Bert working rams. This is not how we handle sheep, it's just to show the character of the dog

Bert is by my old Roy who was a Serge Van Der Zweep Gary (3rd in world 2017). He is out of a Norman Deacon Flash daugher. I broke flash and sold him to Norman in 2001. Serge bought Flash's brother Glen and was 3rd in the world trial 2005 with him.
The flash daughter belonged to John Hanbidge and was 9 when i made an agreement to breed her to my Roy. I wanted to breed her to Roy because Roy reminded me so much of Flash's father Skippy.
Skippy was a dog i sold to Norman. Skippy was by Highgate Ben. I bought Skippy and his brother Buddy from Jim Dowdall back around 1998. Skippy was very consistent nursery trial winner for Norman but when we travelled to the Isle of Mann trial in 1999 or 2000, Alf Kyme persuaded Norman to sell Skippy.
While Skippy was very good, his brother Buddy was even better. Buddy was a big hardy line dog. I enjoyed training him ans he was a fabulous dog to travel over ground on the rough hill. He was also a super dog to hold sheep on line.
My reasoning for this mating that produced Bert was to try and reproduce Flash or Buddy. Buddy frightened sheep a little bit and needed to worked back off sheep more than other dogs. I sold Buddy to Pat Bryne Jnr and he made the irish team 4 or 5 times with him. Pat considered him a dog to win the supreme with. (Indeed Pat had won international Brace before)
I am very pleased with Bert. He has been a little difficult to train becuase he has a huge desire to work and great stamina to back up his desire. He has real good honest power, there is no pretending with Bert
Bert is a super dog to cover ground on the mountain, he is a good outrunner and is easy to turn back for a double gather. He is a good spotter of sheep and has a good gps. While he has super balance on sheep, his weakness is that he is not spoilt with a huge amount of feel. However i think with more work,schooling and hardship, that i will help him develop more feel.
He has the three main ingredients i look for in a dog, in abundance. Power,
Balance & Stamina