Re: Changes in environment

On Fri, 28 Oct 2005 18:21:33 +0100, Linda Sutherland wrote:
> In message <slrndm4gt7.49k.greymaus@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> greymaus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
>
>> There are stories of having to try to gather sheep on one's own during
>> the week, while the partimers are out only over the weekend. Some of
>> these mountains are covered with fog some days, and rain, of course,
>> can make visibility poor as well, which can be very dangerous.
>
> Are there still people there with the dog-handling skills needed for
> that type of work?
>
> My impression from Shetland is that part-time crofting/farming, plus
> widespread use of stock trailers, means that hardly anyone now does the
> kind of long-distance gathering and driving of sheep that was routine
> 40-50 years ago. As a result, very few younger handlers seem to have the
> ability/confidence to send a dog more than a relatively short distance
> away from them
>

Different sort of mountains, but very few (here at least) that one
could send `away' a dog to get sheep. Most have holes and hollows that
one would not be able to see. Even on green land, I would be inclined
to drive around to see was all right, before sending off the dog. One
old guy who had sheep on Lugduff (over Glendalough) used walk around
the sheep, gradually getting them into a group, before really working
the dog. Shetland would be different, as it would mostly be levellish
land?


--
greymaus


.

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