Tag >> Trial
Apr 24

Cover girl

Published in TriallingTrialSheepdog trialSheepdog by lisa |

It may sound a little self-indulgent, but seeing the photograph of my working sheepdog Corrie on the cover of the latest edition of Pembrokeshire County Living magazine gives me great pleasure.

Not so long ago she was enduring intensive chemotherapy treatment for canine lymphoma, with a bleak outlook for the future.

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All the expense, stress and heartache was worth it, to see her in the photograph I took on the Pembrokeshire coast path, near Porthgain, while writing a feature about top dog walks on a beautiful sunny day.

She is still in remission and enjoying life as much as she always did before the diagnosis. She is particularly enjoying competing at sheepdog trials again.

Fourth place in a novice class may not be a big deal to many, but returning to the field at this year's Coedkernew trial and having a half-decent run did feel like an achievement. And it could have been a lot better if she'd taken her away whistles on the fetch!

We've been to a couple more trials since then and she's been working well, so it's fingers crossed for some open points this year.

During her treatment she hardly saw sheep, let alone work them. After her chemo I was almost too scared to start working her, in case something happened to make her ill again. Unfortunately there's also been a distinct lack of training since I moved house. A town environment doesn't lend itself to easy training sessions and I need to come up with a plan to rectify this.

Corrie spends most of her time living at mum's (which I hate, but town life is not for her, especially when I'm out at work all day) and now that the trials are back in full swing, our weekends are hopefully going to be spent competing.

Plan A is to win the lottery, buy a smallholding, bring Corrie and my ponies to live with us, borrow some of mum's Kerry Hill sheep to train with and live happily ever after.

I'm still working on Plan B.