A bitch produced by a Kirkoswald farmer and sheepdog trainer sold for more than £5,700 at Skipton mart.
Listed in the catalogue as being sold by K Bouch, the farmer saw his rising two-year-old black and white bitch Copperthorns Tess sell for the second top price of the day of 5,500gns (£5,775) as live working sheep dog sales made a welcome return to the mart.
It was the highest sale price achieved at Skipton by Paul, who farms 1,000 North of England Mule sheep.
Tess was among a quality litter of seven by Lockerbie breeder Dean Aitken’s Tweeddale Buzz out of Keith’s own bitch Kim.
She will be used as a working dog by her new owner Martin Taylor, of Haslingden, Rossendale.
Keith was also the first handler to take to the trials field when five fully trained dogs were offered for sale.
His newly trained 18-month-old tri-coloured bitch Paige sold for 2,500gns to regular buyer John Roberts, from Betwys-y-Coed, Wales.
The top price at the sale was 10,000gns for a 15-month-old black and white bitch called Kemi Nell from leading Welsh handler and triallist Kevin Evans.
She found a new home north of the border with Dalrymple’s Kenny Donald and will be used on his Cheviot sheep flock and as a potential nursery trials dog.
On a blistering day for both hot dogs and handlers, the new format Skipton sale was staged as a pilot to cater for underlying demand from vendors and buyers who much prefer to do business through live sales rather than timed online auctions.
Although the normal strong contingent of Irish vendors was excluded because of continuing travel restrictions, a smaller than usual – yet still healthy – attendance of potential buyers was supplemented by keen online interest.
The outcome was a very good clearance rate.
