October 22, 2007: Pheasant Shooters.
Lots of fun and games this week as it is pheasant shooting season and we are not short of pheasants! These majestic and very colourful birds insist on running all over the roads here so one has to drive carefully in order to avoid running them over.

We know little about the tradition of pheasant shooting but the shooters arrive every other Saturday dressed in their finest tweed, caps, long socks, and neatly polished shoes. They are quite the sight! Along with the shooters come the beaters - people whose sole job it is to make a heck of a lot of noise and dance through the bracken ferns like a herd of elephants to encourage the pheasants to fly. When a pheasant does take flight, the beater hollers to the nearest shooter to alert them to the target. By the looks of it, the pheasants are winning as there seems to be no decline in their population.

Last Saturday, just as the shoot was wrapping up for the day, we decided to take 8 dogs - 6 pups, 2 older dogs - down to a new field, and gather in some sheep from an adjoining field to use for training. Just as we were about to tie up all 8 dogs, two shooters and their dogs came along and opened the gate to the field housing the sheep...and happily let all 6 pups in the gate. Off these 6 ran in total glee at being let into a field full of about 350 lambs. Arrghhhhh! Completely oblivious to any impending mayhem they may have caused, the shooters continued on their merry way, through the field, over the fence and off in search of more pheasants.

At times like this, it is best not to panic! It is a blessing to have six pups who are not going to do anything stupid with sheep. However, picture, if you will, six highly enthusiastic pups all going different ways in a 20+ acre hilly field full of hundreds of lambs who are just as enthusiastic about running away from said pups!

Plan A: One-by-one call off each pup.

First the "fluff-balls," as we call the rough coats Ace, Tui and Kenny. Although they are the youngest, they are also the most obedient (at times!)! Mission accomplished quite easily! Next the bareskins - River, Tina and Sioux. A wee romp around the field and River was quite happy to return with a big grin on his face. Tina came off quite quickly to Kelvin's recall, perhaps because it was a hot day and she is also very obedient... although she was a bit miffed at not having finished the job of bringing in the sheep.

Last was Sioux. Sioux loves to outrun so she had made it to the far end of the field. We had lost sight of her for a while as we were slowly rounding up the other pups. Although Sioux has a pretty good recall, this day was different. No amount of calling "That'll do" brought her any closer to being seen. With an ounce of worry starting to set in, Angie began to run toward the far end of the field where she last caught a glimpse of Sioux. About halfway down the field, over the hill came Sioux - desperately trying to bring about 20 lambs to Angie. Since she was doing a magnificent job of this, Angie decided to let her continue until she was close enough to call off the sheep. These lambs did not make it easy for her but Sioux's determination outmatched the lambs. Job done, Sioux quite happily came to a "That'll do" - very pleased with herself. She'll make a fine work dog, if nothing else!

Fun and games over, no need for Plan B (whatever that might have been), we were now ready to give everyone a turn in the smaller field with the quietest lambs we could find. Next time we'll wait till all the shooters have gone for the day before we repeat the exercise. We learnt one thing about pheasant shooters: Even the finest of tweed wearers have little common sense.

Enough about pheasant shooters. Most of the sheep on the farm have now gone. Some are down on their wintering fields at lower altitudes, some have been sold, and the ewes are away to the hill for about another month prior to tupping time. The only sheep down on the inbye fields are the new tups that were purchased last week, the tups being prepared for the market later this week, a group of hoggs eating off the rape field, and our small group of training hoggs. We are lucky to have plenty of choice of fields to work in at the moment. Another couple of weeks and we'll be back out on the hill gathering all the sheep for a compliance check for the government's records. Perhaps we are amongst a minority who welcome a compliance check...any excuse to go gathering - even if it is just for the purpose of counting sheep.


Left to right: Tui, Jet, Tina, River, Kenny, Sioux and Ace. Impatiently waiting their turn.

Archives:

October 15, 2007: Trials, Trials and more Trials.

October 2, 2007: Back to Work.

September 17, 2007: The International Sheepdog Trial, Ireland

September 12, 2007: Foot and Mouth Again

September 4, 2007: Blackies go to the Beauty Salon

August 25, 2007: Sheep Spa and Nationals

August 14, 2007: Roy goes Gathering for the First Time

August 7, 2007 Foot and Mouth Scare

August 3, 2007 Country bumpkins go to London

July 28, 2007 Whales and Wales

July 21, 2007 Blood sampling ewes.

July 16, 2007 A week of gathering sheep