Trained sheepdogs and uncooperative sheep were the focus of a Metchosin event this weekend.
The Metchosin Sheepdog trial returned last year after a five-year hiatus and took place again this weekend. The event pits sheepdogs in nursery, pro-novice, and open categories, against sheep that aren’t “dog broken”.
One handler at the event, Lorne Landry, said he goes to as many sheepdog trials as he can, although there aren’t as many now in B.C. as there used to be.
“There’s not that many sheep [farms] around B.C. that enable trials to happen,” Lambry said. “When I started in the early ’90s there was probably about a dozen trials in B.C. and now we’re down to about five. That means you travel to them because you want to do it.”
The event organiser, Brian Domney said the Metchosin event tends to be popular, because most sheepdog trials take place with dog broken sheep.
“A lot of sheep dog trials in North America use what are known as dog broken sheep, which means they’ve been moved around by dogs a lot, they’ve been trialed with dogs a lot so they know the drill,” Domney said. “These sheep haven’t reached that point. They’re feisty they’ll stand off, we’ve had sheep go after dogs.
“The handlers regard the Metchosin Sheepdog trials as an ultimate test of their dogs.”
Barb Anderson is a relatively new handler, and said this course is different than ones she’s used to running her dog Jim on.
“[Jim] is a novice dog, and I’m a fairly novice handler,” Anderson said. “There’s not a lot of margin for error, so you have to push them enough so they move, but can’t pressure them so they take off, so it’s challenging.”
The Metchosin Sheepdog trial runs July 28 and 29 on the corner of William Head Road and Swanwick Road.