Border collies

Tibby Dog

My first border collie was given to me while I was still living and working in Exeter. The farmer who gave her to me explained that she was 'too neurotic to make it to the top'. He trained sheepdogs for trials. She didn't seem at all neurotic and accompanied me around town without a lead, only crossed roads when given permission, knew which shops to enter and which to sit outside. However, he was right to some extent as I saw one day when we were heading to the town centre and suddenly she looked at the gatepost by a gate at one of our neighbours and announced in dog silent language, 'Can we cross ove, please? I don't like the look of that post.' So we did and on the way home she showed no fear of the same post. Another day she looked at a totally different garden entrance and repeated he request. I never saw any other sign of neurosis and decided that she was just a bit too intelligent, something that is often a quality of collies. She had an amazing vocabulary. I was teaching languages at the time and used to take her with me to evening classes so that she could demonstrate s few Russian sentences.

I was also running an international centre and Tibby was great friends with all our residents.

One day I was making the dinner and a new student who was feeling a bit lost as he didn't yet know anyone there was wandering about the dining room and talking to her. Then I heard,

'Excuse me, what is name dog, please?'

Busy with the dinner I answered absent-mindedly,

'Tibby Dog,'

Silence.

Then 'Ah, I understand. Is first name Tibby. Is family name Dog.'

Quite right and thus she was always known.

The picture on the right is Tibby Dog on holiday with me on the Yorkshire moors. I don't know what she made of the notice but she clearly did not find it threatening.

Tibby on holiday with me on the Yorkshire moors. I doubt she could read the warning but perhaps she understood the picture.

Frosty Dog

When I came to Wales, having lost Tibby Dog in her old age, I got another collie from the RSPCA.. Now she really was not just neurotic but terrifoed of everything. She had been living wild and was caught by someone and taken to the RSPCA who were sure she had been very badly treated. She gradually got used to me but it took six years before she would come out of her basket for a biscuit while anyone else was present in out sitting room. She was a lovely dog and came to like having a nice home but often dug her way out and vanished for hours, presumably missing her old haunts. At first I was terribly worried in case she might molest sheep but she never did and all my neighbours got to know her -- in the distance, of course, as she would not go near them.

One useful quality she had from my point of view was that she became an excellent duck dog and as soon as I said,

'Get ducks, Frosty,' she set off, rounded up the ducks and put them in their house.

Teifi Dog

Teifi Dog was my only non-rescue collie. My friends' excellent working collie took a little time out to get herself pregnant and Teifi was one of the resulting puppies and was given to me. He was not only very intelligent (most collies are) but also liked nothing better than learning and cooperating with humans, in his case me. While he was still a puppy he used to send his mother postcards and my friends said whenever I visited, 'You ought to write a book.' To which I replied,

'I haven't got time.'

However 12 years later after Teifi had died I decided they were right and set about it. The book is called 'And Thereby Hangs a Tail,' rather a continuation of our joke. In fact I have written several books since and Teifi's one sells more than the others. He would be flattered if he knew that.

It is buyable from me from my book page below.

Unfortunately I have not yet mastered the book page.

While I still had Teifi-Dog I went one day to visit a lady who found homes for dogs. I wasn't looking for a dog and anyway coudn't stop in the morning as I was driving a friend to fetch a spare part for someone's car that he was fixing. On the way back we called in to ask how the morning had gone. Sue was out in the lane explaining to a gentleman how to explain to his wife what was what with looking after a golden retriever they were adopting. She invited us in for coffee and to my amusement there was a big notice on her glass kitchen door saying 'NO DOGS BEYOND HERE'. But beyond the door I could see several dogs including a very small grey sheepdog tied to the aga. Sue told me she was terrified of everyone as she didn't work and had spent all her life tied to her kennel and never met people.

'She only lets me touch her,' said Sue, 'But will you go in and see if you can get to know her.'

So I did and we got on all right. Most dogs do like me. It's mutual.

Anyway we went home and I felt so sorry for her that I went back the next day and got her. I called her Wispy as she was such a little wisp and she fell in love with Teifi and followed him everywhere. She features in his book. In the picture on the right she is in the forest with Teifi.

Frosty and me fetching some ducks.

Teifi Puppy at about 10 weeks

Grown up Teifi waiting for me to throw a stick for him to retrieve. Swimming in the river was his favourite hobby.

Wispy in Gwyder Forest with Jess.

After Teifi died I got a rescue sheepdog from some owners who worked and had no time to look after her. Jess was a beautiful and well behaved dog and some consolation for missing Teifi, but she didn't write books. Sh was very beautiful and very photogenic. The moment she noticed we were about to go anywhere she sat in the hall posing for a photo. See on the right here,

Actually at that time I had several border collies for various reasons. One beautiful blue merle girl I boarded for some time for Sue Yorke, who was rather overloaded with dogs. Bess was enormously energetic and very much too much for me as I am arthritic and not energetic. Fortunately eventually she went to live with friends of mine who had previously lost a collie called Bess and who fell in love with Bess. That meant Bess was happy, their other collie was happy, they were happy and I was happy. Bess used to stay with me for her holidays as her owners used to go to a hotel in the Lake District where th hoteliers used to treat Ben as an honored guest. AS Bess was such an energetic lady they thought that maybe the two canine visitors might be too much. Bess didn't mind as she enjoyed her holidays here and Teifi was always please to see her as he had known her since he was a puppy.

