Last week on CountryWide, on RTE Radio 1, Louise Denvir reported from Donie Anderson's farm on the edge of Tallaght, Co. Dublin.
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Donie's home is located in Tallaght, Dublin 24. However, this part of Tallaght feels miles away from the hustle and bustle of buses and cars and big scale houses. Instead, it is sits on a peaceful piece of land right by the River Dodder.
With sixty sheep on his land, Donie has plenty of lambs to keep him busy and to help him with his many tasks are sheepdogs Jess, Rex, Bob and Bob.
The farmer is currently training Rex, Bob and Bob to heard with different whistle commands but the real star of the show is Jess, who has branched out in her career in order to heard geese.
"Not every dog likes to do it. Like, I had one before who would never heard sheep or heard ducks or hens but I'm just lucky with Jesse that she does everything", Donie told Louise.
Using older farming methods including old draft horses for ploughing and hand sheering his sheep, Donie is kept busy with his work.
Luckily, he has a great help in Jess has also taken to hearding hens which Donie says some find unusal.
"Some people say it is unusual, like, most dogs would heard ducks but hens are a bit harder because the hens don't be inclined to stay together as well as the ducks."
You can listen to the Countrywide report in full here:
