CHAPTER 14

The drought is affecting us – sheepdog school at Binalong is cancelled until next year because the sheep have not got enough feed or water and are in bad condition. This is dreadful, dreadful news. We went this weekend to Michelago and it was nice but I do miss Brad and the nice big pens at Binalong. It is now a very long time since it rained and the temperature has been in the 30s – in October – everyone says we are in for a long, hot dry summer with no rain in sight – there was only 3mm of rain in October instead of the 64mm we used to average. Lots of the farmers here are selling their stock because they cannot afford to buy feed and water for them. It depends on whether we have rain whether we can go to Michelago again – we won’t be going this year. I think my career as a working dog may be over before it has really started.

Anyway, I cannot complain – we had a good time while it lasted and Ailsa says we can probably find a farmer locally who will give us some lessons until school opens up again. The weekend at Michelago was fun although yesterday it was very hot and windy and I kept thinking I could smell bushfires. It is very hard to work when it is so hot and that farm has some very bolshy sheep – one in particular – a ewe with a red tag in her ear gave me a lot of cheek and in the end I had to get in a corner and tell her she would be roast lamb for my dinner with some mint sauce on the side if she did not start behaving better. Robert wanted me to go and work in the big paddock but it was so hot and windy and it is on a hill and the sheep are scattered to the four corners of the paddock, that I was not very keen and this afternoon he let me stay in the small one.

There were lots of new puppies at the school and Robert was telling everyone how to check whether a pup would be a good working dog – it was very interesting but Ailsa says she will never have a puppy because they are too much work and she would rather take an older rescue dog – just as well or she might not have got me. One of my worstest rivals at sheepdog school – a Kelpie called Red Rocket – had six 8 week old puppies and Ailsa said they were very cute but I did not think so. I liked my mate Chance’s daughter better – Fleck is a red merle Koolie and she is very pretty and you should have seen her taking an interest in the sheep – Ailsa took some photos of her for the Koolie Club newsletter. Koolies rule!!!!

Going to the farm gave me a chance to see my friends Harry and Lucinda again – Harry is just four and Lucinda is three – they have both had chicken pox but they are getting better now so they were allowed to come and play ball with me.

Ailsa has ordered some Christmas stamps – they have a photo of me with sheep at the farm at Michelago. She says we can also make some Christmas cards with the same photo on and we can put lettering on the bottom which says “While shepherds watched …” I hope people like them.

Now she has finished having to go to the office for that big job she can work from home and that means we get to go to the dog club and play ball most days - I just love chasing the ball for her and she loves throwing it. Usually we go to the post office and collect the mail, then we go to the nice bakery called Silo and buy some breakfast, then we go to the dog club and share it while we play ball - pretty good.

Guess what, I have a thread on eBay in the Antiques and Collectables discussion group! Bet that surprised you and you would never have guessed. It is for all the dogs of the people who talk on there and there are a lot of us and several of us have been rescued from bad starts in life. There are also some cats and even a snake called Slithers – we were all a bit wary of a snake but he has promised not to hurt us and provided we keep our relationship confined to the internet I think we will all be safe.

CHAPTER 13

In early September something awful happened – Ailsa got sick and ended up in hospital. They let her come home but she was in a lot of pain and not interested in eating and did not go to work. I was very concerned that she was not eating and tried to tempt her appetite with some of my favourite dog biscuits – I even gave her one of my favourite Pedigree Milky Biscuits that they do not sell any more but she was not tempted. After another day she was clearly getting weaker and did not want to get out of bed so I dug up a very mature bone and put it on her pillow so she could chew on it without moving if she wanted to. She got out of bed very fast then but insisted that it was better for me to eat it – so I did. At least it did the job of getting her out of bed.

As soon as she was a bit better Ailsa went back to work and started working long hours on a big job but fortunately she arranged for a new friend, Anja, to come and play with me every day. It was good – she is a good ball thrower.

Ailsa also took a week off and went to New Zealand to see my Grandma and Aunt Kathryn and my cousins and my Uncle Graeme who came to visit all the way from Canada. I wish I could have gone. Peter came to stay with me while she was away and that was good because we had lots of walks and games. When Ailsa came back I gave her the cold shoulder for a week to teach her a lesson although she did bring me a really interesting ball as a present. Anyway, after she went and bought me two new ball throwers (one got broken and she thought we should have a spare) and a couple of new balls, and some dried liver, and some special dog biscuits, I decided to let her have a cuddle again. Hopefully she will take the hint and make sure we go to the dog club a lot to play ball once she has finished these interviews.

