I was at an event today that included a sheepdog auction including tiny wee pups :( How I wish we could end this practice :(

I knew that livestock such as sheep, horses and cows go through auction but was unaware that dogs could also be sold this way, I didn't even know it was legal.

Skipton has a big sheepdog auction, mostly they sell older  part and fully trained dogs but they sell pups too.

Im guessing they go to working homes rather than pet.

I'm sure they do

> Im guessing they go to working homes rather than pet.

Not always to farm work though, we bought a pup at auction once to do obedience with and know several people who have done this, but that was a long time ago, I hadn't realised it still happened.

Look at the top prices

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-10732737

Diffecult this one as they are bred and trained to be workers.
Id hate the thought but we have a ISDS dog ourselves whilst he's a pet he has to be kept busy and with us and he does have herding tendacies that can be awkward - cows and paths ect... but if they are worth that much they should be well cared for.

I can understand it for a trained dog as you are in effect buying the training but not for a puppy :-(

The price paid for a puppy does not guarentee a good home. I think these sales should be banned. I could never condone selling a pup (or an older dog) at an auction where I had no control over the new owners. I understand they are sold as working dogs but they have a right to a good home like any other dog. They should be sold direct to the new owner so the seller can do some basic checks like good breeders do. Who's to say they wont be treated badly, bred from repeatedly because of the pedigree, abused. Farm collies have a pretty rough deal in my opinion, many spend thier lives chained to an outside kennel, unloved, used as a tool and nothing else. You see them around my neck of the woods, it is a farming area and every other farm seems to have a scruffy dirty matted collie roaming around quick to nip at your ankles, never brushed, only spoken too when needed to work. There are good owners who love them and I have seem many who are like a shadow at the owners feet, they are proud of the working ability and proud of thier dogs but many more see them just as another tool in the toolbox and treat them like it.
I do not have a problem with them living outside but with the way they are used and abused. Just because they are bred to work does not mean they have to be ignored as individuals. My Godfather was a gamekeeper and his dogs were all kept outside in kennels (With proper runs and proper shelter) but he loved them and they him. They worked for him but they were also his mates. He often had a litter of nice working labs but every one was sold to vetted homes, he would not have dreamt of auctioning them off like some old sofa...Collies seem to be the worst abused working dogs.
Aileen

The breed is all if they are a good breed I expect farmers will pay extra - Im really not sure if this any different than just sticking them in the paper! Instictively I feel its all wrong, but Im a pet owner not basing part of my working life on the dog.

Pups are much cheaper, this is the breakdown form the last sale.


Of the 72 dogs sold on the day, quality dogs performed exceptionally well, with a total 17 dogs
topping 2,000gns. The average price of £2,345 for the 35 broken registered dogs sold was again
an out-and-out mart record for the second sale in succession. 
Unregistered broken dogs sold to £1,450 (av £1,075), part-broken registered dogs to 1,300gns
(£578), part-broken unregistered dogs to 600gns (£490) and unbroken dogs to 290gns. Pups sold
to 200gns (£137).


So £137 was the top price paid for a pup. I'm surprised that you get more money for an untrained adult dog than a pup, the reverse of what happens in the pet world. Unless a dog has proved it's worth somehow then an adult is usually 'free to a good home'. An untrained, probably largely ignored on a busy farm, collie you would struggle to find a home for, but clearly not here.