Historical Videos of Border Collies and Sheep Trials

Handlers and Dogs from the First International Sheepdog Trial 1931

For a few years now I’ve been collecting links to British Pathé clips of Border Collies and Sheep Trials from their original webpage, but as they lacked a means to embed the videos in a post I haven’t shared most of them with you until now.

Just this month, British Pathé has released on YouTube over 80,000 newsreels, films, videos, and archive footage from over the last century.

The years listed below are links to the original BP webpages with more detailed information on the clips (in case you’d like to license them) and the embedded videos are all from British Pathé’s brand new YouTube archive.

You’ll find some real gems, including a wonderful clip of the very first International Sheep Trial and the dogs who competed there (compare how very different the dogs look compared to the 1920 trial in Ireland) and a very cute clip of trainer Nancy Telfer who just might be a descendant of Adam Telfer, the owner of Old Hemp.

1920 – Sheep Dog Trials: Annual Sheep Dog Trials and Fell Races at Kilnsey.

1926 – Delgany (Dalgany), Ireland: Clever Animals. Interesting Sheep Dog Trials at Delgany.

1931 – Here’s Sagacity – 100% Plus!: Hyde Park, London. Here’s Sagacity – 100% Plus! Shepherds and sheep dogs – Britain’s Best – compete in the first International Sheep Dot Trials.

1932 – International Sheep-Dog Trials:  London. International Sheep-Dog Trials. Londoners flock to Hyde Park to see the actual conditions under which the Shepherd and his dogs normally work.

1940 – Cinetopicalities In Brief No. 119: Several shots of three sheep at the Sydney Sheep Show (Sheep Dog Trials) in Australia.

1941 – Sheep Dogs Show Their Mettle AKA Sheepdogs: Sheepdogs show their mettle. Northumberland.

1943 – Sheep Champion Trainer: Northumbria. Trainer Nancy Telfer.

1953 – International Sheep Dog Trials: Cardiff, Wales.

1954 – Sheep Dog Trials: Sheep Dog Trial at Perdiswell, Worcester.

1963 – Sheep Dog Trials: Alexandria, Victoria, Australia. Sheep Dogs Show Skill in Trials.

If you happen to find any more wonderful videos do share them in the comments!

Border Collies at the first International Sheep Dog Trials in 1931

* * *
Comments and disagreements are welcome, but be sure to read the Comment Policy. If this post made you think and you'd like to read more like it, consider a donation to my 4 Border Collies' Treat and Toy Fund. They'll be glad you did. You can subscribe to the feed or enter your e-mail in the field on the left to receive notice of new content. You can also like BorderWars on Facebook for more frequent musings and curiosities.
* * *