Champion dog breeder and trainer, Grant Calder from Lauder Station at St Bathans says without working dogs there wouldn’t be a merino industry.
“For a start you’d have an awful job bringing the sheep down from the tops. It’s a taken for granted workforce because they have been doing it year in and year out since day dot.”
Grant is full of admiration for New Zealand working dogs and what they achieve.
“Where else in the world do you see another animal work an animal and a human is able make it go right, left and stop with no physical contact?”
Grant was lucky enough to be handed down the fifth generation of a great line of huntaways. The story goes his grandfather worked on the Molesworth and helped the Boddington brothers get a mob of sheep across the Hanmer River. The brothers were so impressed they said if you come back and muster on this place we will give you two pups. Those pups – a dog called Time and a bitch called Rose – are the basis of the Calder line.
“Our family – and the people that have got pups from me, my dad and my sons – are very lucky.”
Grant believes it is essential to educate future generations about how to breed dogs so the genetic lines remain strong, and how to train them. He says a few people are doing it very well and he is delighted to see one or two young people getting very interested in breeding.
Grant sees a lot of people breed to the in vogue dog but cautions that is not necessarily compatible to their bloodline. He says it is vital dogs are built properly because otherwise no matter how well they work, they will only last four or five years in the high country. A relaxed temperament, ability to learn quickly and a natural willingness to work sheep and please are also important.
With his huntaways, Grant has won three New Zealand dog trial championships and five South Island championships. He has also been placed second at a national championship with a heading dog. Grant represented New Zealand at dog trials in Australia – something he describes as a real thrill.
These days Grant gets a kick out of seeing young people do well with dogs, especially ones that he has bred. He is delighted Lloyd Smith from Palmerston is providing mobile dog training schools on request and has written a book on training dogs.
“Training a dog is like a ladder. There are a certain number of steps and you must spend the appropriate amount of time at each step. If you don’t, you can’t go back into an area unless you are very experienced.”
He says the payoffs for training dogs well are immense.
“You get a lot of rewards going mustering, especially if you are out in the big merino country and you have got a dog that works at large distances a long way off you. With a lot of work on big country you have to have binoculars to see which way your dog is going.”
