learnt how to back sheep as our employment circumstances changed and we needed to switch from cattle dogs to sheep dogs. Bingo just adapted. When Guy started sharpening his knives on the stone before he killed on Friday afternoons, smarty pants Bingo went and put the killers in and waited at the gate. Her last pup was a single bitch called Hilda. Hilda was born via caesarean after Bingo had gone 67 days. I still remember the Vet cautioning me not to get too excited as most likely the pups had died, his instructions were to save the bitch, as Bingo belonged to our daughter and she was away at boarding school at the time and no one in the family was going to ring her and tell her, that Bingo hadn’t made it. He was astounded to reveal a single pup, still alive, weighing 1.5 kilos with teeth and one eye opened. That was our Hilda. He said to me after the ordeal that none of his Irish wolfhound pups were ever that big at birth. Bingo would have us awake all-night as she proceeded to wash the pup after feeding, Bingo never got the hang of the fact that she had only one, so she would roll Hilda around and around and around the whelping box as if she was cleaning all six. The other myth is that you only get one good dog in your lifetime. Well, that’s just not true. Guy’s motto is “you get what you give”. We have been breeding dogs since 1983, we are still learning. For us the association method is our first go to method, we use patience and time. Many handlers become anxious if a dog doesn’t start early, some really need to have the time, the best gift you give your dogs is confidence it’s the same one you give your children. Dogs like children need to mature and their maturation rates are all different. You create the right environment, food, shelter and opportunity and they will reward you with their loyalty and willingness to learn. One of the things that really stood out to me in the early days, when researching pedigrees was how good the Australian lines were. They blended well with the imported ISDS and ABCA dogs and the new blood always
infused more vigour into the breed. Further it must be said that the older Australian Border Collie which was most likely from imported stock added valuable genetics to the working dogs we all enjoy today. For us in particular it was that mix of good Australian lines, like Bengeo crossed with Roma, it gave the dogs intelligence and stamina and finally mixed with imported blood to keep the gene pool strong and healthy that resulted in a working dog that suited both sheep and cattle and had the temperament to live with the family. That is how the idea of the Registry started as the various state bodies were not strictly a Border Collie registry, which was fine. I wanted to know more about the dogs that came before and why they were so prevalent through the bloodlines. My respect for the early handlers and breeders was and still is immense as they seriously knew the value of a good working dog. In our early days when researching pedigrees the prefixes
AWSDM
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