SHEEP AND DOGS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 235, 17 September 1934, Page 10

SHEEP AND DOGS

Comment on Trials

A correspondent from Brisbane, writing to the •‘Australasian” about recent trials held there, remarks that in his opinion far too many of the dogs bustled and worried, even biting, their sheep, an outstanding exception being the red kelpie that camo third. Most of tho others hunted their sheep ‘until they would have gone up a log to get away.”

Ho wanted to know why all tho noise about banning Alsatians when wo have public exhibitions of so-called sheep dogs pulling sheep over and not being rung off. Continuing, he states that the sooner biting dogs ‘‘get the boot” the better it will be for the sheep industry. If tho cattle and sheep men want to protect their industry from a breed of dingoes that they aro always talking about, let them leave the Alsatian alono for a while and start on some of the sheep dogs seen “working” at

shows. “Why not stick to our Australian Kelpie, instead of those hairy brutes that will, in my opinion, kill the sheep they came to, once they are out of the boss’ sight?” Commenting on this subject we would like to point out that there is a definite rule governing all sheep dog trials concerning dogs biting and unnecessarily knocking about their sheep. Of course, there are some cases when one can hardly blame the dog for doing something drastic. Such a ease was seen at the open sheep dog trials, held in Sydney in June, when J. Moses’ Hayton’s Jot (imp.) was repeatedly defied and charged by the sheep, which proved absolutely unworkable.