Today’s English Shepherds are descendents from the “farm collies” that accompanied English settlers to young America. These dogs served faithfully their master both as herding dogs and as family protection.
The English Shepherd is a complete all purpose dog – calm and steady, willing to please and capable of herding any type of livestock Of great importance is its bond with its owner and family.
English Shepherds are gentle and patient with children and loyal and trustworthy to their family.
English Shepherds are intelligent and have a keen ability to make the proper judgment call. For example, whether a people is a friend or foe or whether a situation is an emergency or a false alarm. They are willing to protect their family with their lives and there are many stories about English Shepherds saving people from wild animals and serious situations
Our family has a long history with this breed. Our great grandfather had English Shepherds (aka Farm Collies) in the early 19th century on our cattle farm in southwest Arkansas. Family lore passes down this story about his dog saving his life.
The men of the family were fighting a fire in the heavy timber on the farm. In an effort to contain the blaze, fire lanes were cut out. The fire changed directions causing the patriarch of the family to be caught in a closing ring of fire. His English Shepherd jumped through the fire, alerting his owner. They were both able to escape with the dog suffering minor burns.
As young adults, we, too, had English Shepherd and since the early 1970′s, we have been involved in preserving the characteristic of this outstanding breed. Our dogs and pups are raised on a 265 horse farm just a little down the road from where Shep saved Jim’s great grandfather.
Our dogs are an integral part of our family both in the house and on the farm. We own a horse breeding and training farm which specializes in cutting horses. The dogs are involved in moving the cattle in and out of the pens. They also help with the horses.
Working horses takes a dog who is keenly in-tune to people. They must work in a manner which moves horses but does not scare them. Our dogs also move cattle and work cattle in a training situation – during the training of cutting horses.
We have a very intensive selection on our breeding stock and the puppies are the result of years of selection for trainability, intelligence, natural ability to work stock, desire to protect family, and conformation.
We recommend these dogs to families in rural settings. These dogs are very intelligent and are bred to work for people. They are not hyperactive but do need exercise and a person to bond with. They will protective the family, the property and the livestock but they want to have one person who is THEIR person – the person that gives the signals and gives up the rewards for their behavior. These dogs are sensitive and do not respond well to physical punishment. They live to please you and a negative voice sound is about all it takes to correct a wrong response.
Dog information: McCall’s Kyle by Augtu and McCalls Princess