May 10, 2019, continued...
After our wonderful early morning with Glyn on rounds to check and feed ewes and lambs, it seemed like no other experience could be better...but we were then treated to watching a bunch of good dogs being worked on their training field near the house. Everyone wanted to show us their dogs...which was something we really wanted to see. I went overseas with no expectation of what dogs I might see, but what I hoped for was information and exposure to the types of dog(s) that I might like in the future. We had no intention of buying and bringing a dog or dogs home...but we craved being able to observe all kinds of dogs working in all kinds of situations...and that we got time and time again. It was wonderful.
This day, first Elgan brought some dogs out and he worked a new brace team of Kate and Joe. Joe has been a brace partner with another dog in the past but Kate is new to it. It was really interesting to watch how they practice working the dogs together and how they learn to take their own side and stay on that side. Then Elgan took out a young dog, only about 12 months old, who was very keen but hadn't been worked in about six weeks due to them being so busy with lambing. Gethin then arrived with a truck load of dogs, and worked his International winning brace team of Maddie and Fran. They were of course smoother than the new brace team of Kate and Joe, but it was really neat to watch the progression of both teams. Then Gethin pulled out a young dog named Craig (son of Cap, the lamb catcher) and worked him. They are all pretty high on this Craig, a rising youngster. All of them handle their dogs with such modulated tones, no yelling, and they are quiet handlers and kind to their dogs. If something goes wrong, they call them back quietly and start over. It was refreshing to observe. Craig and Kate had a litter of puppies which were just about ready to go to their new homes...they were darling and it was a good thing that Gloria and I had resolved that we were not bringing any dogs or puppies home with us to the USA!
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| Working dogs on the training field for us |
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| View from the caravan in Wales |
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| View out my bedroom window in the caravan in Wales... heaven! |
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