Sheep Dog at Work

One of the highlights of todays trip was early in the day, a display of a sheep dog’s abilities (and enthusiasm for his “job”). The owner of the property, which includes his grandparents historic ancestral stone cabin, ran his sheep dog “Captain” through his drills, and yes, we were all impressed. First of all, he’s a very sweet, friendly dog anxious to please. And he’s good at what he does . . . without hesitation and with amazing speed. Captain is 3 years old and his training took about one and a half years. But the owner said 80% of the dogs skill is instinct and only 20% learned.

NOTE: I made two short videos of Captain at work, but unfortunately they were too large to upload. If you want to see them, let me know and I can forward them to you separately (I could never get either video to load, but I assume it’s because on this trip I’m limited to the iPhone.

The family’s historic stone farmhouse sat high up on the hill overlooking Dingle Bay. It was not hard to imagine how difficult life was back then, raising sheep and cattle and maintaining a roof over their heads unde harsh Atlantic Ocean weather conditions.