Meet A Champion Dog That Will Steal Your Heart

After battling a life threatening illness this year Slim has managed to win the Australian Working Dog Championships. His owner Jamie Shipman still can’t believe what together they have achieved. “I’m still a bit over whelmed by the whole thing but it shouldn’t surprise me.” Slim was bred by champion dog breeder Charlie Bird in Narellan in Queensland. He was also trained by Darryl Williams and this good breeding and education “is the foundation to where we are at now.”

“Slim is a very quite dog, he's very relaxed, not too intense, and has a lot of eye so he can work cattle or sheep just by looking at them.” Watching Slim work cattle is super impressive. He stares down stubborn cows ten times his size and somehow manages to calmly get them to move from one side of the paddock to the other. This is a great help to Jamie who has both sheep and cattle and needs them moved from paddock to paddock each day.

“On the farm I can go and get a couple of mates or pay someone to come and help me, but at the end of the day all Slim wants is a pat, a cup of food and a bone here or there. He also doubles up as a great pet, and my wife and kids have grown to really love him.”

Instructing a cattle or sheep dog involves mastering a variety of whistle commands. “If you could imagine a clock then you want your dog at the point of balance which is at the back bringing the stock to you”. When they first enter the paddock and Jamie wants Slim to bring the cattle up to him he will send out the Behind command. Slim will then cast out in an anti clockwise direction and go down behind the stock. Jamie might then send the Here command which is a double whistle and Slim will head clockwise. There is also the Stop, Get Out, Walk In and when its time to get Slim to totally leave the sheep and cattle alone the That’ll Do command.

Earlier in the year slim was about as sick as a dog can get. He had a chest infection which caused puss to fill up in his lungs. “There was one stage there that I couldn’t get him in or out of his kennel; he could hardly take 5 steps. So I took him to the vet and we found out that the puss was squashing his lungs and his heart”. It was touch and go for a while there with the veterinarian not sure if Slim could be saved.