SHEEP DOG NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3313, 12 September 1917, Page 45

SHEEP DOG NOTES.

By Tebrok.

"Black-and-white" writes:—"As your columns seem very bare without some notes on above, I'll again try a contribution. Recently, to comply with a request from a friend in the North Island, I looked up my records to get the desired aggregate points that had won the Challenge Shield at "pass trials" of late years, and, getting an interesting inkling therein, I ran back as far as I could obtain information, and in doing so found just what I .thought—viz., complete refutation of the idea that the dualpurpose dog is a mere freak or a mere fluke, and also, further, that a " huntaway " is also something of a freak or a brokendown heading dog. Now, these records tend if anything the other way, and it also shows that "like gets like," or the true sheep dog has only _ to be bred with the necessary brains required for reliability to be capable of any work. In reviewing these records I am afraid I'll have to resort to a little personal history with dogs--viz.: Though 50 years ago, I could get my own sheep in and not out of a mere grass paddock either. It was in the early eighties that I was in possesion of the dog, one, though of old breed, from whence sprang my " black-and-whites," though it was really '79 I took charge of Don. He, like a good many of his stock, though, was of no moment for several years—in fact, I doubt under ordinary circumstances he would not have survived his second season ; but ultimately he would do anything but speak—the impossible, of course. Though his cai'lier years were passed on low country and a good bit among stud sheep, in his tenth year he followed me over possibly some of the roughest country mustered —Lake Ohau gorges, —-and there, as elsewhere, he had no superior, so much so that on three different occasions I was offered £lO for him, notwithstanding that I had just then bought Darkie, winner of second place in Long Pull at the then Kurow trials, at £6, and got jolly well chaffed for such "plunging." I think it was from Mr W. Munro, or was it our still keen, enthusiastic trialster, Mr R. Trotter, I bought the dog, only to lose him like several others, "over tho rocks"? Just fancy some of our present-day celebrities even following one over such country! Had Don an opportunity I am quite certain he would have been just as much at home on a trial course as elsewhere ; but the old fellow had entered on his double-figure course ere I came in touch with a trial, which was the inauguration of the M'Kenzic Collio Dog Club, March, 1890, or. rather, its first annual competition, when my first introduction to such sport was a call to "take the ring" almost before I was on the ground. " With a son of Don's. 10 to 11 months' old Scamp, I succeeded > in putting up what ultimately proved tho winning rim in what I have always considered the best event a club can adopt—viz.. quarter-mile hunt out, head, pull, and yard. The same day with Rover, 13 to 14 months' old. I scored 19 out of 20 points in the half-mile head, pull, and yard. This youngster shortly _ afterwards went south on to Stalval© Station, where, no doubt, he gave a satisfactory account of himself; while Scamp for several years at subsequent _ trials _ succeeded in holding his own. including winning the etiffest huntaway I ever saw set a dog. Then followed his daughter Noble (the best clean-heading and pulling dog I have owned) and Don. sire of Don, who won the yarding, I think, the first year tho late W. 0. Rutherford Judged for the club, and incidentally the

first occasion that gentleman acted as solo judge, for which the writer takes some credit, and for the system obtaining. Rover also won the medal for most points that season. Both those dogs fell early victims to rabbit-poisoning, but, fortunately, not before leaving Rover (another prize that fell all too soon, succumbing to distemper, the third attack, a plain contradiction of the general belief that this fell disease attacks only once). Rover, running two seasons, fell three points behind in the aggregate for most points, his first essay, and the next he notched the grand total of 71, or an average of practically 24 out of 30 per (three-event) run, a performance that has been beaten at this competitions only once; and has it been equalled elsewhere? Royal, too, was another representative of the old-established "Black-and-white * kennel that successfully held his own for several seasons, running in various events, and finally ending his days on Benmoro Station, and, as well as a name he left behind him. a worthy scion to successfully maintain his old kennel name in Flight, whose marvellous career opened as far back as 1909; but it was the following trials that she made her name good, to bo successfully challenged the following year by no less a performer than Mr J. W. Clarke's Gael, a well-known winner in the North Island, as well as throughout JNorth Canterbury. As this brings us up to the season immediately prior to the institution of the Shield, I'll leave further notes for a future issue.