Pen came from Gwylon Davies near Aberystwyth at 18 months old. She was by Pantyrodyn Gromit from a bitch line bred to Gorslas Dot. When we went to see her she didn't want to approach us and thought twice about going near Gwylon, too. She hadn't done any formal training but you could see she had a lot of talent. She came to us on the agreement that if we didn't like her we could return her. On the journey home she bonded completely with Tim and they never looked back. She was a wonderful bitch who would work all day and come back for more. She was a very typey Welsh Sheepdog who had power and a lot of outrun and loved big groups of sheep and anything that was a bit of a challenge.

Pen's first litter with us was sired by Cwmbyr Cled. There were 11 of them and nearly all male; they wanted to work sheep as soon as they could walk. We kept a dog pup, Wilden Ranger, who grew into a handsome fellow and a good worker with cattle and sheep. He sired a couple of litters here and then we sold him locally as a sheep dog. He needed more regular work than he was getting with us.

The next litter was by Cwmhenog Taff, an excellent cross that brought together the best of both parents - they still had Pen's energy together with a calm level-headedness from their sire. We kept a tri bitch from this litter, Wilden Dottie bred 2 litters for us and was shaping up to be a lovely worker when we sold her, again to a local shepherd. We used her brother Skipper at stud an another, Madog, was exported to the USA

Pen's last 2 litters were by Wilden Big Bill, a son of Ranger's from Wilden Mattie. This cross produced amongst others Wilden Smasher, our stud dog who will be here for life, an excellent type with a lot of his mother about him, and Suzie, a tri bitch also retained, a year younger. Wilden Beau, another super, steady dog from this litter was sold locally. Both siblings qualified for their breeding certificate in 2010 and one of Suzie's first litter was exported to Alabama to work cattle.

Below you can watch videos of Pen at work. The first shows her holding up 450 ewes in the middle of the field so that Tim can deal with various problems in individual sheep in the flock. The second shows her being a mobile forcing gate holding the back of the ewes as they go up a race for treatment.

HOME