Dec. 5, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
9 1 5 
his sheep dogs and extending an invitation to 
the writer to witness some of their feats—a bid 
that was promptly accepted. 
Next day on the vast range through which 
Crazy Woman Creek, a branch of Powder River, 
leaves an alkali-whitened trail, “Big Jim’’ 
showed what his heep dogs could do. 
“In the first place,” said Jim, “these dogs are 
not pure-bred collies, as you must have noticed. 
The collie is a fine dog for sheep, in Scotland— 
but over here he needs a big strain of the wolf 
in him to make him effective. These dogs are 
half wolf. I caught their mother myself, out on 
the plains. To-day these pups show more of 
the wolf strain than they do of the collie. Their 
ears are always pointed up, and they can hear 
twice as well as an ordinary collie. They are 
always on the lookout, for danger, and their 
feet—well, that is their strong point. You see 
how thick the cactus grows in this country. 
Well, an ordinary dog has got his feet full of 
cactus thorns when he comes into camp at night 
with the band of sheep. After the band has 
been bedded the herder's got to spend an hour 
or two by the camp-fire picking thorns out of 
the dog’s feet. But these wolf dogs have got 
cushions on their feet that are tougher than 
sole leather. You never see an old wolf out on the 
plains lying down and chewing cactus thorns 
out of his feet and neither do you see these 
dogs doing the same trick. Just for this rea¬ 
son alone the wolf strain makes an animal like 
Nig or Lady the ideal sheep tender.” 
Nig and Lady, at this time, were several rods 
away, sitting on their haunches, and looking out 
across the plains with the peculiar, alert expres¬ 
sion that never seemed to desert them. Jim 
did not raise his voice above the conversational 
pitch, but. on the contrary, dropped it a little, 
when he said: 
“Where’s that coyote?” 
The human ear. at its sharpest, could not have 
detected the words at a distance of more than 
ten feet, but. Nig and Lady heard every word, 
and instantly they were up and away, racing 
around the band of sheep, and ready to grapple 
with any prowling coyote or wolf that might 
be lurking in a sheltering arroyo. Suddenly 
Jim raised his arms, until they extended in a 
horizontal position, and then be let them fall at 
his side. Instantly Nig and Lady stopped and 
sat down, their eyes on their master. 
“You see it’s not much use to yell at a dog, 
especially when you’ve got to yell against^ a 
Wyoming windstorm,” said Jim. “So I’ve 
trained my dogs to work to signals—regular 
brakeman signals they are.” 
Here Jim waved ope hand toward the left, and 
Nig and Lady trotted off in that direction. 
“If T want ’em to run around the other way,” 
said Jim, “I just wave the other hand. When 
I want them to come in, I just raise my hands 
over my head like this.” 
Up went the giant’s brawny arms, and in 
trotted the sheep dogs and took up their sta¬ 
tion at their master’s feet. At a motion, one of 
the dogs took a long excursion round the band, 
looking for stray lambs that might have become 
senarated from the flock, thereby offering them¬ 
selves as easy prey for coyotes. Another mo¬ 
tion, and the remaining dog “cut out” a single 
sheen from the bunch and lay down to guard it. 
“That dog will watch that sheep for hours, 
until T call him off.” said Jim, “and it would go 
hard with anybody who tried to touch the sheep 
that’s under his care.” 
Like good soldiers, “Big Jim’s” sheep dogs 
hold duty paramount. They adore their master, 
but at a word from him they would go willingly 
with another sheen man, and work for the 
stranger. Jim himself is not a herder. He has 
“graduated,” and is camp tender for one of the 
big sheen outfits that make eheir headquarters 
at Buffalo. In early days, when the long-horn 
steer was king of the range, Jim was a cow¬ 
boy, but. like many other cowmen, he drifted 
naturally into the once-despised sheep business. 
“Bigger pay. less work, and a dashed site better 
treatment,” is Jim’s brief summing up of the 
reasons for his desertion of the cattle game. 
It is almost an impossibility for a herder to 
work sheep on the open range without sheep 
dogs. There i-s much more detail to the sheep 
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When writing say you saw the adv. 
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,n 
