Stock Dog Handling with Paddy Fanning

Paddy Fanning, from Glenealy, County Wicklow in Northern Ireland, was born to four generations of farmers. In 1985, when Paddy was a young teenager, his father got livestock. It wasn’t until 1997, when Paddy returned home from working a couple years in Canada, he discovered his father had increased his sheep numbers, and Paddy decided to get and train a sheepdog. That same year, he started trialing.

In 2000, 3 of the 60 dogs in the international were dogs he trained, including his own on the Irish team. When Foot & Mouth disease shut down trialing in 2001, Paddy “retired” from trialing and in 2002 moved away from full time farming to seek a new career. It wasn’t until 2015 that Paddy returned to competitive trialing . Since then, he earned his was on the Irish Team in the 2018 International after placing 3rd out of 150 Irish handlers in the Irish National. In 2022 he qualified two dogs in the Irish National and again competed in the 2022 International. Most recently, Paddy represented Ireland in the 2023 World Trial, making it all the way to one of just 16 handler/dog teamsin the World finals championship.

Paddy is an approved ISDS judge, judging trials in the UK, across the European continent and a few trials in the United States the lastcouple years. He considers himself a part-time sheep farmer and has six to ten dogs at any time helping with his Cheviots on themountainous areas surrounding his Wicklow home. He also has a social media presence sharing training videos and interviews with other handlers. www.churchmountsheepdogs.com