NED O’KEEFFE – IRELAND

Another one of our trial judges Ned O’Keeffe, an Irish sheep farmer who was born on a dairy farm that is still run by his father and brother, is a full-blooded sheepdog addict. In addition to his own sheep farm, he is also acting as a Farm Manager for a bigger sheep operation nearby.

O’Keeffe is a world class competitor and a constant member of the Irish Team. He regularly judges trials in Ireland and abroad. He is very enthusiastic about breeding and training border collies, as well as working and trialing with them – lost his heart in the cause, so to speak.
His current trial dogs are of his own Toryhill breeding. He has been very active in the ISDS, for instance, he has organized the Irish National Trials in 2015 and 2023 with his partner Mirjam Lettner.

O’Keeffe has previously judged the Finnish Championship Trial and has run several clinics over the years in Finland. Training young dogs as well as good stock and dog handling are close to his heart, and thus he likes to share his knowledge to others working with animals.

DOUG LAMBIE – WALES

Doug Lambie, born and raised in Argyle on the Scottish West Coast, is currently living in North Wales with his wife Ann. Their two daughters (adults already) also know how to run a sheepdog – it comes as a bonus when you have been raised on a sheep farm. Lambie highly regards the Border collie as a very good and useful working dog. Without the dogs he thinks the work (never-ending on the farms) could not be done, nor would the work be as full-filling and enjoyable as it can be with a solid and well-trained work mate. It simply would in most cases be impossible without the dogs, thus the deep respect for these dogs and their special abilities.

Earlier Lambie was traveling the world sheep shearing and is still working for the British Wool Board as a sheering instructor. Lambie’s livelihood consists of many branches: his sheep farm, selling annually some trained young sheepdogs (usually stud fee pups by his own work dog) and driving a truck part-time. Lambie has worked with dogs his whole life. He says, he is not that much of a competitor himself, but he has a deep insight of the working dogs and knows them well. He is very much looking forward to judging the Nordic Championship Trial in Salo Finland this August.