Last updated 12:30, Friday, 23 May 2008

ACTOR Martin Clunes had left Lonscale Farm on the slopes of Latrigg not long before I arrived to meet sheepdog trainer Derek Scrimgeour.

Thankfully I didn't meet the irascible Doc Martin from TV in his car on this narrow, twisting back road in Brundholme Woods between Keswick and Threlkeld.

The television star had visited this lonely outpost for a project unconnected with acting.

Namely, he was tapping the Scrimgeour fount of knowledge for a segment of a two-episode programme on ITV that he is making about dogs and people.

Mr Scrimgeour, so his reputation goes, can work wonders with sheepdogs.

He can help if a farmer needs his sheepdog fine-tuning, or more often the owner.

He might be called upon to advise a sheepdog trials fan who wishes to compete - One Man and His Dog style - as a hobby.

Derek also breeds sheepdogs, training some ready for work and selling the others on as puppies.

Talking of One Man and His Dog, his farm sits in such a picturesque setting that it was recently selected as a location for a new series of that ever-popular programme, to be filmed this autumn.

But then, working sheepdogs are always guaranteed an audience in West Cumbria.

One of the best-ever episodes of One Man and His Dog was filmed in the fields below Haystacks at Gatesgarth Farm in Buttermere.

Even now, walkers on Haystacks, Hindscarth or Robinson can on occasion view farmer Willie Richardson gathering his flock from Red Pike.

That is a sight of sheepdogs working the crags, screes and ghylls never to be forgotten.

Of course, hilltop climbers on Skiddaw might chance on Derek Scrimgeour himself gathering his flock too, with Bassenthwaite glinting like a jewel below.

Visitors to the Western Lakes can also enjoy the dogs’ prowess closer to hand - at the indoor sheepdog demos in the Lakeland Sheep and Wool Centre at Cockermouth.

Then there are the country shows like Loweswater, Buttermere, Keswick and Borrowdale where knowledgeable viewers take in every move.

Cockermouth Show is a local leader in the trials, a long-standing magnet for a crowd.

Bets are even made as to when exactly the collie will finally succeed in driving its flock into the pen.

Derek admits that he landed on his feet when, 22 years ago, he arrived at the remote farm above Keswick.

He had ventured south from Scotland where he helped farm the site of the Battle of Killecrankie.

“It was difficult to find my own farm in Perthshire," he says. “Tenancies were just too short.

“The chance of Lonscale Farm came up so I was really lucky. Keswick has been a great area to live in and the lifestyle in the western lakes has real countryside values."

He pays tribute to the local farming community.

He says: “George Birkett shepherds for me. He's my next door neighbour's son. I couldn't carry out my sheepdog training business if it wasn't for George's help.

“When I'm away running sheepdog training courses and clinics he keeps the farming side in good order."

To do this he has good dogs, something hill farmers will always need, whatever the cost.

This was where Derek saw a niche market.

“Farming is difficult enough just now," he explains. “Everybody is trying to find something else besides the actual farming to try and make a living.

“Farming is a very nice way of life, but financially it's getting harder and harder and farmers need different things to diversify into.

“I've been lucky to be able to train sheepdogs. It's a gift that I have that I don't have to put a lot of money into.

“I take dogs from farmers to train for them and charge them so much a week for doing it."

He says farmers expect different things from their dogs. Some want the dog to do everything.

“They want it to stalk, to go left, to walk on, to do look-backs, and to shed the sheep," he says.

Another may just want the dog to go round the sheep and get them into the pens.

When it's done right and you have a good quality dog, he says, it is like remote control.

“Dogs aren't all perfect," he adds. They're like people, they vary a lot. So you get some dogs that are geniuses and other dogs that are thick.

“You just have to accommodate them, and work with them, and adapt to them.

“Usually it's fairly obvious which the clever ones are."

Occasionally a farmer will bring him a dog to train, and he has to say: “Sorry, I can't do much with this one. The standard of the dog isn’t high enough to train to a higher level."

Derek has written a book and produced three DVDs on his method of training sheepdogs.

How this evolved, however, was because of a chance occurrence that jolted him.

He says: “I once shouted ‘No, No, No’ at a dog and it ran off through the gate and down the road.

“I suddenly realised I had frightened the dog with the tone of my voice. It wasn't the only one. Several dogs at that time had left me in mid-training.

“That was a pivotal point in my training techniques. I never shouted like that at a dog again."

Instead, he now uses an encouraging voice when the dog is on the right track.

And when it is not behaving? He makes his voice a touch harsher.

After a while the dog realises where all the kinder voices are, and he starts to avoid the harder tones.

“The dogs are clever enough to work it out," he says. "So the dog trains itself. All you do is put the voices in the right places."

He remembers an instance of a dog that was responsive, and he trained it to a high standard.

He remembers telling the farmer from West Cumbria that it now had learned eight different commands.

“Hellfire," replied the farmer. “It only had two before, marra.

“Stop, and Go!”