Have you ever trained a whole litter?

  It is not everyday that you get the chance to train all the dogs out of a litter of puppies. The first time I bred Don and Jessie I was fortunate to have all 8 pups back for training. Most of these dogs where featured in my training DVD “Laying the Foundation”. It was interesting to see how these dogs differed from each other although they were out of the same litter. Four of the pups we kept and raised ourselves and the others came back to us for training from their new owners, who were mostly farmers.

 We started the training when they where about 10 months old. All of them were keen to work straight away. The one trait all of them had was good natural balance. Here is a little profile on each of them.

Kelly : This little bitch was raised by a friend, Pippa Philip. The easiest way to describe her is, '' watch the DVD''. After the first filming session one of the film crew was convinced that she was crazy.

She was the most intense and keen dog of them all. I really enjoyed training her, but was a bit concerned about her intense nature and strong will to work as I was planning on selling her. Kelly is one of those type of dogs you can't help but notice when she works, she has a really nice style and I think a little something special too. At the moment Kelly is with her new owner Joe Hayenes in Seattle USA.

Billy : He was my first choice out of the litter. An easy dog to train and a really nice nature. I never felt like it was a effort to train this dog. Good outruns and nice flanks. Billy had a really nice nature and wanted to please. At the moment he is in Muldersdrift with his new owner, Lynette Trollip.

Chloe : This little bitch did not like me at all in the beginning, but I guess this is the beauty of sheepdogs, that keenness to work sheep will override most other feelings. We did find a way to get on and she turned out to be a very well balanced dog. I think that out of all the dogs she was the softer one but still very much capable to do a good job.

She now works for Mark Trollip and has taken a really big liking to him, I am almost jealous about that.

Blue: Talk about speed, this was one was fast. Filming her was tricky and we had to do a lot of retakes as the camera could not keep up. She came back for training from Heather Dugmore, who lives in the Middelburg area in the Karoo. I struggled a little bit to get her around the sheep, but once she started to understand it was fine. She was keen to listen, but a little over enthusiastic at times. To be honest I think she was a little bit spoiled (sorry Heather), slept on the bed and so on. It took me a few lessons to make her understand that I was the boss. I enjoyed training her and there was never a dull moment in the training sessions.

Spot 2 : My mother raised Spot for the first few months of his life. I must say he worried me at times. He was just a little bit jumpy, especially when I was around. Fortunately once we got the training going and after traveling around a bit he settled down and became very focused when he was working. He was a very entertaining dog, if nothing was going on he would start a game all on his own. He is a serious worker with a nice style. He is now with his new owner in the USA, Heather Haynes. I hope to see him on the trial field soon

Duke : Came back for training from De Aar in the Karoo. This was a no fuss type of dog, he just got on with it. I only spent six weeks starting him, which is a very short time. He had good solid outruns and nice holding abillity. Unfortunately he broke his leg a week after he went home, but I am sure that he will just go on from where he left off when he recovers.

Zack: Physically, Zack was the biggest of them all. He started a little bit slower than the rest. He was a very nice natured dog. You couldn't help but like him. He ended up a really nice worker and he lives just down the road from us on a sheep farm in the Bredasdorp area,. He is also a family dog - he even plays on the trampoline with the kids.

.