NOT since 2020 have we seen a price so high for a sheepdog at Craven Cattle Mart, Skipton.

Last week’s timed, online-only sale of working sheepdogs, on Tuesday, March 12, saw leading handler and triallist, Dewi Jenkins, achieve the principal price yet again. This time selling a two-year-old Dog, Mirk for £19,100 to Mr Monty Motto of the Shetland Islands, Scotland.

Jenkins, of Tynygraig, Ceredigion in Wales speaks highly of the eye-catching Mirk; a homebred dog with class, natural ability, plenty of forward gear and quality breeding behind him. Adept at farm work and ready for trials, Mirk is a grandson of Jenkins’ prized dog, Jock, with whom he won the International Supreme Championship Sheep Dog Trials in 2022. Also in October 2022, Mirk’s mother, Jill, sold for a record price of £26,000 at Bala Auction Mart’s field sale in Gwynedd, Wales.

Following Jenkins’ top price, other notable prices for fully broken dogs included two-year-old Fern, sold by S. Massey of Dumfries for £5000. Fern was sold to Ross Clarke, also of Dumfriesshire, Scotland. A. Ledgar of Cheshire wasn’t far behind, selling one-year-old bitch, Vicky for £4300 to H Chapman & Son, Carnforth, Lancashire.

The spring online sale also saw some high prices for part-broken and unbroken sheepdogs. Elaine Hill of Holmrook in Cumbria became the happy new owner of young Aran Jet, a nine-month-old, part-broken bitch sold by JF Bell, Howden, for £4200. Similarly to the top-priced Mirk, Jet is a granddaughter of Dewi Jenkins’ champion dog, Jock and is proving to be a spectacular working dog. Karen Karkow of Oxford in the USA purchased a part-broken Dog, Hilltop Stan, from JD Wood of Derbyshire for £6500, and an unbroken pup, Mirk, for £1100 from C. Mellin of nearby Oakworth, West Yorkshire; the highest price unbroken dog.

CCM’s next sale of Working Sheepdogs will be a live field sale, held on Friday May 17.