BUTE as a companion/pet
A wonderful character, quiet, soulful, and apologetic even for things she has not done. Bute was always to stay with us, even though Bobby Henderson tried to purchase her as a youngster. Bute was special, very clever, a little Houdini she could get out of most places. |
BUTE as a working dog
Unfortunately, she was never trained, until she was five years old, (we had in fact almost discouraged her from looking at sheep as she was quite adept at getting out without anyone realising and helping herself to sheep. She did not know what to do with the sheep and in her frustration she took to biting them once she had placed them in the corner as they would not then move for her. On several occassions she was discovered covered in blood and with several badly injured sheep. Finally there was only one solution out of a possible three...
- train her,
- re-home her,
- put her to sleep (euthanasia).
We chose the first one; since it was never her fault but her instinct that she was following without direction, and our fault for not providing the direction and work to keep her occupied.
Bute was not easy to train because I had effectively trained her not to be in the same field as myself with sheep present, each time I found her with the sheep on her own.
So I had to learn to persuade her that she was in fact allowed to work sheep. A long process but, Bute has now become, against all the odds, a reliable and effective flock dog, She actually won the first and only Nursery trial she ever competed in during December 2005 at the age of six.
She has also been placed in two open trials.
