Scylla, I could go on) would receive high praise and accolades when there was a perceptible improvement, however minute.

In the meantime, if we needed a job done, if we wanted to take puppies to the sheep in safety and with minimum effort (for ourselves) or if we were holding a training class and needed an assistant, we called on Kay.

Kay taught herself to watch from a distance (often relaxing under a tree), spot when the trainee dog lost control of the sheep, quietly run out to bring them back to the trainee and then simply melt away without interfering.

Sheepdog driving sheep into a paddock
It was easy to take Kay for granted, she was so reliable.

Kay's workmate, Carew, was/is a superb sheepdog - gentle and sensitive to the sheep she would move 200 ewes at a speed to accommodate the smallest, slowest lamb, and yet with power to spare when it was needed. Carew's work style drew your attention, but little Kay was always on hand to back her up.

When Carew left us to work with a dairy flock, Kay was promoted to Number One dog and we finally realised just how good she was, and how much we'd come to rely on her. Without our noticing, Kay had became our go-to dog.

At 12 years of age Kay's become rather deaf, and with her eyesight not what it was her working days are over, but she seems to enjoy her retirement. She takes an interest in her daughters, Jet and Maddie, and her granddaughter Scout, and still enjoys the traditional collie sport of "flattening" precocious young pups who try to take advantage of her good nature.

We have Ezra's daughter, Dulcie, making meteoric progress, and she, with Jet and Maddie, have taken over Kay's work duties, but we'll probably never know if they could be such accomplished training class assistants.

I hope Kay understand how much she's appreciated, and I can't help thinking that this photo suggests her answer is "YES! And rightly!"

Tricolour border collie looking majestic
"I think you'll find this is our best side"
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New dogs – new opportunities

It feels like a new term at Kings Green.

This year’s puppies are ready to start training, and they’re giving us lots of filming and photo opportunities.

Without actually planning it we have a real mix of dogs to bring on and, of course, they’re presenting us with a range of natural talents and individual problems that we’ll reflect in our online training tutorials.

The puppy with the sheep at the top of the page is a Meg/Ezra daughter, Madge. She's too young for intense training, but she's keen and determined. Ideally we'd keep a puppy away from challenging situations such as this, but if a puppy goes looking for trouble it's important that the camera goes too!

In the Dogs chapter of First Steps in Border Collie Sheepdog Training we talk about the options available to a prospective puppy buyer - International Sheep Dog Society (ISDS) registered; UK Kennel Club (KC) registered; or unregistered, and look at the “fors and againsts”. Our Class of 2018 includes all three! It’s early days, but I have to say that the unregistered and KC youngsters are putting up a very strong show.

Smooth coated border collie dog, black and white, unregistered
Boz, born 18th November 2017 from Pippin and Oliver.
Smooth coated border collie black and white female with pricked ears
Phiz - Boz's litter sister. There's a definite family likeness!

Our unregistered puppies are Phiz and Boz; they're well connected to successful trials and working dogs, but their mother, Pippin, isn't registered.

Phiz and Boz could be registered on merit with the ISDS, of course, but that won't be necessary until they qualify for the International. Well, you never know.



We rarely buy dogs these days, but earlier this year we bought a couple of youngsters to add to the team.

Trials bred rough coated border collie, Glen
Glen, whose father was in this year's Welsh National.
Rough coated black and white border collie - sheepdog and family pet.
Rough coated Roy has taken well to his career change.

Glen (from Wales) and Roy (Yorkshire born and bred) are both well bred, but with very different backgrounds. Glen was bred from trials dogs, and Roy, although he's from trial and working dogs, started his career as a family pet*.

Both dogs have made an excellent start, as well as giving our established frisbee-retrieving team some competition.


Two dogs who are too busy chasing and wrestling to have any time for frisbees are home-bred Scout, and Glenalpine Dash.

Black and white kennel club registered border collie bitch
Brains and beauty - KC registered Dash looks likely to be a super working dog
Smooth coated small border collie puppy
Will Jet's daughter Scout be an equally smooth operator?

Dash is a daughter of Ezra and Nikki, a KC registered working trials champion. Dash has a lively personality; she earned the name "Dash" within hours of arriving.

Scout is a rich blend of four of our favourite dogs. She's the (tiny) daughter of Jet (from Kay and Oliver) and Odo (Meg and Ezra).

We have no idea what mix of her grandparents' strengths and foibles we're likely to see in Scout. When you breed a litter of puppies it's a voyage of discovery; there's no guarantee of what will turn up, and that's what makes breeding and training so fascinating.


Some of these dogs will almost certainly make an appearance in our long-planned revised edition of First Steps - the original is almost ten years old! What a thought...



