A Shepherd's Watch
by David Kennard
St. Martin’s Press, 192 pp., 2005; $30
Reviewed by Donald McCaig
“There is no good flock without a good shepherd and there is no good shepherd without a good dog.” Scot saying
“SHEPHERD SOUGHT” advertisements in the Scottish Farmer specify: “Must have good dog” or “Will need two dogs.”
In A Shepherd’s Watch, David Kennard honors a traditional literary form. James Hogg (A Shepherd’s Calendar) wrote the first account of a shepherd’s year in 1833, and many others have followed—most famously in 1910, W. H. Hudson with A Shepherd’s Life.
Kennard guides the reader through the work year of one British shepherd, husbanding sheep with the help of his reliable dogs, Greg and Swift, and the worrisome youngster Ernie, who may be that worst of sheepdogs: a sheep-killer. Kennard grazes a spectacular bit of British countryside, and every year, he loses three or four sheep to hikers’ out-of-control dogs. Ernie’s story and redemption is a subplot of a book that opens with winter feeding; takes us through lambing, shearing, breeding and summer pasturing; and ends after Kennard sells his lambs and frost warns of winter.
Kennard and his dogs take an occasional busman’s holiday to compete at sheepdog trials. They compete at the International, the most important sheepdog trial in the world.
The appeal of Kennard’s story is the enduring cycle of man, sheep, dog and a wild, depopulated countryside. Shepherd Kennard is more forgiving of the vixen who kills his lamb to feed her cubs than those holidayers whose dogs attack his sheep.
Shepherding can be a life-and-death adventure—rising at three in the morning to sort a pen of birthing ewes who are trying to decide which newborn lambs are whose (and refusing to nurse those they wrongly acquire) or rescuing a terrified lamb stranded halfway down a cliff.
Since the book is excerpted in this issue, I don’t need to give examples of Kennard’s prose, nor storytelling skills. They are perfectly apparent.
A Shepherd’s Watch is a beautiful book and readers indifferent to sheep rearing who care very much about dogs may discover a different man/dog relationship than that they’re accustomed to.
A very good shepherd once told me that the first thing he looked for in a young dog is honesty, because “an honest dog will never let you down when you are in difficulties.”
Most of our dogs satisfy human needs for companionship and better physical and emotional health. They offer the sheer pleasure of sharing the world with another species. Some dogs are genuinely affectionate (though fewer perhaps than their owners think). Although dogs do judge their owners, usually the dogs are generous (or hopeful) and keep their conclusions to themselves.
When a shepherd wants to praise a dog he doesn’t call it “noble,” or “loving” or “handsome.” The shepherd does not believe dogs offer “unconditional love.” “Aye, yin’s a useful beast” is his highest praise.
Shepherds cannot do their work without a good dog, and cannot know when they’ll need him. They rise up in the morning, summon their dog(s) to work wild, beautiful country, often without seeing another human being all day. Men like David Kennard spend more hours with their dogs than with their wives.
The relationship between shepherd and his dog is an intimate necessity.
Donald McCaig and his wife Anne have raised sheep and sheepdogs for thirty years.
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