I would be terrified if I lived down south... crossing a main road would be an adventure... my daughter lives in edinburgh and wants me to vist... erm.. not a chance she knows where i am and Ive got the spaniels!!! ( so she has to come as there is no way id take this lot to edinburgh.. they are very much country dogs.. no road sense, heavy traffic would spook them and Id have to lead walk them ...nightmare!
Id be a maypole by the time they sniffed their way around the pavements..)
Basically I am not a crowds kind of person inverness is a no no specially on a sat. my dogs I love more than most humans and their best interests are always my 1st concern but I have to say I have loads, just loads of friends relations who have working dogs who live outdoors and the dogs are so well looked after and loved. look at my oh ..heartbroken when Don died, gibb the young collie has settled back into fort knox now but spends the evening at the fire or in weird positions and places like upside down watching tv.
its people like racing dog owners and puppy farmers and the like who gaily abandon working dogs or kenneled dogs when they are of no further use to them.
my freind has a greyhound with its ear cut off it was thrown out of a car on a motorway the ear removed to get rid of its tatoo. he now has a loving home and is a great pet but what he must have suffered.
if people up here... I cant comment on other places..have to give up a working dog due to ill health say, they would be very careful about who they gave it to. and remember a working collie is valuable they take years to train.. years... also if the dog itself is too old to work they are usually given a retirement..mostly all our dogs have lived to be old ,one collie was nearly 21 and he started out being outside and as he got stiffer with old age ended up in by the fire, he never messed in the house.
INDIAN RUNNERS are ducks with long necks they all cluster together and run in groups, my sister trials a sheepdog and uses them for practice instead of the sheep.
SHEEP FANKS ane lots of pens with connecting gates, a race ( long thin corridor) and a footbath so you can push the sheep from one field into the main pen push them through into smaller pens shut gates catch the one you want seperate it ..dose them or run them in a circle throgh the pens and through the footbath which has stuff in it to prevent footrot and then there is another gate which they all go out to the main field again. its useful at lambing and clipping and generally for running them through to check on them to ensure all is well. im going to look for a pic I took of gibb the outside collie ..in the house..
I know my dogs live in heaven.. I just wish all dogs could.