Rough coated sheepdog Roy, working dog and family pet.
* A couple of people have asked why Roy changed homes: it was solely due to a change in circumstances, that would have left Roy "home alone" for long periods.
Roy's a well-socialised, polite and nicely brought up young dog; so nicely brought up, that when he's working with the sheep and Andy tells him to lie down, Roy insists on coming back to Andy's lefthand side to lie down beside him!
Roy will be an excellent sheepdog, but he'd probably be happy to be a pet again!
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The essentials of sheepdog puppy training


Spring time is puppy time!

The promise of longer daylight hours and milder weather makes puppy ownership more appealing than during the cold of winter, and it’s a time of year when there are more puppies to choose between.

We have our own puppies in the spring, and are eagerly awaiting our (Ezra and Meg) litter in early April.

Tricoloured border collie puppy in an open field
Fun and exercise will help your puppy develop mental and physical dexterity

When you’ve bought a puppy to work sheep there are a couple of important points to bear in mind. First, preserve your puppy’s confidence at all costs. Don’t give your puppy the opportunity to be unsupervised around livestock.

It’s not so much the danger of injury (though there’s always a chance) but that an aggressive sheep’s head-butt, or several sheep taking it upon themselves to chase the puppy away, can seriously damage your puppy’s confidence.

On the other hand, it’s important that you allow your puppy to be a puppy during its early months. Encouraging play, socialisation and exploration will all help to develop your puppy’s, and later your dog’s, confidence.

Secondly, if you want to take your puppy to see livestock, either to get it accustomed to the stock or to see its reaction, take care if you use a lead. Dogs, and especially border collies, take things very literally. If you walk your pup to heel and insist on good lead behaviour around stock you MIGHT be teaching your puppy that you don’t want it to chase!

Sounds like a minefield? It needn’t be.

Black and white smooth coated collie puppy looking cute
Develop a bond with your puppy before you start serious training

The early months with your puppy are invaluable for getting to know its personality, establishing a bond between the two of you, and laying the ground work for early sheep training. It’s even, dare we say it, an opportunity to have some fun! So use the time to play with your puppy, and take him out and about with you.

(We know that some trainers disapprove of playing with sheepdogs, feeling that it distracts the dog from its real purpose, but we’ve only ever seen sheep dogs of all ages benefit from having some fun and relaxation away from livestock.)

You’ll find a huge amount of information and advice about training your puppy in our Online Tutorials library, and much of it, we’re sure, isn’t available on any sheepdog training DVD.

Start with our short introduction video, “Puppy Training Essentials”, and move on to “Starting a young puppy” parts One and Two. There’s also a “Pack Behaviour” tutorial that explains how, we believe, dogs view hierarchy and leadership.

If you don’t yet have a puppy, watch “The Sheepdog – Selection and Preparation” to help you make the right choice.

Remember, to watch the tutorials you’ll need to be logged in as a paid member. If you still need help, leave a comment or question on the tutorial page and we’ll respond as quickly as we can.

You’ll find more information about our sheepdog training tutorials in the video below.

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Pippin – Super Little Sheepdog and Super Mum!

Smooth coated border collie Pippin's doing really well in her new home.

Great things come in small packages!

"Hi Andy. Just to let you know the dogs have settled in lovely. Pippin is already working groups of 300 ewes like she has been doing it for years. Thanks again. Brilliant dogs."

Smooth coated border collie puppy Phiz
Phiz very much takes after her mother Pippin.

This was the text message I received a few days ago from Pippin's new owner. It's always a great relief when we get a message like this, because some dogs take longer to settle into a new home than others and of course, not all dogs suit their new owners.

From the day we collected her as a somewhat nervous eight week old puppy, we've been very fond of Pippin. Gradually her confidence grew and although still remarkably small for a border collie, she showed signs of being a courageous dog. When she began working, the sheep showed her great respect.

Happily, Pippin produced and reared a (small) litter of lovely pups before she moved to her new home, and now these too are proving remarkably like their mum in terms of their courage-to-weight ratio.

Smooth coated border collie puppy Boz
If you can tell which is Boz and which is Phiz from the front, you're doing well! (Mew and Maddie in the background).

Phiz very much takes after her mother. At around twelve weeks, she's only showing a very casual interest in sheep at the moment, but we're optimistic that she'll be fine.

She absolutely adores playing with toys, particularly bouncing balls, so she's going to be just fine here.

Little Boz is a great chap, too. He shows a little more interest in the sheep than his sister Phiz, and every bit as much courage. Sadly we won't be able to keep him in the long term, but I'd like to get him at least partly trained before he goes to a new home.

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Fifteen years ago these two changed our lives

Close-up photo of two very smiley sheepdogs Glen and Dot, in the back seat of a car.

Little did we know what was around the corner!

