Blackie: Sheepdog Of New Zealand (1982)

[Music] I was born and raised here in New Zealand on south island wherever you look mountains Rise Up Against the Sky North Ireland is very much the same the two islands pretty well make up New [Music] Zealand many years ago my father built our family home here in the McKenzie country up in the grassy Highlands of South Ireland and it was here that he began to raise sheep [Applause] sheep branching hasn't changed much since then each summer we used to let the Sheep wander free in the mountains just as ranchers still do the Sheep Cays wherever they can find vegetation at the end of summer we bring them down out of the mountains to the ranch actually we call it the station [Music] [Applause] [Music] when I was a boy I always enjoyed going with my father and our dogs into the mountains for the Autumn Roundup or must today just as then the work is long and hard and the steep slopes and crowded Trails make it dangerous as well but the sheep have to be brought down to the lower warmer ground so they won't be buried in the winter snow [Music] it was during these musters that I truly learned to appreciate the value of our dogs it was clear that they were just as important as the men and so I grew up with a special fondness for our sheep dogs perhaps that's the reason I became a trainer we new zealanders treat our sheep dogs with great respect and for good reason after all sheep farming is the largest industry in our country think of New Zealand you think of wool and mutton a good part of the entire world's production comes from here some ranchers own as many as 20,000 sheep without the dogs in these mountains the job would be almost impossible most of the dogs I work with are bred from Border Collies Kelpies is what we call them they make excellent hering dogs they're so easy to train you'll usually see a dog show an instinct to run after the Sheep when it's about 6 to 10 months old but before we can let a dog work it has to mature a bit a dog has to develop enough strength and speed to keep moving around the flock good hering requires that sheep in tight bunches are easier to control [Music] when I'm training a dog like Blackie here I give him affection as well as discipline the work takes a great deal of patience from both of us the dog has to learn basic obedience first I teach him to respond to whistles to voice commands and hand signals I go over them again and again it takes time but gradually a dog learns when to move right or left when he's ready I'll teach Blackie to gather A Flock he'll learn to move it toward his master or move it away on on [Music] command I'm teaching Blacky to be a stronge dog a strong eye stares at the Sheep very intensely this forces them to move in a certain direction but without frightening them if they frightened they might Stampede every dog is trained for a specific job the dogs that are taught to keep the flock together are called Hunter ways they go after any sheep that gets separated from the others sometimes a sheep becomes weighed down by its own wool the hunter way goes to the rescue [Music] [Applause] [Music] at shearing time the Sheep enter the pin in a single file sometimes they'll Jam together in the narrow passageway that's when another type of dog goes to work the backer soon the Lin is moving [Music] again a dog's training is never completed until I put him to the test this is a critical moment for both Blackie and me we've been working closely together for the past 6 months but now he has to show me what he can do on his own he only needs a few directions from me good Blackie is doing an excellent job when Blacky has brought the Sheep close enough I take [Music] over it looks as though Blacky and I have both passed the [Music] test Blacky will soon be at work helping to tend the flocks we new zealanders need dogs like Blacky to help us H the more than 60 million sheep that Wander Over nearly half of our two islands I can't imagine our Islands without sheep or without the sheep dogs of New Zealand h [Music]