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Where did he come from?

My last employer talked to someone who had huntaway pups, so I thought I would get one. He was eight weeks old when we got him.What’s his personality like?

He’s good and lots of fun. We have a great time together. Other people might class him as a grumpy old man because he’s a one-man dog. He’s got the whole package. He’s a great working dog and a companion dog.

If there’s anyone hanging around or a fox out there, we hear about it. He’s a good guard dog.Did you train him?

I trained him myself. He didn’t take much to pick things up.What can he do now?

He’s handy for mustering stock. He’ll wait in a gateway, help sort out cows, follow a group or bring them up.

When we were shifting stock it would take two of us. I can take Axle and work together. I’ll go ahead and open and close the gates and he’ll follow them.

Mark (the boss) saw him working and said: ‘‘Jeez, I need a dog like that’’. I’m training one now for him.Any embarrassing moments?

He has a fetish for chasing swallows. Sometimes he’ll just run around in circles barking into the air.

We used to feed molasses to the herd and we put it in one of the concrete troughs. Axle just loves jumping in the water troughs and having a swim.

One day after working him hard he ran past a trough and decided he was going to jump in. That was the molasses trough. I have never seen a look on a dog’s face like that. I had to make him swim in a water trough to get him clean.

That look on his face was priceless.Any close calls for him?

I parked the tractor over him once when I didn’t see him. I took him to the vets’ and he was flat-out for two weeks, hardly moving, but he came back as good as new.

Words and pictures:Geoff Adams