Joy

sweet, resilient, taking to SHEEP

Joy is from a litter of 4 puppies was born to Martin Feeney’s Meg and Dean McAuley’s Joe on 22-January-2023 via frozen AI: 3 females, 1 male.

At just 5 years-old, the sire, Joe, has been Irish nursery champion, twice Irish brace champion, three times singles team member, twice International Supreme finalist, and represented Ireland in the triennial sheepdog world championships in 2023. Joe is clear of all genetic diseases in the Orivet breed profile. More on his profile page.

Meg is the daughter of Martin Feeney’s acclaimed Jack (International Supreme finalist, multi-time Irish team member) and Phil McLaughlin’s Jill (another former Irish national team member). Meg is a strong bitch, quick with explosive power. She is an excellent listener, fun to work.

Already taller than her mom, Joy is a long, graceful female. She was named ‘Joy’ for her happy, bright nature.

Joy has what I look for and all my best pups: resilience. Joy packs plenty of punch; she is a pup who can jostle and hold her own with pups above her size and weight. Sweet but tough. In another life, joy was a guardian dog. She is one of the two bear chasers here, helping to keep wildlife at bay.

Introduced to sheep as a pup, Joy demonstrated that she a sweeping gatherer with natural outruns and flanks. Joy has the silky smooth style of her champion sire Joe. She is aware of the full extent of activity on the field, not just what is in front of her. She has a light touch with sheep, staying back and using position to move the sheep.

Joy is a little late in finding sheep compared to her littermates, but she is coming right along with a maturity and deftness her early-starting littermates did not have.

With displayed promise as a working dog, It was a tough decision to let Joy go, could have gone either way with another female, but with an upcoming litter and limited space in the kennel, someone is going to get an excellent pup, who will love her work, yet be just as happy as a companion.

Joy would be ideal for a beginner or intermediate sheepdog handler. She is not aggressive with sheep, stays back and takes commands well.

At 7 months…