Sheep dog trials at Agfest (4/5/2024)

Mark Hirst reflects on his first attempt at Agfest's sheep dog trials. Video by Aaron Smith (4/5/2024)

Transcript

00:00 He performed very well. They were pretty tough sheep. Would have been nice to get them through

00:07 a bit quicker so we got to the pen, but no, extremely happy with how he worked. Can't

00:13 ask more of your dog. There's intense training when they're younger, but he does quite a

00:18 lot of farm work and a bit of work around shear and sheds and stuff like that as well,

00:23 so there's a lot of on-the-job training as well.

00:27 Is it daunting doing that kind of thing in front of so many people?

00:31 A little bit, yeah, but to be honest, once you're out there, your focus sort of comes

00:35 off the crowd and onto the dog and the sheep more than anything, so yeah.

00:39 You've still got to put the dog in the right position to get the sheep through the obstacles,

00:46 but yeah, he'd go quite good on his own, but yeah, there is a little bit involved of the

00:52 handler, but to be honest, it's a lot about the dog.

00:55 This is my first Agfest trial, yeah.

00:58 Do you plan on coming back next year?

00:59 Yeah, definitely, yeah, I'll get to as many trials as I can.

01:02 Yeah, yeah.

01:03 Yeah.

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