THE team from the Live Borders Museum and Gallery, Tweeddale Museum look baa-ck at the history of sheepdogs in Peeblesshire.

One of the earliest references to dogs working sheep was written in 1570 in the De Canibus Britanicus, where the author refers to the driving of sheep by dogs who worked off their master's voice and whistle.

The name collie is probably derived from col – Anglo Saxon for black.

The demand for Collie Dogs trained to work sheep came in from all over the world and dogs were exported to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa from the late 1870s. 

Local shepherd John Bathgate exported dogs to many continents in 1980s, complete with voice commands recorded on audio tape.

Indeed not only dogs but the shepherds were exported. In earlier times when the Highlands were cleared for sheep, Border shepherds were relocated to tend the flocks. 

Local shepherd George Anderson from Horsburgh travelled to the Falklands in 1869 with a contract as a shepherd.

He moved on to Argentina to set up his own sheep farm business, keeping a diary and taking many photographs.

Traditional shepherding in the Borders was done on the hill. Nowadays many farmers graze their sheep in fields 'in-bye'.

The care of the sheep is year round starting with the tupping – when the males are introduced to the females, with lambing five months later. Shearing in early summer months, and dipping and dosing.

The daily checking of the sheep, ensuring that they were all there, in good health and where they ought to be was a time consuming occupation, out at all hours in all weather.

However the professional shepherd is disappearing. The introduction of the quad in the 1980s allowed the daily checking of the sheep much more quickly, allowing farmers to check their own flock. 

As one local shepherd observed 'In my fathers' time there were forty two shepherds on this stretch of land, and now there is one, me!'