This photo of Dot and Glen in the boot of Gill's car, after a January training session, brought memories flooding back to us. Once Dot (left) and later Glen came along, our sheepdog training took on a much more serious and informed nature.

Four Border Collie Sheepdogs in a snow covered yard
(Left to right) Dot, Reiver, Mossie and Hattie

Gill and I had been living here at Kings Green Farm for a shade over a year. Dot had come into our lives at our previous home, and was an excellent farm dog, but as I was finding it hard to train her for sheepdog trials we bought Glen. He'd been successful in East of England nursery trials and we felt he'd help us to move things along in competitions.

He certainly did that. After a fairly lengthy settling-in period - he was four when we bought him, and older dogs take much longer to settle in with their new owners than puppies or young dogs do - Glen was quite successful in both novice and open trials.

He also proved that shortcuts in sheepdog training are of limited use. To get the best out of a sheepdog you really do need to understand dogs and how (and why) they work. You also need to know a surprising amount about sheep behaviour, and how they react to dogs. I wasn't aware of any it at the time, while Glen's experience and good nature were hiding my incompetence as a sheepdog handler.

Close up photo of a rough coated border collie sheepdog working very close to some sheep
Glen was very stylish! This photo appeared on our training DVD First Steps in Border Collie Sheepdog Training.

Glen had a completely different nature to Dot. He was very steady and reserved, while Dot's approach could be fast and aggressive. Studying the two of them led me to realise that, although the basic principles are the same when you train a sheepdog, to get the very best out of your dog you need to understand your dog's nature. Every dog is different.

Once I understood this I learned to assess each dog's strong and weak points, and train them accordingly. A dog like Glen needed a gentle approach and lots of encouragement to increase his confidence, whereas Dot would interpret a polite, gentle word from me as license to carry on at top speed! I found that if I was firm though, she respected it. My ideas worked time and time again with other dogs, and they obviously work for others too because, quite soon, I gave up my work as a commercial photographer to concentrate on our growing pack of dogs and running the website.

Gill noticed that I had something to offer novice trainers, and encouraged me to make a DVD about training sheepdogs. First Steps in Border Collie Sheepdog Training was born!

After I'd spent a year or two of running the website, while juggling with increasing DVD sales, training our own dogs, and holding regular training courses, Gill left her full-time job as editor of an industrial magazine, to work with the dogs too. Not long after we began uploading tutorial videos to the internet so that people could watch them online. The tutorials have proved to be popular too, so Gill and I have been able to work together ever since!

What a huge change Dot and Glen brought about!

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Sometimes I Really Miss Carew!

Sheepdog Carew standing on a tree stump - looking wonderful!

Since Carew left here, Kay's hearing has deteriorated badly, and occasionally we're stuck for a skilled dog

It's hard to believe that it's nearly two years since Carew left here and to be honest, there have been a few occasions when I've wished she was still here. One such occasion was only a week or so ago.

Our landlord John needed to move some very lively sheep from a field where one of the boundaries was a steep-sided brook with a dense wood on the other side. John warned me that the sheep were likely to "take fright" and disappear into the depths of the wood when they saw the dog, so I was keen to make sure they didn't.

sheepdog bringing about fifteen sheep towards the camera
Quietly in control as always! Carew brings a small bunch of sheep

Since Carew left here, my natural first choice for any difficult work like this has been Kay, but Kay's hearing has deteriorated so much recently that she works purely on instinct. I can only give her commands when she's very close. I've had limited success with hand signals, but of course, they depend on the dog looking towards you, and when Kay's concentrating hard, she's not looking at me, she's looking at the sheep!

Once Kay's more than thirty metres away from me, I can shout for all I'm worth but she can't hear me, so for this tricky work, I decided to take the young Odo with me instead. Poor Odo has been 'sold' twice, but he was returned to us on both occasions. The first time was when his owner couldn't get him to jump into the car (can you believe it?). We actually used Odo to make a training tutorial about it, to show others what to do if they get the same problem. The second time he came back to us was (I think) because the farmer's other dogs didn't like him. Either way, I was happy to buy Odo back. We're very fond of him, and he has great potential, but he lacks experience of "proper" farm work.

Sheepdog Kay awaits her next command
Kay would have been my first choice but I no longer have any control over her when she's more than a few yards away

We've got other dog's coming along nicely of course. Another of Kay's daughters, Maddie, shows great promise. She has a lovely pace, stops well (most of the time) and she's got plenty of confidence to push stubborn sheep. For this job though, I thought Maddie's lack of experience and her somewhat over-enthusiastic approach might be a problem. The same goes for Pippin, Mew and Jago. All are showing great potential, but lacking experience.

