B2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 28,1983
BY SALLY BAIR
Staff Correspondent
“I started with dogs when I was
four years old. As I got older I had
one dog after another,” Jim
Shearer recalls as he talks about
how his interest in dogs developed.
Shearer, Hershey Mill Road,
Mountville, grew up on a farm in
Indiana County and started with a
Scotch collie which belonged to his
mother, moved on to coon hounds,
beagles, German shepherds and
Airdales. “I just kept going,” he
remembers.
Along the way he read about
Border collies and after getting
one of his own, his allegiance was
sealed. He now limits his breeding
and training to Border collies, a
dog which he considers the most
intelligent of any breed.
Shearer trains his Border collies
to be working dogs, used for
herding other animals, and he
breeds them with that purpose in
mind, “we only breed for three
things - intelligence, obedience and
the herding instinct. Border collies
are the greatest herding dogs in
the world.”
He points out that there is no
standard as to length of hair, color
or size - the three above charac
teristics are the ones which count.
His first puppy made Shearer
aware of the breed's natural
herding instincts. Shearer says, “I
didn’t know a thing about training
Border collies because it was so
different. I felt so sorry for my dog,
because he was so much smarter
than I was!”
Shearer recalls taking his dog
with him when he went to get the
sheep and one day when he
reached up to scratch his head the
collie took of and brought them to
him. Shearer laughs and says, “I
tried the other hand and he came in
behind the sheep and brought them
to me. So we started and pretty
soon we were in high gear. I taught
him to stop with a whistle and all
the rest was hand signals. It was
amazing - that’s how I trained my
first dog.”
Eventually Shearer lost his
whistle and when he bought a new
one, his dog paid no attention to
him, although to his human ears
the sound was the same. “I had to
break him again,” Shearer says.
That was in 1948,
Since then Shearer has trained
dozens of Border collies, and the
beginning training is similar to
other breeds. A'Very basic rule to
which Shearer adheres is to name
the dogs a one syllable name at
birth, he says, “You can say it
quick and the dog doesn’t have to
wait all day ’til you get to the end of
his name.”
He begins with basic obedience
training after he has tied up the
dog and gotten him used to a chain
and collar. The training initially
occurs on a leash.
“I teach a dog obedience. I teach
them to come back, to heel and to
go slow, and then 1 take them to the
field to work on livestock. By then
they already know the command to
go right or to go left, and they know
Here, Tam carefully rounds up the sheep
sheep, advancing slowly and cautiously, and gets them in the desired position,
knowing that it is his responsibility to keep reacting to commands from Shearer with
the sheep where they belong. lightning speed.
Trainer vows Border collies ore smartest dog
Shots are a must for all puppies, and Jim Shearer,
Mountville, administers his own to a new litter of border
collies.
when to slow down and when to
stop ”
The training is a combination of
whistle and voice commands. He
said training a dog can vary from
six weeks to three years, depen
ding upon the dog and its maturity
level. How long does it take? “If
he’s mature I work him every day
and in three months I can have him
trained becuase he understands. ’’
Tips come flying from his lips as
he talks, and Shearer says, “I’m
going to write a book. For 10 years
I’ve been writing it, but I can’t get
Virginia to do it” Virginia is his
wife, as well as partner and sup
porter. Now he says he’s making
progress and a cousin in California
is going to help him,
Because of the breed’s natural
ability, Shearer maintains that 98
percent of the farmers who have a
Border collie ruins it. “Every
other dog runs everything away
from them, but a Border collie
holds them in and brings them in.
Farmers who have experienced
other dogs, therefore, don’t know
how to properly let the Border
collie do what comes naturally for
him.”
Shearer trains his dogs on sheep
because he coincidentally raises
Vfames(ead c Hfcies
Southdown sheep to “show, sell
and eat.’’ He has cut down on his
sheep population because of more
people moving into his area and
more stray dogs.
About ids Border collies he says,
“I never had any that wouldn’t
work anything that moved.”
He once trained a Border collier
to go on railroad cars and get hogs
off. This was at the request of a
packing company in Fresno,
California which needed a dog for
the job because humans didn’t
want to do it. It was important,
however, that the dogs not bite the
hogs in the hams - after all, that’s
pretty valuable to a packing
company. Jim did the training, and
the dog has taken over an un
desirable job for humans.
The dogs are trained to nip an
animal, if necessary, if it won’t
cooperate. “He can nip it
anywhere from the shoulder to the
point of nose, but not the ears or
tail of any animal. They should
also not hold onto animals,”
Shearer says. When he is working
with new dogs. Shearer leaves the
wool on the sheep in case the dog
gets excited and nips it, so there is
no damage done.
Animals bred by Shearer will be
This Botw
cording to Shearer, has beautiful confirmation, with a nicely
shaped head. Rock was happy to be the center of attention,
but obediently listened to Shearer as he gave him commands.
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This cow does not like the looks of these Border collies, and
is very protective of her young calf. Despite her bold ad
vances, the dogs keep after her to move her where they want
her to go.
sold as puppies, or started into
training of fully trained. No matter
which way the animal is sold, there
is always a lot of good, solid advice
offered for handling the dogs.
He has sold his dogs as far away
as Alaska, but he says he usually
Tam heads into the sheep, in an effort to
shed two of the animals away from the other
two. Mother and baby lamb do not wish to be
separated from each other.
v~
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never hears from the people who
purchase them, and he figures
that’s because they are satisfied.
Is there a difference in training
males and females? This question
was posed while we were in thei
field working the dogs. Jim replied
that it would take some time to
answer and suggested it wait until
we got in the house. Eventually we
put the dogs away and settled into
his comfortable farmhouse and the
question came up again. His an
swer was, “No, there is no dif-
(Turn to Page B 4)
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