In contrast to Roy Saunder's other book, Craig of the Welsh Hills, this is an excellent book and a classic; beautifully illustrated with the author's drawings and with photographs. It takes you through the shepherd's year, the training of a young dog for herding, culminating in the sheepdog trials. Roy Saunders was a high school teacher in Wales when the sheepdog trials "bug" bit; and he could only really train his dog, Toss, on sheep on weekends. But he manages to train the dog well enough to compete without embarassment in the Welsh National Sheepdog Trial that first year, even though Toss' run was not good enough to make the Welsh team for the International. ( )