Older and wiser: Old Ronnie the retiree still likes to watch the goings on in the sheep yards. With him is whippet Sadie, who the sheep don’t think is a dog.
Photo by
Daneka Hill
Sadie, Ash, Max and Ronnie call the Berrigan sheep property of Woodstock home. They share the homestead with three members of the Congdon family — Bob, Jenny and their son Hamish. Jenny says the dogs are well-loved and the two sight hounds, Sadie and Ash, make an appearance in her cooking book Woodstock (featured in last week’s Country News) on the page for Rabbit Casserole.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Which one is your dog?
Jenny: Sadie is technically my dog but we all love her the same. She’s a four-year-old whippet.
Why a whippet?
We had a whippet previously who died from a snake bite. They are so gentle and calm. She goes for a run in the morning and scares the ducks off the pond before sleeping all day. She loves chasing balls and never gives us any problems with the lambs. The sheep don’t consider her a dog, they come up and smell her. The sheep are very quiet — we holistically graze so they’re moved around and handled quite often. Sadie sleeps in the laundry and there is a dog bed inside for the cold mornings.
Sadie strikes a pose. The whippet lives on an organic sheep farm outside Berrigan with three other dogs.
Photo by
Daneka Hill
Do the dogs get along?
They all come for a walk in the morning except Ronnie. He’s too slow, it’ll take him an hour to walk 500 metres.
How old is Ronnie?
Ronnie is a 14-year-old kelpie. He’s our retired sheepdog.
Who’s the main sheepdog now?
Max is around six I reckon. He’s a kelpie and a good paddock dog but very quiet and gentle. He casts way out. We are currently looking for a braver yard dog. Max has got an eye but he’s too gentle ... especially on young sheep, he’ll just give in to them. Once I got him to come across and stop them from going down the drive but he kept backing up and they kept going forward into him. He’s saying ‘I’ve got them, I’ve got them, but I’m just going to let them walk a bit’. They were nearly at the house by the time I got them turned around.
The main man: Max the kelpie is the chief working dog after Ronnie’s retirement. He’s good in the paddock, but too gentle in the yards.
Photo by
Daneka Hill
And what’s Ash, the staghound, like?
Ash is Hamish’s dog, she’s around four. She was given to him by a cousin. They (cousins) are all hunting people and Hamish likes hunting too but he refuses to take her hunting after she broke her leg twice. She used to run without looking and didn’t care what she fell over.
Last week she’s been barking a fair bit. The other day Bob went over there and found a snake at her kennel, under this lounge chair Hamish put out for her to use. Later she made a funny sound again. Bob picked up the lounge chair and a snake crawled out of it. So the poor dog, she’s had a time of it.
Keeping watch: Ash the staghound at the front gate. She’s been unlucky with injuries and snakes.
Photo by
Daneka Hill
