Another fantastic weekend with like minded people working to hon their dog training skills. This school was specific for 3 sheep trailers however the concepts of training are not that different. Bill takes things to the next level to fine tune and get the most out of your dog.

We had a few young pups which Bill was able to show people how to start. The rest of the pack where experienced trailers in 3 sheep, utility and yards. It was great to see a couple of yard dog trailers coming to see what else they could pick up to work on their dogs with.

The morning started a bit fresh but the sun came out for some beautiful days.

It was a nice change to see the Black and White Collies out showing their stuff

Up and coming stock dogs

Just some of the Kelpies that came to show their stuff.

Great bunch of people who have a sound partnership with their dogs. Some of these dogs as well as hitting the trail ground work a full days work. Others are city dogs that have owners who work hard to work with them on what they are breed for. Respect to all.

Bill going through some of his training and education steps. I found it really interesting when he describe what he does to get his dogs ready physically and mentally for a trail. Some of his advice that I found resonated with me.

Work with a dog that suites your personality.

Look at the weakest link and work on that.

Control yourself

Precision on stop, sides, depth, cast, small sides etc.. Don’t accept 2nd best.

Paivi Torronen Thanks Donna. Enjoyable weekend that covered lots of information. Has given me some things to work on with the dogs, here’s hoping that I get it right!! Hopefully this spring I’ll get the time to get back in the swing of things and get out on the trial grounds again.

Tsuey Hiu Big shoutout to Donna Lindley and Owen for hosting yet another awesome seminar and to Bill Davidson for his instruction and insightful advice on how to improve our dogs’ skills and what to focus on in each dog. Great to see & meet all the teams at the seminar. Here’s to all of us successfully tackling our list of “to-dos

Ted Mulry Thank you, Donna and Owen, of the invitation to attend the Bill Davidson school. Bill provided the ingredients to use in preparing a dog for trialing, and a very helpful insight into evaluating our and the dogs performance along the way. The weekend was very enjoyable. I learned heaps of good stuff. Now to put it all together!

Jessica Kimpton Thanks guys! Was a fantastic weekend, learned heaps

What a tremendous weekend with Gary. We had mainly stock people this school and the caliber of the dogs was up there. Four local people attended which was great. The rest travelled from Oberon, Gilgandra, Sydney and Victoria.

Although we had one young dog and beginner handler there was more time spent in the paddock than the training yard. This meant that people could see first hand how basic training moves out to a bigger area and how getting the basics right effects everything else from there. Everyone thought they had a stop on their dogs until it was really put to the test. This was an eye opener for some who have been working dogs for years and could see the difference between a good solid stop and a half stop.

Tail to the rail was a term I had not heard Gary say before and it was a ping moment for me.

Vic with his young dog. Sensible man having a Collie. 🙂 Vic is just starting out and found the school very helpful to get on the right foot with his dog. Although they where beginners he already had a good bond with his pup and they did really well.

Sarah is a contract stockwomen and has Koolie & Koolie Xs. Best behaved Koolies I have seen. She has a strong bond with her dogs and they would do anything with her. What a super mum she is too. When she said she was coming with a baby I was a bit hesitant but she proved me wrong. Her little girl is adorable and I would say is going to be a dog trainer like her mum when she grows up.

The Boys from Vic. Nicest fellows. They had a good sound pack of dogs and really got a lot out of the school. They have been working stock for years and want to get into trailing more, to do that they have recognized that to compete you need a well polished dog. Something that is hard to do when you take your dogs to work every day and have no trainer sheep. They saw the importance of having sheep that will work with you when training your dogs.

Hat’s off to Tanya. Hubby got this dog and then did nothing. Tanya’s stepped up to train the dog and get into trailing. She did a awesome job on the weekend. As her and her dogs confidence grows she’ll progress well I am sure.

Cass is on property and has this ripper of a pup. Look out for her in the future.

Sharon is a return customer and loves working with Gary. She has come a long way from her days in Sydney. She now owns property locally and is running sheep and cropping. Another like minded person living her dream.

George is a local fellow and has been working dogs for years. Stockman who was looking to fine tune his dogs and continue learning.

Diana has two large stations that she runs with her hubby. She is determined to get her dogs well started so she can work with them on the property.

Mark is from Sydney and is living his retirement dream traveling to trail and work his dogs.

A big thank you to Gary for coming again. I am glad we could laugh about my dog chasing ability.

Link to pups below

DCs Madra Pups DOB 24/06/2022

ETA 27th June. Ready to leave end of August.

