Adorable highly trained 'turkeydogs' - PHOTO

A British farm has trained dogs to herd more than 40,000 turkeys and keep them safe in the run up to Christmas.Mother and daughter team Pip and Kes spend their days shepherding and protecting the birds at Copas Traditional Turkeys in Cookham, West Berkshire.The collie crosses were trained from puppies and are introduced to the barns as soon as the poults are delivered to the farm to allow the birds to get used to their presence and prevent any distress.As puppies they undertook daily training on herding the turkeys, jumping fences, identifying and retrieving stray birds and catching vermin.Whilst the turkeys roam the cherry orchards and spend their days listening to Radio 2 in their barns (it gets them used to noise, particularly human voices), the dogs are constantly on hand to protect the birds and keep them in order.Farm Manager, Steve Hellings, 38, has worked at Copas and trained ‘turkeydog’ puppies specifically for this role since he was 13.Kes is part of the third turkey dog generation that Mr Hellings has cared for during his years at Copas, and the family are planning to breed from Kes next year to give her mother, Pip, a well-earned rest.He said: 'Pip and Kes are as much a part of the family as anyone at Copas – we couldn’t do our jobs without them. Working with them every day makes my job so much more fun and I’m really looking forward to training Kes’ puppies to take over the "family business".''Tom Copas (who mangaes the firm) saw a need for the dogs early on at the farm, as it’s the perfect method for getting our turkeys in from the Cherry Orchards each night.'He bought a dog and set the farm manager the challenge of making a turkey dog out of her. Three generations later we have Pip and Kes who are fantastic, and much loved members of the team.'The dogs we have need to have a good instinct, and be agile, calm and patient. They need a good temperament, as they are guardians of our birds.'The dogs have to be much calmer when herding turkeys compared by sheep, as they are flighty by nature. Sheep move much faster than turkeys so a certain level of patience is required when herding the birds.'Visitors love the dogs, as they are so unusual and fascinating to watch while on the job. They are almost more popular than the turkeys on our open days, and people love to see them jumping fences to round up the turkeys.'(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az