Like herding cats.....

A summer ago, a friend of mine in Witney spent a week in Lancashire on a sheep farm with her family. Every day they had a session with Thomas, the champion sheepdog-training farmer, who taught them how to get the sheepdogs to round up the sheep. Turns out this farm is just three miles down the road from us.

Now, my poor pet-deprived daughter is crazy about Border Collies. So, forever on the look-out for unusual and fun things to do, I managed to book us a one-off family session with Thomas.

He started by teaching us the commands: Come by and Away or Get out and Here-ya. Then he presented us with a star line-up of highly-skilled and eager sheepdogs. Our job, he said casually, was for us to have a turn at getting a dog to guide the sheep in and out the slalom he'd set up.

LIKE IT WAS NO MORE DIFFICULT THAN MANEOUVERING A SUPERMARKET SHOPPING TROLLEY.

What a flippin' comedy show!



The dogs didn't take a blind bit of notice of us. The sheep ran wildly about until they were huffing and puffing like they were about to have a heart attack. And me, Jim and Lola were just shouting randomly in a stronger and stronger northern accent (as if that was gonna help). It was like It's a Knockout meets Last of the Summer Wine with animals. Utter chaos.

As you can see from the pictures, I was stressed, Lola was bemused, and Jim, in the end, went for a Jesus-turning-water-into-wine approach.

All the same, it was a fascinating insight into a world you don't normally get to step into. Here are some Fun Facts:

🐶 A trained sheepdog costs around £2000. Thomas buys and sells them all the time to try and find the one that's going to make him champion again.

🐶 You know a puppy is ready to be trained when you take it to the field and it stops being interested in getting your attention and becomes more interested in chasing sheep .

🐶 You should always say the commands to the dog in a neutral voice - not angrily or loudly - so that it doesn't have negative associations with rounding up sheep.

🐶 Whistles carry a lot further than spoken commands so you have to learn those too.

Ah, that must have been the problem. Our voices weren't carrying far enough. 😉