One weekend soon afterwards a new friend, Nat, came up from Melbourne and she took some very nice professional photographs of me – I think I look pretty good. She did a mixture of some portraits and some action shots of me chasing the ball. I was really pleased with the result. I think I look pretty glamorous.

CHAPTER 12

A few weeks after Peter came home we went to a farm to play with some sheep and meet the farmer who works dogs and gave us a lesson – his name is Jim Luce. It is at a place called Bungonia which is somewhere near Marulan, the other side of Gouburn about 90 minutes away. It was fun.

We had a wonderful time at the farm– although Ailsa complained about the drive because we had over 30k of dirt road which was full of pot holes and it had been foggy and raining was very slippy. We came home a different way and got lost in the dark as well. Eventually, though, we got home safely which was good because we were both tired and hungry and went to bed as soon as we had had dinner.

Jim is a really nice man and he liked me – he said I was wasted as a canine companion and should have been a farm dog because I work my sheep very nicely. Ailsa pointed out to me that farm dogs do not get roast chicken for dinner, long car rides, or to sleep on a soft bed in front of the heater and said she cannot manage without me though so I am going to stay with her. Best thing of all was that he said we could have private lessons if we wanted so when Ailsa has a free day we can go out just the two of us and have fun with his sheep. She is a bit busy at the moment trying to earn enough money to pay for that tooth but as soon as I see a free day I am going to push for a trip to Bungonia to see Jim. He and his wife are moving soon because the owners have sold their farm to subdivide it so he and his wife are retiring to their own place near Cowra and he says we can go and see him there as well.

Two weeks later we went to another new farm at Michelago on the way to the Snowy Mountains for a sheepdog school with Robert and the sheep. All the people were complaining about it being cold, especially yesterday, but it must have been at least 4 degrees and it was not snowing so I don’t know what they were complaining about – nothing to stop them putting on some more clothing and I had nothing but my fur. I like it down there because apart from the sheep there are also Harry and Lucinda who live on the farm and are my friends. They are about the same age as me and we all like to play and I got to give them both a good licking.

We had lots of fun with the sheep – Robert let them out of the pen and when he and Ailsa followed them I could not see why because there were a lot of fresh ones in the next field so I stayed in the pen and waited for them to come to their senses and come back and get new ones. Then it happened, Ailsa was walking backwards up the hill and she tripped over an old tree root and fell backwards. I rushed up to see if she was OK but she was surrounded by sheep so I told them to back off. Once I was sure she was OK I made it pretty clear that I thought she was wasting good sheep time and should get up and get on with it, so she did although she complained about having lots of bruises on her back for the rest of the weekend. I did not laugh because I am aware she is getting old and if she hurts herself who is going to look after her? I often worry about not having an opposable thumb – life would be so much easier with one. She has a badly bruised back, very badly bruised dignity and pride and a bad headache from banging her head on the frozen ground - she is hoping none of these injuries is serious or long term. She really should be more careful at her age. Without an opposable thumb there is a limit to what I can do to look after her no matter how much I love her.

Imagine my surprise when on Sunday they let the sheep out again when there were perfectly good ones waiting for us – what do they think I am? Do they think I have nothing better to do than chase some tired sheep back down the mountain when we already have some fresh ones waiting? Anyway, Robert let me bring some fresh ones into our pen and then I gave them a good working and he encouraged me to take them backwards and forwards between the two pens so Ailsa could practice working the gates. It must be quite complex because she needed a lot of practice.

CHAPTER 11

In late July Ailsa and I went up to Armidale in northern NSW to meet the woman who rescued me from the farm and to go to sheepdog school. When I came to Canberra to live with Ailsa I flew down in a plane and I did not realise how far away it was. It took us two days to drive up and two days to drive back – over 2000k - and we were both very tired – Ailsa because she was driving and me because I was helping her from the back seat. I carefully pointed out all the cars on the road and the trucks and the caravans and sometimes there were cows and sheep.

We left on a Thursday and drove out towards Yass in thick fog – I thought I would help by barking loudly all the time to help warn other cars to stay away from us. It was foggy nearly all the way to Cowra where we stopped and had an early lunch because the sun had come out. From there we went to Canowindra and then up to Wellington and across to Mudgee. We went to a couple of vineyards and a cheese factory where they let me have some samples as well and I can strongly recommend it and a honey place where Ailsa tried some stuff called mead and bought a bottle.