Much as my instinct was telling me Kay would be the safer choice, I felt I couldn't risk using her because although she has a fabulous outrun (just what was needed on this occasion) if things went even slightly wrong, I'd have no control over her at all. If Kay knows where you want the sheep to be, such as when she's working at home, she's unbeatable, but on new ground, she sometimes misunderstands what I want and I struggle to direct her.

Photo of Maddie lying in the grass looking very confident and pleased with life!
Maddie will be a natural first choice when she's a little more experienced

It also occurred to me that if Kay went chasing off into that wood and couldn't hear me, it could literally take hours to find her again!

My next choice would have been Jet, but she was heavily "in season" at the time and sometimes hormones can affect the work of female sheepdogs. If Jet's anything like her mother Kay (when Kay was younger) this could adversely affect her work.

These sheep needed a gentle, controlled touch. Carew would have been "in her element" with them, but she's not here.

Next choice was Odo, but it was risky because he'd only been back here for a few days, and he'd never worked in this field before, or with these particular sheep. What's more, I had only worked Odo for a very few minutes since he came back to us. It was a gamble, but I decided to go for it because Odo had been such a good worker before he left here.

It was a bad decision. Odo hadn't had time to re-settle with us.

Odo controlling sheep near some trees
Odo's sheep control is excellent.

When we reached the field, the sheep were in the worst possible place, right next to the brook at the bottom of the field. Odo has a pretty good outrun, so I guessed that would go reasonably well, but I wasn't sure I could stop him at that distance. If you can't stop the dog at the end of it's outrun, you should shorten the outrun to a suitable distance and if the dog stops well, gradually increase the distance. The closer you are to the dog, the more control you have over it - but that's when the dog's in training. This was farm work, and it was skilled farm work which Odo wasn't ready for. Although I could have walked down the field to get closer before I sent him off, the sheep were already looking uneasy. Our approach might provoke them to pop over the brook and into the wood.

Jet's a smooth coated prick-eared border collie sheepdog
With hindsight, I should have used Jet after all. I'm sure she'd have been fine!

I decided to trust Odo's outrun, and sure enough, he went out beautifully wide, but he was excited and clearly going too fast. Because the sheep were tight against the boundary, once he reached the brook on his outrun, he had to follow it. This meant he was coming straight at the sheep, and worse, I couldn't slow him down. He brought most of the sheep away from the brook and into the field well, but on occasions like this, most is not good enough. Two of the sheep dived over the brook and into the wood, and thick with undergrowth as it was, I couldn't get Odo to go in after them. Sadly, John and I made the decision to abandon the task and let the sheep settle for a few days.

I'll use Jet next time. She's got a good outrun, and I'm pretty certain she'd have gathered all of those sheep cleanly. I worked her the next day and her hormones weren't affecting her work at all. Poor Odo did his best but he was too excited. He went too fast, and too straight. He needs more work so that when he goes out it's not such a novelty.

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Too Many Puppies in One Bed!

Photo of ten or more puppies crowded into a bed. Nearly all of the pups are looking towards the camera and looking bright and cheerful!

Lots of memories, but was it really six years ago today?

We couldn't resist showing you this photo of a whole bunch of puppies crowded into one bed! There are lots of fond memories here for us - and it's a lovely picture too!

  • Audrey - "Calm But Firm"
  • Dulcie - "Get off the Fence"
  • Gloria - "Educating Gloria"
  • Rita - "Give the Sheep Space"

The pair at the front left are Dulcie (tricolour) and Gloria, who both showed great potential as sheepdogs, then there's a pup with its tongue out who's name escapes me, and Audrey, the red and white one on the right. Dulcie, Gloria, Audrey and Rita (behind Dulcie and Gloria) all feature heavily in our sheepdog training tutorials.

Most of the pups went on to be sheepdogs or agility dogs.

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Scary Place 2 (The Sequel)

Herding Sheepdog Kay shows her great courage as she calmly and confidently removes some sheep from a very dark confined space

Kay shows her daughter Jet how to get sheep out of a Spooky Black Hole!
Watch the VIDEO below!

There was quite a stong response on social media when we posted a picture of a rather nervous looking Jet outside a dark hovel which was full of sheep.

Jet was contemplating the task of going into the hovel to remove the sheep. It's not a pleasant task for a trainee herding dog because the dog knows it will be trapped inside the building and if the sheep attack it, there's no escape.

Usually, the trainee dog's response is to attack the sheep closest to the entrance. In the ensuing chaos, most of the sheep will usually come out of the building, but often, the task has to be repeated to remove the remaining animals. Obviously, this is not good practice. At the least, it stresses the sheep and makes any further handling or movement of them all the more difficult.

In this video, Jet's mother, Kay demonstrates just how the job should be done, by quietly and confidently going round between the sheep and the wall. The sheep come out quietly with the minimum of stress.