1 Pup sold. 3 pups available.

Pregnancy Tracking Progress	Diet, treatment, and activity
Ember and Jet successfully joined on the 25th April	Embers diet at this stage remained the same. She is on Cop Rice Puppy food the same as all our other dogs. With a weekly bone thrown in. Ember was wormed on the 26th April She is still working stock at this time and having afternoon runs with the other dogs to keep her fit for labor.
24th May on ultra sound Ember was seen to be carrying 4 pups	From this week on Ember had a small portion of mince added to her kibble. She was wormed on the 24th again and given a flea treatment. The vet recommended a Calcium supplement also be added to her diet for optimal Uterus health. Ember has been getting 5mls into her evening meal. She is still working stock at this time and having afternoon runs with the other dogs to keep her fit for labor.
Week 5	Ember is starting to show and her nipples are getting ready for pups. Mince potion in her food has been increased as she is telling me she is getting hungry. Ember is having afternoon runs with the other dogs to keep her fit for labor.
Week 6	Ember has ballooned out. She is having afternoon runs with other dogs. She is now in her whelping yard and given time away from the other dogs as their activity is getting too much for her. She has been getting chicken carcass as extra natural calcium which she loves.
Week 7	Ember is still having her afternoon runs with other dogs. She is getting large with pups.
Week 8	17th June Ember was wormed again. She is heavy with pups and they can be felt to be moving. She started to lactate on the 19th June. She is comfortable in her whelping den and yard. She has started to show signs of nesting and is eating smaller portions of food through the day. Puppy biscuits and chicken mince. She continues to have 5ml of calcium with her evening meal.
Pups due 27th June	Day 59 23rd June- Ember is nesting more. She is guarding her den from the other dogs. She is still eating. Chicken carcass, chicken mince and puppy biscuits. Calcium once a day. Temperature 98.8 F Afternoon Day 60 24th June Temp 98.6 F Morning 2am 98.1 morning time 6am – Didn’t eat breakfast. 98 7:30 am First pup 8am

About Our Dogs

Goes without saying our dogs are intelligent, they are Collies after all. Our dogs will work with you, they are easy to train in that they are biddable and want to please. They are catchy and hold type dogs. We keep high to medium drive dogs so have a variance in softer paddock type dogs to harder type dogs.

Coefficient of Inbreeding 1.96%

Jet DNA tested for CA (LING03) , CA (VMP1), Collie Eye and TNS with negative markers.

Ember DNA tests Results pending

Jet has a lot of drive. He works in the yards and paddock. He is happy in both as he just wants to please. No bark, but will give a clean bite on the nose if needed. He does back and doesn’t mind getting into tight spots. I have tried him on cattle which he is happy to work as well as sheep.

Ember is also high drive she would work all day if you let her. She is a softer paddock type bitch. Doesn’t like anything getting away from her. She was a bit touchy to train as she doesn’t like getting in trouble but also knew what she was doing so over rode every chance she could. I wouldn’t say she’s a yard dog but she dose like the excitement of the yards and will give a nip on the nose if need. Although not a clean bite and needs encouragement OR permission to do it.

Previous Litter Updates

Borderville Maddie – Sheep

She’s going fantastic she balances the sheep beautifully. She is such a gorgeous girl and so good at paddock work and loves a bit of yard work but I can’t wait to put her in a trial she just absolutely loves to please and is a dream to train!

Update January 2025 – Bitten by snake late 2024. She was going absolutely fantastic as a paddock dog she would do everything but unfortunately while she was working she was bitten by a snake and didn’t make it. She was such an amazing dog and was extremely easy to train
She had so much ability and was working up to our next main dog. N. Uildriks Canberra

DCs Madra Ivy – Cattle

She’s a gem, I just love her to bits she is so trainable.
She’s just an easy dog, has never barked in her cage, is very clean, I let her out and she follows me everywhere, she’s no hassle it’s great. So very pleased with Ivy’s progress. K.Wolgast QLD

Borderville Shelby – Cattle

Shelly is a nice bitch to have in the team. She will work all day from paddock to breaking weaners. She had a lot of eye as a pup and was slow to start but is starting to hit her straps now, give her another 6-12 months and there won’t be much she can’t do on the station. NSW M.Perez

DCs Madra Pepper – Pet

She is doing well. Pepper goes for about a 3-4km daily walk and plays at the dog park 3-4 days a week. She is very social and loves adults, kids and babies. She is very clever and is given 2 sentence commands which she understands. She is usually walked off lead in the bush at the back of owner’s property and is well behaved. She is walked off lead on main road and knows to walk on the foot path and watch out for driveways. She loves watching birds and will purposely leave some breakfast for them each morning so she can then go chase them.