Bess with Ben at her new home. They are awaiting a trip to th forest.

For a couple of years I also had a very elderly farm collie who was completely deaf and also senile but quite delightful. The friend from whom I had acquired Teifi as a puppy was at one time looking after a neighbour's elderly dog for a while as the said neighbour was on holiday. One evening he went to check on the neighbour's dog and found him, he thought, wandering in their yard. He called him and opened their barn to let him in and feed him but discovered that the dog was already in the barn and the other one was a stray. As all Ted;s dogs, both pets and working lived in the house he didn't really want another so he left him with the local vet and asked me if I would collect him and adopt him. So I did. He was irresistable but a bit of a liability as whenever he saw a path in front of him while out on a walk he always went down it in whichever direction he was facing. As he was deaf he couldn't hear me calling him and I couldn't run up mountain paths to retrieve him although as soon as he saw me he would be delighted until he happened to wander off in a different direction. Fortunately I managed to train Jess to follow him and bring him back.

Being happily satisfied with Jess and Wispy I didn't really need another dog.

However, one day I was in the village post office to collect my pension and our post master asked me,

'Do you rehome dogs?'

''No, I sometimes do a visit for the local RSPCA but I don't actually do the rehoming.'

'Well,' he said, pulling a scrap of paper out of his pocket, 'you see there's a farmer got a dog he doesn't want to keep but also doesn't want it put down.'

Like an idiot I drove to the man's farm and asked about the dog. he let it out and it seemed friendly and was very beautiful. It didn't seem to want to fight Jess or Wispy and seemed, in fact quite harmless.

So, in a weak moment I said I'd see what I could do and loaded him into my van. 'I suppose I could house-train him and find him a home,' I thought and drove home. When I got there I attached the rope the farmer had left on his collar to the shed where my neighbour Gareth used to leave his dog when he went on holiday. Then I turned to the van to take out my shopping. When I turned back with the bags there was no sign of the beautiful dog who had chewed straight through the rope. .

Being an idiot I had not asked the farmer why he did not want him. But I soon found out. I could see sheep rushing around in the field between my house and the river with the dog in full tilt after them. So I went down there and it took me nearly an hour to catch him. He finally chased a lamb into the river and I had to paddle in thre and retrieve the lamb with one hand and the dog with the other. I deposited the lamb on the bank where it shook its wool and went in search of its mother and I hauled the dog all the way back to my house by his collar. From the look in his eyes I could see he had no good intentions towards sheep and was therefor going to be a liability. I substituted the rope on the shed with a chain and that was where he slept for several weeks while I set about training him. He was quite trainable, even enjoying obedience lessons, but I could see the training would never make him sheep safe so, as where I live there are sheep everywhere, clearly I could not find him a home locally. So he spent his life at Bodyfuddau with me and my other dogs but went for walks only on an extending lead and was never let of outside the garden. I called him Dovey, after the river, as I felt he couldn't share a river name with Teifi even though Teifi was no more. And most importantly the garden acquired a strong metal fence. Dovey's saving grace was that he didn't know how to jump fences.

He as a danger to sheep all his life but never showed the slighted interest in other animals, except cats, which he loved and would watch one happily for hours while it slept.

Cymro during his extra two years.

Dyfi in my garden on his best behaviour after his obedience lesson.

Dyfi eying Gareth's sheep, firmly attached on long lead.

When I'd had Dyfi about a year and become very fond of him and he had become attached to me although, although I had three pet sheep of my own and he would come with me on his lead to feed them in the winter and seemed to feel they were not really sheep, just stood there looking as if he was on duty. Anyway, there was a local dog rescue place that was about to stop homing dogs but had one very small collie left needing a home. So in another soft moment I went and collected her. She was black and white with little white spots on her face so they had named her Silver and I kept the name.

The first week I had her I took all the dogs down the lane for a walk (me on mobility buggy). Silver at first was afraid of the buggy as it squeaked while reversing and she waited in the farmyard to greet me on my return. After a few days she got a bit braver and came along with me and Dyfi and Jess. Then one day she ran ahead and as I came into the farmyard I saw she had gone under a gate and was looking at some sheep. Being still very nervous about Dyfy's habits I shouted at her and she hid. I had to call her quietly and she duly came to me. The next day she did the same again. There were the sgheep in a group and Silver standing watching them. This time I knew better and told her quietly she was a good dog and to come to me. She started towards m and then noticed one ewe over by the fence.

She gave me a very apologetic look as if to say, 'Excuse me but I just have to do something,' And she went over to the ewe, apparently had a quiet word with it, it joined the others and Silver came back to me and for the rest of her live never showed any interest at all in sheep.

In her early days she took a long time to get to know people ans if anyone she did not know was in the house she would go through the fence and hide in the rushes in the field till they left. However, in the end she made friends with all my friends, who all loved her.

Silver in my garden looking a bit suspicious about a passing walker.