Sutherland farmer buys young sheepdog from Welsh dog trainer

Sutherland farmer Neil Sutherland has bought a 10-month-old black and white dog, Cefneithin Spot, for £5000 from North Wales dog trainer Sion Jones.

Mr Sutherland is a regular seller and buyer at Skipton Auction Mart’s online sheepdog sales. The pup is a son of top Welsh handler and trialist Kevin Evans’ Red Spot out of another farm work bitch, Bodtegir Jan – a full sister to Spot earned £8000 last September at the age of four and a half months.

Mr Evans scored another in a long list of top-priced coups at the premier North Yorkshire venue with his completely broken Scottish-bred rising two-year-old grey, white and tan dog Midderry Nip, which fetched £9000.

The first German dog ever to be sold at Skipton’s online sheepdog sale was bought by Alice Muir of Spittal, Caithness.

Belway Ace, a nearly two-year-old dog who was completely broken, has been sold for £3,500. It was offered online by Hendrich Kienker from Wolde, a municipality in the Demmin district in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Ace comes from Mr. Kienker’s own Mick out of B De Kerf’s Kemi Liz.

£4100 was raised by George Simpson from Huntly with his tricolor bitch Trish from September 2019, a daughter of his own Elwy Jack from WG Davidson’s Mona. Trish took part in this year’s Kindergarten exams and finished third out of 32 in the Highland League. She was bought by Ann McPherson of Inverness.

Skipton’s most recent online sale, which took place on Tuesday 9th March, again offered a comprehensive range of fully broken, partially broken and unbroken working farm and test dogs to suit most tastes and budgets, with retail prices from only £250.

Commenting general manager and auctioneer Jeremy Eaton said: “As expected, trade in unbroken, partially broken dogs and lambing puppies was selective, but trade in well broken dogs (well filmed) was as strong as ever.”

Skipton’s next sale of working German Shepherds is scheduled for Friday 21st May. It will be a live sale with field trials for broken dogs, with online and phone bidding also available for all lots.

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