Seemingly idyllic life is led by all in this charming tale of "dreaded" sheep dog, Bob.

YouTube: Yes, I should have oiled and sharpened the sheep shears first, but Tim wasn’t around and they were sharp enough. Also, I say that these dogs were bred for herding sheep – but really they were more of a guard dog than a drive dog. (Bob, though, is neither!)

Bob came from a rescue centre and so we don’t know how old he is. Probably eight years old now, at least. And deaf, stiff, useless and annoyingly noisy sometimes. But we love him dearly.

I try to shear him twice a year – and each time I do it, I say to myself, I must do this more often. We bought an expensive set of electric shears once – they didn’t work at all and are still in the back of the cupboard. They just couldn’t get through the dread-locks. Sheep shears work well though, but it still takes a long time because there’s just such a lot of him.

(P.S. Of course we didn’t dock his tail. That’s the way he arrived. Some say he’s a Bobtail and never had a tail, but we just don’t know.)