At the dog park, she socialises very well with all dogs, loves running and herding all the kelpie crosses.

She gets embarrassed if she is dirty, muddy or going to the toilet, she would take herself away from prying eyes.

If I say cuddle, she comes and sit between my legs and put her head against my head. Sometime when I am stressed, she senses it and just comes and sit next to me or put her head on my legs

In the evening when we watch tv, she sits on the couch between her adult owners and  stretches out completely – she is quite long – and wants me to rub her tummy and pet her behind her ears.

When we do go out, I tell her job is look after the house. And she does but I think usually she just sleeps by the door and wait for me to come home.

She plays well with her child owners. They all adore and love her, give her cuddles a lot but she has a main person in the house.

She has a beautiful personality, when owner take her for walks around the neighborhood now, all the kids and neighbor’s recognize her and want to pet her. She does jump and give people a kiss.

Borderville Prim-Rose – Sheep

Prim is going great, loving life on the farm. She is showing lots of interest in the sheep but we are just working on getting some control first. She is a lovely natured pup, very happy with her. L. Stass NSW

DCs Madra Peppy – Sheep & Cattle

Peppy is doing great and loves working the cattle and sheep.
Does great with the geese as well lol.
Honestly we couldn’t get the sheep anywhere we wanted before Peppy.

He has a very wide cast, great response to commands and will willingly work for hours. He has a very friendly calm nature and is extremely obedient. Owners are so happy with him that they are doing a joining with him this year.

Nipper Brown – Sheep

Ross is super impressed with Nipper. He’s been doing a wonderful job. Today (4th July 2022) he very capably and patiently moved a mod of 1200 ewes with their lambs across serval paddocks and over a large distance. Ross’s feedback is that he is a good dog with excellent natural instinct.

Nipper has grown nicely. He appears to  have now matured and overcome  his extreme boisterousness. Nipper is quite settled now when he is allowed to roam around the house yard, and doesn’t bother the chooks.
He is a very happy fellow, who is developing some very gentle ways with our young grandsons. He is a very gentle dog with our grandsons, he’s just a bit big for them currently. Thanks you so much for our handsome dog, who has begun to earn his keep. L& R McDonald VIC

Borderville Bonnie – Sheep

I am really happy with Bonnie. She’s will keep stock together no matter what. Has nice natural distance in the paddock but can also get up nice and tight in the yards. She will back for me and likes the excitement on the yards. I have gotten her to bark but it is a high pitch bark like her mothers that I don’t like so I have given up teaching her to push with bark. She can give a good clean nip on the nose if needed.

Borderville Ben – Sheep

Owen is really happy with Ben. He is a natural paddock dog. Nice with his stock. He recently had a go on cattle with this mum and dad as back up and loved it. Very nice nature. Owens had a few people off to buy him. 🙂

We had our first school for 2022 with David. The school was a nice sized school which allowed David to spend extra time with people. David was kind enough to stay with us which meant there was some evening and early morning dog chats. The weather was hot but we manage.

What a great weekend, even though I was buggered. What with nursing a sick dog and then David and I ended up doing a sheep check and lamb rescue, which meant I was up most of Saturday night trying to keep a lamb alive. What a nice person to help me out after spending the Saturday walking around and talking to people all day. I’ve even got a place to stay for Nyngan trail this year. Look out!

We had some repeat people come to the school this weekend which was great. The Cosgrove girls really liked David’s way of teaching, as he talked about the relationship between the dog, sheep and the handler. A penning dropped for them, which they can take back to their working day.

Precious a previous mascot returned. She is such a well behaved dog. She even wanted to help out at times.

All the dogs where well behaved. Even the little Kelpie I have been looking after.

Participants

Backing lesson with a young dog that David has.

We are very thankful that David was able to take time away from his busy schedule to spend the weekend with us. The two days before he came he was preg testing 5540 ewes. Then a 3 1/2 hour drive here to run the school. Then home to get ready to go to Tassie trailing. A big effort.

Owen and I both liked David’s training style which is similar to others but as always there is something new to take away. I found it interesting to watch Mitch’s dog reacted when he changed his eye contact with her. Just a very small change to get a better result. David’s way of handling pups I found to be different and refreshing. All participants came away with some new tools for the tool box.

Manners in not barging through doors and gates.

Different Breeds and different ages

Mental stimulation. Also good if you want your dog to back out of something

Teaching pup sit and that taking food from her is not a bad thing.

Start recall and sit

This 10 month old was very sensitive to being touched around the neck / collar and hyper when being clipped and unclipped from lead. We did some desensitization. In this clip what you can not see is other dogs playing in bath tube in dog yard. She wanted to join in the fun. Basic manners of you can go play when you do what is being asked first.

