Someday, I will have my own farm dog.
I dream about my canine working partner as often as I dream about my own future farm.
It will be a female English Shepherd.
She will be a sable and white color (think "Lassie's" look); either light or medium dark is fine.
She'll be a small dog; weighing in at roughly 45 lbs. Small and agile enough to dodge flying cattle hooves, but big enough to take on stubborn rams, and bossy goats.
Her coat will be medium length. Just long enough to give her that "farm collie" look, but not so much that she'll get burr overloads when working.
She'll have a long tail; although, I think the bob-tailed shepherds are nice too. :)
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| Photo credit goes to Snowy River English Shepherds |
She'll help me drive the cattle to new pasture;
And herd the sheep when I need her to.
She'll keep grumpy hogs in line,
But will be gentle with the newborn livestock.
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| Photo credit goes to Walnut Ranch English Shepherds |
She'll be energetic enough to work at any time, for as long as it's needed;
But she'll also enjoy the lazy inside days.
She'll guard my back when I need it;
And keep everyone on the farm in line.
In short, she will be everything the English Shepherd has been bred to be.
And her name will be 'Dulcie'.
The Latin word for "sweet".
I don't exactly know why I chose the name Dulcie, but for some reason it just sounds right.
Some things you just know to be true, and this country girl knows that she needs a farm dog named Dulcie.
And someday, this dream will become a reality.
Someday I will have a sable colored, female, English Shepherd pup in my arms.
And that will just be the beginning of things....
16 comments:
Ahhhh, now I know what an English Shepherd looks like. Very pretty dog!!! =)
Keep Yer hopes up. Knowing you it'll happin someday1
CJ
I love those dogs too! :) So pretty.
I love this dream. Don't give it up.
That's where we get the name "Dulcimer"... meaning "sweet" "sound".
-Dad
The "origin unknown" photo of the clear sable English Shepherd is my boy Gunner (UKC Ch. Foxhill Top Gun, bred by Marianne Dwight). The photo was taken by Connie DeBusschere of Snowy River English Shepherds. She bred Gunner's mom. :-)
Your Dulcie is beautiful, and she certainly looks like a sweetheart!
Oops... I see you don't have your Dulcie yet. (Reading with a migraine severely affects my comprehension, duh!) Well... I'm sure she will be sweet & beautiful when you get her. She will be an English Shepherd, after all!
Maria! Thank you so much for identifying the picture as yours! Do you mind that I have it up here on my blog? I can take it down if it bothers you. I will have to see about changing the source status on that picture so that all the photo credit goes to you. :)
I don't mind at all, if Connie doesn't mind! Credit for the photo should actually go to her, as she was the photographer. You might want to check out her dogs, too, if you haven't already. She's in Oregon & sometimes she has sable pups. Her website: http://www.snowyriverenglishshepherds.com/
Gunner has filled out a little & his hair has lengthened a bit since that photo. It's still medium length, though, and has that lovely Teflon texture that keeps dirt, water & burrs from sticking to it. Perfect farmdog coat! (He doesn't have a farm of his own, but he's been tested on sheep & goats & has loads of herding instinct. He would LOVE to have his very own livestock!)
Gunner was also a dog I dreamed about. At the time I didn't know about English Shepherds, so it took me awhile to figure out what breed the dog in my head was. I wasn't even entirely sure such a dog existed, but I knew I HAD to have one someday. When we finally met, we recognized each other immediately. We've been together nearly two years & I'm not entirely sure how I ever managed without him.
Thank you Maria! I hadn't seen the Snowy River website before, which is a bit ironic... I'm not terribly far from Sweet Home, OR! Connie has some lovely dogs over there... Some of her sables make me fairly drool. LOL. I did send her an email regarding the image, so now I'm just waiting to see what she says.
Your Gunner sounds like what I've always wanted in a dog, from coat style, to temperament, to looks! I only just learned about the English Shepherds about a year and a half ago and absolutely fell in love. I wanted something less OCD then a Border Collie, less extravagant than a Rough Collie (all that fur makes me shudder when I think of grooming after a day of herding sheep...), but something that still had that "collie" look and still retained the all around farm dog instincts. :)
So, what is stopping you from getting an English Shepherd? They are lovely.
Rachel, this is an old, old post of mine... Check out this link! I just got an English Shepherd pup earlier in the year! http://lifeatmennageriefarm.blogspot.com/search/label/dogs
I saw your new dog, he is very cute!
Maybe you can get him a girlfriend called Dulcie. I also looked at the breeder's website. They are an ES breeder I hadn't heard of before. Good luck with your new farm job.
I have this photo hanging over my bed. I love it so much. All this timr, I thought it was of a collie (I owned a Sable and a tri). I now own an English doodle. His mom is red and white. Is that coloring referred to as "flyby" or was that the name of the dog?
Bentleys dad is a red standard poodle. Such an awesome dog. He is having a litter of pups now with a standard poodle.
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