You know, keeping cattle in fields is largely a confidence trick. We put up fences and mostly that makes them stay put, but they are quite thick skinned and they weigh most of a tonne and if they get upset, they will go, one way or another. This day we are trying to move our suckler cows and calves and they have got stuck in a corner of the field with a particularly weak fence. I have visions of them going through it and my spending the next hour trying to contain excited cattle in the next field (not fenced for cattle) to stop them going to the neighbour. Now cows with calves at heel are particularly easily upset, filled as they are with protective mothering instincts and I don't know how we are going to get them out of the corner and on their way without causing damage, short of give up and come back later. "Oh, Heini, NOW what are we going to do?" Heini, as always, has the answer. She puts herself in leading dog mode (you can tell by her body language) and draws them out behind her. They follow. When there is sufficient gap between the cattle and our rickety fence, she switches into driving mode, slips round behind them and pushes them on. The whole process takes a couple of minutes. I am glad that she has trained me to work with her, rather than the other way about. If she just did what she was told to do, her inventiveness would have never seen the light of day and time and time again she proves that she knows what she is doing far better than I do. It would never have occurred to me that the cattle would follow her and even if it had, I do not have the language to ask her to do that.

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One of the most frustrating jobs with indoor livestock is bedding down. You see, for sheep and cattle, it is bed and breakfast all in one shot, and you try rolling one of these things with a couple of dozen ewes behind it convinced they will never see it again if they don't eat it NOW - or worse still a bunch of cows who think it is a glorified football ('ere, Daisy, on me 'ead mate). Heini and Mattie both saw the difficulty and without being asked, either would defend my bale from all comers, clearing a path in front for me to roll it. If you haven't tried this, you will not understand just how grateful you are when your dog takes on this task!

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Heini is a born teacher. She has taught me more than I care to relate about handling stock, in which she is definately a Master and I am an amateur. One day I was having trouble with a young dog. We had about 50 ewes in a 5 acre field and he was off and on the work; I could not get him going properly and was getting more and more frustrated. I start most young dogs in training working round the sheep and bringing them to me as I walk away (backwards), but even this most elementary task seemed beyond me. We tried and tried for 10 minutes, getting nowhere fast. In the end Heini came in beside me, took my place and led the flock and my young dog, now working properly in perfect flanks, a lap around the field and back to me. She sat down by me and said "There you go. What's your problem?". I would have to say, I was very much humbled. It was the first time I had seen any working dog acting as leading dog, something I know Welsh Sheepdogs were reputed to do but was beyond my experience. I really wish I had my camera to show you what I mean, the video would have been priceless.

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One thing that always impresses me about these dogs is their dedication to their people and their complete transparent honesty. They study your body language and movement and try to work out what the job is so they can get on with it, which allows them to work with a minimum of command and often creates a very strong bond with their person. This moment says it all. Here are four young pups playing hide and seek. Oonagh is not big enough to command even if it had occurred to her as a possibility, but she is very much leader here and effortlessly has their attention. She is counting and the three four-legged ones are eager to play along with her game, whatever that happens to be, but they fundamentally don't understand what they are supposed to do. Hiding is not an honest straightforward act, and these young things are as honest and straightforward as the day is long. So, they do the only thing they can do, which is give her their full attention and wait for whatever she wants them to do next...provided it is not hiding!

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Ah, Mattie. Now she was a one of a kind. She was the first dog I had had that would catch a lamb for me, and that is a boon for a busy shepherd at lambing time. Even a three-legged lamb can run a lot faster than a person, but a good dog can catch and hold a lamb without harming it, so it can be treated if it is sick and released back to Mum. Mattie soon learned what we were up to. At first I had to show her which lamb I wanted. As she got practiced at it, she would draw my attention to lambs that needed catching even if I had missed them. The bottom line when it comes to dogs is that they are predators and they are programmed to spot an easy kill and they do this far better than a human; their instinct homes in on a sick one straight away. Mattie's skill allowed me to treat problems early and she saved many lambs for me.

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One of the amazing things a dog can do is protect you. In this respect you can sort the wheat from the chaff, because a dog confronted with what it sees as a threat will be either hiding behind you or in front of you and ready to lay down its life. Heini has always been the latter; she will put her butt against my leg and woe betide anything or anybody who threatens to do me harm. When I had Oonagh she transferred her attentions to this newest member of our pack. This was a blessing for me as working round the farm I would carry Oonagh in the backpack and put her down if I needed to do something like mend a fence. At this point H would take over guardian duties and glue herself to the backpack until I picked it up again. This picture is of H giving the evil eye to the cows who were getting closer that she thought was acceptable. Any cow unwise enough to come closer than about 10 yards would be sent packing with a nip to the nose. I trust H implicitly and she has never let me down.

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I will never forget the early days of having our finishing lambs on tack next door. They were half a mile away and to get to where they were, which was two fields conjoined by a gate, one had to walk across our front meadow to the road gate, up the road, turn left past the buildings, up a length of half-fenced track to the field gate. Every week we had to draw off the ones that were fit to sell, for which we brought them in to a building in next door's yard. The first time we did this, I had to walk with H to the gate between the two fields and send her on her outrun from there. The next time, I sent her from the buildings. The third time, she went of her own accord from our front meadow and had them waiting by the gate when I finally rolled up to open it. No word had passed between us, but she knew what the job was and didn't need me to do it, except as gate operator.

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As a Welsh Sheepdog owner amongst a country full of Border Collie owners, I often hear tales of 'I would have a Welsh Sheepdog but they won't....'. To be honest these days I just smile and let it alone, because I haven't yet found a job that a Welsh Sheepdog won't do. One of the things that gets cited is outrun. Heini would clear a patch of arable land we used to graze over winter - 200 acres, 5 fields, 500 yards, 500 ewes. Pen would do the same for Tim on our banks, similar distance, 90 acres, 6 fields 4 of which were totally out of sight over the top of the hill. Those are the biggest outruns we have at our disposal here, if you don't count the half mile mentioned above. Normally though, I would walk with the dog as there is often something you should be dealing with that the dog can't do, like a lamb with its head stuck in a fence, so whilst they can do it if asked, big outruns don't feature highly on our agenda. So, if you prefer a Border Collie that is fine, but don't come to me telling me what my dogs won't do because they they likely do that and a lot more besides.

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