• 

• 

• 

What a great weekend. We had a small group for this school and focused on fine tuning and polishing points of training specific to 3 sheep trailing.

A big thank you to Bill for travelling the distance to do this school for us. We hope to get him back again early 2022.

This is the first school that we have been able to use our 3 sheep training paddock and it was wonderful to see everyone taking on Bill’s tips and trying out a few new things.

Bill’s Dog Stormy helped out over the weekend. Bit of drool happening wonder if Bill forgot to feed her the night before. 🙂

• 

• 

• 

• 

Day one started with a chat about what people wanted to get from the school.

Then we went to smaller yards to go through some finer points and work on issues, with Bill giving some demo’s and advice.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Day two we covered some reverse parking. Then hit the obstacles in the big paddock. Lesson started with how to work the bridge, then some casting and finally some practice on all obstacles.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Feedback

Bill Davidson	Great set-up and great hosts. Thanks Donna & Owen
Lisa	Wonderful warm hospitality. Fantastic set-up. Thank you Donna & Owen
Tsuey	Donna and Owen were fabulous hosts and their facility is amazing. Great weekend of learning and training with my dogs. Spare a spot for me at the next workshop.
Sue	Great facility and hospitality. Bill Davidson school was very professional and I learnt a lot. Thanks Very Much.
Tegan	Donna and Owen are lovely and their facilities are set-up well. Had a great weekend and learnt lots.
Jessie	Fantastic weekend. Learned heaps, looking forward to the next one. Thanks Donna and Owen, lovely place.

26th – 27th June Fantastic Weekend

Another great bunch of people came to train with Robert last weekend. We had a mix first timers & repeat attendees, season yard trailers & stockmen, with a last minute agility lady who had not worked with Robert for many years. Owen and I even manage to get some advice on a couple of our dogs.

• 

• 

• 

• 

The first day was pretty ordinary weather wise. Day two was much better. Still a little chilly in the morning and afternoon but the middle of the day was lovely in the sun.

Demo above on push and sides. Including how you can work and train two dogs to work together.

An important lesson. One of Roberts main training sayings is that a dog should come when it is called. Elizabeth and Lucy worked on this for the class.

Lesson on backing and barking. Robert like most things does this different to others I have seen. I like his slow and steady approach. Braking the process down into smaller steps so the dog can understand what’s being asked.

Lesson in clearing the gate and or a tight knot. Roberts method of support for the dog is nice to watch, it helps the dog better understand what’s being asked. Top job Ned

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Roberts approach to training working dogs is different to others. My layman’s understanding, he doesn’t train dogs he works stock. He has a natural understand of the intensity level of a dog and what stock needs, to be worked effectively. He then modifies the intensity in the dog to suite. He break’s work down into patterns or conditioning for young dogs to learn to understand what’s going to eventually be asked off them. He is a firm believer in supporting and rewarding the dog when it has done something right. Not without discipline if the dog knows what’s being asked but ignores the ask. He keeps things simple.

A Big Thank You to Robert for agreeing to do this school. Owen and I really apricated it as did the people that came. Most who had worked with Robert in the past. We hope to get Robert back in 2022.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Robert Cox	Thankyou Donna and Owen . I really enjoyed your facilities .Had a wonderful time. Thank you to all the participants
Nicole Henry	Thanks Donna and Owen for looking after all so well you both were awesome  And thank you to you too Robert Cox I got so much out of your clinic, now to put into practice.
Stuart Carmichael	Thanks Donna, Owen and Robert for a great weekend. I know what I was given, I’m more determined now to turn her into the success she should be, and more than hopeful she can work on my shortcomings.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Ben Coster School 15th May 2021

We had a really good, although cold day for training. Thank goodness Ben and participants where brave enough to face the cold. There was a little drizzle so the new deck came to good use. Ben is a very calm and patient trainer. We enjoyed his teaching style.

It was good to see some people on a return visit. We had some new people from both the city and stock / grazers participating. I didn’t participate this time although thank you all for allowing me to have my short time getting my young ones to bark in the race. Ben’s method worked for me where others hadn’t.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Thanks all for your participation, you respect to others even though you all come from different area’s and walks of life was appreciated.

Big thank you to Ben. I appreciated the time he was able to give us. Thank you to Jenn for asking me to get Ben here. If there is a trainer you’d like to work with let me know and I’ll try and get them for you. HAPPY TRAINING.

Remember you can ask for a mentor on our Face Book Page.

All photos will be loaded onto Google Drive if you want copies.