As regular readers of Canadian Cowboy Country know, Matt is a young border collie that Dale Montgomery raised and has been featuring in his six-part series on training stock dogs. Literally thousands of people around the world have become fans of Matt over the past year as we have watched his progress.
Like all good working dogs, when not at work Dale’s dogs are kennelled and, between training sessions, are well exercised at least four times a day (often five times). They never run loose withouthis or his wife Dawn’s close supervision.
When the dogs were being exercised in late June, Matt, who in the past has never left the pack, went missing and was found a couple of hours later by the bale stack in their yard. He was terribly injured; almost his entire left rib cage was exposed with a piece of skin the size of a washcloth torn and hanging, plus there was a fair-sized hole in his side as well.
It was confirmed that it was not a predator attack, nor a dog attack, and speculation has run from being hung up in a fence to slicing himself on a piece of machinery. To this day, no one knows what caused the horrific injuries.
Matt was rushed to the local vet and was later transported to the veterinary college in Saskatoon where he underwent surgery to close the wounds.
I am happy to report that at press time, Matt was very close to being all healed up and when he’s fully
recovered Dale will continue with his training. Understandably, because of his injury Matt is not being featured in Dale’s column on stock dog training in this issue.
However, because so many people are interested in the career of this young dog we will keep you updated on his progress. We hope to see this lovable bundle of energy entered in a stock dog trial in the near future.