We stayed in a lovely renovated country house at Mudgee on the way up and back. They have made the old stables into 2 apartments for people travelling with children and/or dogs – other people are allowed to stay in the house. I thought it was wonderful – a huge garden full of interesting smells, cattle and horses and sheep in the adjoining fields, a friendly golden Labrador to play with, home made dog biscuits, and a nice fire to sleep in front of.


The next day it poured with rain but we went up across country through lots of little villages and towns until eventually we got to Uralla just south of Armidale where we were staying. It is a village like Bungendore with old houses and shops. We were tired and went to bed early on Friday night and on Saturday morning we were up early because we had to go to sheepdog school to meet Janine and Spy. It was cool but not very cold and at least it was not raining.

Ailsa had arranged to meet Janine, who rescued me, at the sheepdog school at Uralla Showground and when we got there we saw about 60 people with dogs – I was wondering how to find her when suddenly there she was, my tail went up and started going around in circles (always a sign of happiness) and I dragged Ailsa across to meet her and Spy, then I leapt up and covered her face with kisses. She hugged me and said that I had not changed. I gave her the presents I had bought for her and Spy and Ally her human puppy. The picture above is of me with Janine and Spy. She also has a new Koolie called KC who is quite young. We had a lovely weekend at sheepdog school – Spy is really good – she is more advanced than I am but I think that Janine would have been pleased with my progress. Robert said I am doing really well.

It was so nice that she recognised me after two years and we all ended up in floods of tears. Janine was so pleased to see that I can work sheep well since that farmer was going to shoot me for not working. It was really good catching up with my foster sister Spy as well – Spy has lots of titles.

It was really sad to say goodbye to Janine and Spy but on Monday we had to start our trip back – we had good weather on the way back and stopped at lots of antique shops although Ailsa did not buy much. Just outside Coolah we got caught up in the middle of lots of cows which a farmer was moving up the road – we were there for at least 30 minutes and I tried to help by barking at them to get them to hurry up – most of them just ignored me but one cheeky one pressed his face to the window and mooed at me – the nerve of it. I gave him a good growl. Then the farmer came up on his horse and he was using two border collies and a couple of Koolies to move the cattle so I barked to let them know I had been helping them.

We stayed in the same place in Mudgee which was good and then the next day we came back through Sofala, Bathurst, Blayney and then through Cowra again. I was really glad to get home – I had not realized that driving was such hard work – Ailsa was tired too and we had an early dinner and a very early night. The next morning we slept late but we had to get up eventually because we had to get the house ready because my friend Peter is coming back from Europe on Friday and is going to stay with us until his house is ready

CHAPTER 10

I have to sneak on to the computer while Ailsa is busy doing other things because yesterday she got some Spam addressed to me and now she thinks I have been on the computer too long and going into wrong places because it suggested that I buy something called Viagra to keep my girl happy – if I thought it would keep Ailsa happy I would buy some whatever it is (if she let me have some money) but I am not sure what it is so she might have to settle for Koolie kisses and cuddles.

We spent another weekend at sheepdog school and it was wonderful. It was a bit cold and windy but I did not care although Ailsa was wearing lots of layers. We went out to Binalong again and there were about 60 dogs there including some more Koolies – now we are the third largest group after Border Collies and Kelpies. There were lots of other dogs there though – some Briards and Belgian Shepherds, and a Maremma and some Bernese Mountain Dogs and an Australian Shepherd and some others. Robert, my teacher, was really nice to me and said I could stay off lead all weekend so I got to wander around and check out things rather than taking Ailsa with me – I stayed with her most of the time though because some of those dogs are pretty big and she might have been frightened. I got to play with some of the others too which surprised everyone because I don’t normally do it, but that is because I was frightened when I was on lead because I could not get away so if anyone came up to me I had to frighten them off – when I am not on lead if they are frightening I can run away and hide behind Ailsa. We had lots of goes with the sheep and Robert picked me to go into a big pen and bring out 10 sheep for us to practice on. He was really pleased with what I did – we practised moving some sheep in different directions because that is one of the tests I will be doing soon. He said nice things to Ailsa too.

We met Sue who knows Janine who rescued me from the farm so guess what - the next sheepdog school we are going to will be in Uralla near Armidale in New England in Northern NSW – we are going to see Janine who saved me from the farm and I am going to show her what a good sheepdog I am. I hope she will be pleased with my progress. I just cannot wait to see her and Spy again.