Thousand Wins In Dog Trials

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31380, 27 May 1967, Page 8

Thousand Wins In Dog Trials

Recently Mr R. M. (Bob) Wilson, of Kirwee, had his thousandth win in sheep dog trials. This rare feat is the result of 40 years of trialing and represents the combined successes of 46 dogs. To gain his thousand wins Mr Wilson has naturally won many more places in trials. He estimated this week that his proportion of wins to places would probably be one in four places. Mr Wilson, who is one of the best-known personalities in the sheep dog trial game, has been with dogs all his life. When he left school he started droving sheep all over Mid-Canterbury for his father, who, apart from being a farmer at Riverside, was also a sheep dealer, and in those early days the young Wilson showed that he had that Innate ability to handle dogs. A visit to an Ashburton dog trials gave him his first sight of an eye dog and he was fascinated by them. Subsequently he bought a bitch but she did not work too well and was too soft Then he got Mac—“a little blue and whit) dog” from the late Mr A. Letham, of Lauriston, and it was this dog that gave him his start in trials. He broke Mac in on the road and Mac showed that he was more than a very good leading dog—with him Mr Wilson was able to handle small groups of sheep in the paddock, and he did not realise then the significance of the fact that he could work one sheep with Mac. But Mac was very shy of people and on one occasion when he was droving!

sheep in the Mount Somers district and Mae would not work he tried to sell the dog to people along the way but there were no takers. Mr Wilson made his entry into dog trials at Ashburton in 1927 and in his first trial he won a place with Mac in the local section. Mac went to trials until he was about 12 years Old and with him Mr Wilson won a South Island long head championship at Hakataramea on a course where it is still something of an achievement to win, and in 1936 he won a North Island short head and yard championship and was second in the New Zealand championship in the same event Mac altogether had 49 wins for Mr Wilson at a time when he could not afford the time to attend as many trials as he does today. Mac was only the start of an illustrious line of Wilson dogs and in the main they have been bred by- their owner. Mr Wilson says that he has not been able to get very far with those that he has bought At the same North Island and national championships where Mac had his success in 1936, Fly was third in the North Island championship and also in the New Zealand. Another of his dogs, Miss Mac, who was a daughter of Mac’s, was fourth in both events at that same trial. Fly had no fewer than 65 wins. Of all the Wilson dogs Trump was the most successful, but unlike many other dogs that he sold Mr Wilson had this dog all of his life and this dog had ah impressive 126 wins, including the New Zealand short head and yard in 1956 and 1960. Tip, a huntaway, had 42 wins, Moss, the father of Trump, 41 wins, and Roy 38 wins and so on. With Craig’s success in the long head in 1964, Mr Wilson I has won three national titles.

He has also had six second platings in national championships. He has won some nine South Island championships, two North Island championships, 11 Canterbury championships, including the yarding event at Oxford last week with Craig, three Southland championships, four Otago championships, one Marlborough championship and all told he has won 86 places in championships. ■ « On five occasions Mr Wilson has had the distinction of gaining the possible points in trials—once ' with a huntaway and on the other occasions with heading dogs. The Wilsons—husband and wife—are familiar figures at trials and these days they try to go to every trial they can. Since the ehd of January up to the beginning of this week they had been at' 28 this year. Almost invariably Mrs Wilson is with her husband and he says that she knows as much about them and where a dog goes wrong as he does. Mrs Wilson, too, takes an active part in the feeding and rearing of the young pups-bred by her husband. Their son, Murray, has had some success in local trials but he has not been able to devote the time to trials that his parents do—he is now on his father’s farm. Mr Wilson believes that his knack with dogs is an inherent gift aand no manmade quality. The voice, as the controlling factor in dog handling, he says, is very important. When it comes to training a dog, he says that there is no orthodox way as they all have different streaks in their nature. It is possible to start training some much earlier than others. It is necessary to wait on the dog’s Inclination and not to push

them more than they can absorb in a short'time. There has to be understanding between trainer and pupil. Some dogs, he says, It is necessary to be firm with, but generally speaking those that are easiest to train are easiest to work. Ideally they should have “a give and take” nature. Training a - dog is, to Mr Wilson, an interesting hobby —starting off with a youngster that knows nothing but which before very long is at the top just like climbing up a ladder. In trial work Mr Wilson acknowledges that luck plays a 'significant part—“you have got to have the little green bloke on your • shoulder,” he says—but it is necessary to have the dogs to capitalise on luck. The sheep that he is allocated also govern to a large measure what the trlalist can do, but here again it is necessary to have the dogs that can handle sheep—there are some dogs that sheep never like, he says, and it is necessary to breed dogs that have the touch with sheep. Breeding dogs is no easy task, according to Mr Wilson. Apart from having constitution and good looks, they have also got to have intelligence or brain power and also the right temperament and nature. It is possible to have dogs that do good work at home but which become shy at trials. Others tend to get too highly strung and still others with too much competition get tired of the game.

Mr Wilson does not think that people generally realise how important the sheep dog is to this country. “If we got a virus that wiped out all the dogs in New Zealand this country would realise just how valuable these dogs are,” said Mr Wilson this week. “We would be more inclined then to look up to them instead of looking down to them.”

He believes that dogs are much more intelligent than most people realise. When he was living on the farm he said that they had the dogs in boxes about 200 yards away from the road. On the farm they had two motor cars and a farm truck and to come across the cattle stop at the entrance they had to change down a gear. The dogs, he believes, were able to discern the difference between the sound of the farm vehicles changing down at the cattle stop and the vehicles of strangers coming into the farm.

As to the value of dog trials in the day to day handling of dogs on the farm, Mr Wilson said that it was claimed that dog trials had been started to improve the handling of dogs and stock, and it was his contention that a really good dog was a really good dog anywhere—that a dog that was a good trial dog was also a good dog on the farm.

MR WILSON is shown In the accompanying photograph with a team of his dogs.