I’m always being asked what’s my favourite thing about my job and suddenly I’m passionately reeling off reason after reason for feeling the luckiest person in the world to have found my calling in life to be farming.
I get to be outdoors surrounded by thriving nature, I’m with my animals every day and I’m living a very fulfilled life, to name just a few things.
However, when I really sit and think about what makes me jump out of bed every day and fills my heart with pure joy and unwavering admiration for the job then there really is only one thing — my dogs and our incredible bond and relationship.
It’s a funny one, sheep farming. I think you can split those involved into two — people who absolutely value the working sheep dog and those who would rather do doughnuts around the field on a quad while simultaneously shouting at family members and expecting them to cover the same ground as a sheep dog — and normally falling out with them in the process.
Now I do get it. Some people aren’t dog people or just don’t know where to even begin in the first place. However, I find it rather sad that once over we would have found at least one working sheep dog proudly part of the team on every sheep farm, to now being pushed out by machines such as quad bikes.
It baffles me that anyone would put more value on a quad bike than the instinctive and intelligent mind of a sheep dog, when in my eyes they are truly irreplaceable and always will be.
I recently welcomed a new member to “Team Red” in the form of a red, rough coated 12-month-old called Mick and he has fitted like a glove.
I always get excited when we welcome a new dog to the farm. No matter what, you can guarantee there will be challenges and lessons ahead with new things to learn, but with this comes a lot of reward, whether that dog is with you for a short or a long time.
But I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a dog since I got Fraser, my first ever sheep dog, my “once in a lifetime dog”, who has his faults but is incredibly special. In the last decade I’ve never found a dog that came close to him, but Mick is very much beginning to fill the hole in the team left by Fraser, who is now (mostly) fully retired.
He’s stylish, powerful, instinctive and brave but not too pushy and has such a level head. He has an endearing personality and is very much a loyal boy.
I think it’s true what they say: “Without a good dog there can be no shepherd, and without a shepherd there can be no sheep.” We are woven together in a way that one part of the team can’t function at its best without the other and I hope we never lose sight of how special that is.
