Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men

Very good book with some great stories in it. Love his descriptions of Scotland and the Sheep dog trials, really makes me want to go. I like the philosophy you can see in these quotes:

"It is not the job of the dog trainer to summon the dog’s generics, not to impose man’s will over dog’s. It may be worth noting that many Scottish hill dogs never know the weight of a collar around their neck."

"The trainer Tony Illey has said, “The most difficult thing I ever saw a dog do was bring a ewe who’d just lost her lamb through a field full of lambing ewes.”
Let me offer a gloss: Ewes with new lambs are extremely protective of their lambs and often charge a dog. When they lose sight of their lamb, they assume the dog has killed it, and show more despite his teeth will try determinedly to trample him. A ewe who’s lost her lamb will rush back and forth seeking it, bleating to other newborn lambs trying to collect one. The other mothers are confused by this, and when the dog gets near them they, too, go on the attack.
Unlike Tony Illey, I don’t think what this dog did was difficult. It was impossible. Knowing that the dog can read sheep better than any man and can react much quicker than any man, what commands would you give him?
Correct answer: his name."

Since his search to find a dog is not a series of progressions, the pacing of the book doesn't build so much as travels around and visits with some interesting people before he is able to take a 'bonny wee bitch away.' If you have read other books from Donald McCaig, it covers ground you will have read before as he educates us on how border collies work with the sheep and the way the trials are held and sometimes go, but I still enjoy it.

Also in the book is an 1803 account from James Hogg of a dog Sirrah. I didn't seem to get as much out of the tale as Mr. McCaig seems to, but I love how dogs have been faithful and loyal servants and friends for hundreds of years.

When I get through all of McCaig's books I will have to rank them. Love to hear from anyone who has read all his books and has an opinion on them in terms of ranking. show less

Very good book with some great stories in it. Love his descriptions of Scotland and the Sheep dog trials, really makes me want to go. I like the philosophy you can see in these quotes:

"It is not the job of the dog trainer to summon the dog’s generics, not to impose man’s will over dog’s. It may be worth noting that many Scottish hill dogs never know the weight of a collar around their neck."

"The trainer Tony Illey has said, “The most difficult thing I ever saw a dog do was bring a ewe who’d just lost her lamb through a field full of lambing ewes.”
Let me offer a gloss: Ewes with new lambs are extremely protective of their lambs and often charge a dog. When they lose sight of their lamb, they assume the dog has killed it, and show more despite his teeth will try determinedly to trample him. A ewe who’s lost her lamb will rush back and forth seeking it, bleating to other newborn lambs trying to collect one. The other mothers are confused by this, and when the dog gets near them they, too, go on the attack.
Unlike Tony Illey, I don’t think what this dog did was difficult. It was impossible. Knowing that the dog can read sheep better than any man and can react much quicker than any man, what commands would you give him?
Correct answer: his name."

Since his search to find a dog is not a series of progressions, the pacing of the book doesn't build so much as travels around and visits with some interesting people before he is able to take a 'bonny wee bitch away.' If you have read other books from Donald McCaig, it covers ground you will have read before as he educates us on how border collies work with the sheep and the way the trials are held and sometimes go, but I still enjoy it.

Also in the book is an 1803 account from James Hogg of a dog Sirrah. I didn't seem to get as much out of the tale as Mr. McCaig seems to, but I love how dogs have been faithful and loyal servants and friends for hundreds of years.

When I get through all of McCaig's books I will have to rank them. Love to hear from anyone who has read all his books and has an opinion on them in terms of ranking. show less

All in all, I enjoyed this book. It is well written and has a great deal of information on the border collie breed. I was a little disappointed that after all the time and adventure that went into finding his dog, he spent almost no time developing her as his working dog. As a child I had a border collie as a pet that was rescued out of a shelter. They are a remarkable breed and McCaig does them justice. He presents a wonderful picture of the people who are tied to the land, sheep and dogs as well.

Donald McCaig, author of the 1984 Best Seller, Nop's Trials, proves once again, with Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men that he can write, and write engagingly. When he realizes that his 8-year-old Border Collie, Pip, is slowing down, McCaig decides to "make a pilgrimage" to Scotland for another dog. He takes off for three months, leaving his understanding wife in charge of the farm. In recounting his saga, McCaig manages to express all the feelings of insecurity any of us have ever felt on a trip to the homeland of the breed of dog that has so thoroughly won our hearts and entered our imaginations. He yearns for confirmation from his mentors. He interprets reserve as rejection. He feels he's made a fool of himself and is embarrased at being show more conspicuous as an American.

For the sheepdog zealot, this book is enormously captivating. Here are all our heros, canine and human, living and gone. If you sense I have mixed feelings about this book, you would be correct. I found the particularly consistent errors in the names of Scottish towns distracting at best. Perhaps later editions corrected this. More importantly, I was rather taken aback by McCaig's rough handling of the personalities in his book. The British shepherds and farmers, sheepdog handlers and trainers, that appear in Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men are not just characters in a book. These are real, living, breathing people. Some of them are famous in the sheepdog trialing world and are people to whom we have often looked to for guidance in sheepdog matters. We possibly already know many of the things McCaig tells us about them, but I can't help feeling that by exposing their emotional baggage in print for all to see, he is pandering to prurient interests and perhaps betraying the hospitality they have shown him. For me, this takes away any positive feelings I may have had reading the book. show less

Extremely well-written, but a lot different than what I expected. Very realistic and interesting account of searching in Scotland for a border collie to take back to his sheep farm in West Virginia, with a lot of material especially about sheep trials. Not romantic, very respectful. But, in the middle of this realistic account, there is an unexpected puzzling segment about a fictional discussion with a dog in heaven that still befuddles me. And while I especially liked the first part -- the search for the dog--i wasn't as enthralled with the second part, where the author returns to Scotland to view more sheep trials. It would have been more interesting to discuss how Gael--the dog for which he went through so much effort to find-- fared show more back in the states and was trained. I learned a lot, but found it a little disjointed and somewhat scattered. show less

There is something about a man and his dog and the lengths he will go to find the best. Author McCaig traveled about Scotland looking for the best sheep dog he could buy with limited funds. The author provides a local perspective on owners and their sheep herding dogs as they compete in field trials and a lucrative Scottish market for the best in show.

This is the moving story of one farmer's search for a border collie to complete the man, dog, sheep trinity. McCaig's experiences at his own farm in Virginia and his travels to Scotland and the sheepdog trials there reveal the crusty, lovable characters of dogs and men. Black and White photographs enhance the reading experience.