How I came across Star
I came across Star in a "per chance" way. My friend and shearer, Heinz Krauskoff called me one late fall day. "I've found a couple of Border Collie pups. My sister in Ontario has bought them because her neighbor had a litter of pups and they couldn't sell them". I groaned. My reply was pretty dull, "I'm sort of busy right now, what with getting ready for the move and everything else I've got to do here right now Heinz. Are they registered?" He replied that he didn't really know much about them except that he thought they would be OK..
About 3 weeks passed bye. I was in full swing with my move and dealing with lawyers, hay buyers, loading trailers and just trying to cope. The phone rang. "It's Heinz here. Do you need an extra pair of hands? ....... Oh by the way, those 2 pups turned up yesterday from my sister in Ontario. Are you still interested in one of them? I don't need them both". In my confused state of mind, I could only come up with "No Heinz, I don't really need a pup right now". "They are registered" says Heinz, "I've got a copy of the papers right here, well of the parents anyway". That interested me a little more but waited for a whole line of unfamiliar names and breeding lines. "The parents were both imported from Scotland", he said. "The grandsire on the one side is a dog called Star". A little light went on in my thoughts. There aren't many dogs called Star but Stuart Davidson's Supreme champion was Star. Heinz was saying that he couldn't see how to r\ead all these names out or how to make out the papers anyway. I interupted his confussion. "That's not Stuart Davidson's Star", I asked. "There's an S.L. Davidson listed as the owner", he said. Interesting!! "What other dogs are listed. I helped him pronounce R. Dalziel, (Bobby Dalziel) one of the most successful of Scottish handlers. There was the late Johny Wilson's Peg and Rob, and then some of Davey Shennan's breeding.
"How much are you needing for one of them", I asked. "I can't take it right now, I've just got too much to do to be looking after a pup".
"I'll look after it for you until you have time to take it Martin. It's whenever suits you. I'll pick the one I want and you can have the other one, but they seem very similar and so it will probably the kids who'll end up doing the picking". ........ How could I complain. Plus I had a little pup to start with on my new place. Yup, I thought, it's getting to sound better all the time. |
Starting Star
I picked up Star, from Heinz, in early December, 2010. The barn at my new place was a real mess and so I had to find somewhere for him to spend his days. He was close to 4 months old at this point and was aleady showing great interest in the stock.
Each day I moved the ewes to their pen where the square bales were put out. This was a simple journey through the corrals and into a pen to the north of the horse barn. I was able to set Star up so that he basically followed the ewes as I led them through to the pen. He was very keen and as he was doing this simple task he was basically working on his balance point bringing them to me. It was immediately natural for him and after a few trips he was over happy to oblige.
His maturity as he drove / fetched the sheep on their short trip was amazing. He never once tried to grip, which could have been a sign of timidness in some dogs. However, in complete contrast, whenever a ewe would stop and challenge him by turning and stamping at him, he never flinched. He would stand his ground, never lost contact with the ewe, (this was by simply his stare, his power of his eye) and would wait until the ewe would turn and move away, following the rest of the sheep. Immediately he would continue his fetch. Often the offending ewe would only be some 5 to 10 feet from Star, but this was never a concern for him.
It was a miserable winter, continually snowing and blowing and so this simple task became harder as the path filled in with feet of snow and long, deep drifts. At some point I gave up with Star, just glad to complete the task of chores and then move on with some other job.
I left it too long to start working with him again. Only too long because of all the waisted time when he could have been learning and achieving. After lambing the ewes went out but there were few fields and so there was little or no control as the ewes and lambs would run through the yard, or around obstacles and fences. Not a good way to start working with a young dog. (We have now lots of fences!)
Once the winter came and the calves were weaned, the opportunity came along again to start working with the dogs. Instead of taking the time for Star, I started off with furthering Kits career and so it has only been very recently that I have been able to re-kindle Star's interest, which he never lost.
Working with cows is a fair enough way to start a young dog. They are inclined to move slower and so the young dog may start weaving back and forth, basically running out of space as it's eagerness continues. Sheep would be more inclined to move faster and so a different set of cards would have been dealt.
Star hasn't flinched from what he learnt last winter. Neither has he taken on the habit of weaving as he remains remains steadfast on his balance point, walks up in a very steady fashion and will stop when he feels that he is putting too much pressure on the cows. He continues his methodical fetch. working again, walking up on the cows, at his own discression and when the cows have proceeded. I make a point of trying to learn a young dog to understand how to read the stock and so without continual commands, a young dog can find his or her own pace, keeping sufficient pressure on the stock to continue any progress. I see that now with Star.
All I have done with Star, up until now, is allowed him to work on balance. I will continually allow him to bring the cows to me but then I will move to one side or the other, which will then encourage him to move away from me and back to his balance point. As he moves around the stock, and back to his balance point, I give the commands for that side and so he is starting to realise that the 2 side commands, come bye and Away to Me correspond with his running out on his gather. |
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Starting Star
Star has a steady power and holds his head low as his considers his work. This steady power is his strength in moving his stock.
Balance. It's the natural instinct in a border collie, apart from it's great interest in working stock. Balance is the term used for the gathering instinct where the dog balances the stock to the handler as it gathers. I'm at 12 o'clock, the dog at 6 o'clock and the stock are in the middle of the whole equation, and heading my way.
Star's stength and power comes from his confidence, which will gradually increase, as he moves up on a cow some 30 or 40 times his weight.
Once again, Star using his natural balance and he moves the cows towards me in the gathering process.
Here you can see the steady method that Star uses as he allows the cows to move to me. After moving around the cows, he is now waiting as they start their movement towards me.
This shows the balance. I am walking along and the dog I am using for this work is steadily bringing the ewes to me. Wherever I walk or move to, the dog will go around and start bringing the ewes back to me again. This isn't Star, rather an older dog called Sam. At this function I was asked to give a demonstration of the work of the Border Collie. It was at the Austin Thresherman's Reunion in July 2010. I try to show this during a demonstration and explain to the crowd this natural instinct that is bred into any decent Border Collie. It's by using this incredible instinct that one goes on to train a young dog. But it is with the balance that you HAVE to start.
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