Doggone good farm workers
Printed by Pantagraph November 29, 2006
By Scott Miller

McLEAN- Bruce Hopgood grew tired of undependable employees, so he bought a dog to do their work.

“He’s there with me everyday. He’s not drunk or anything,” Hopgood said of his best worker, Chilli, a border collie mix.

One thing lead to another, and his need for qualified employees hatched a seasonal business that pays for his daughter’s education at Xavier University in New Orleans.

Hopgood, owner of Midwest Cattle Dogs in McLean, breeds, trains and sells 'hardworking livestock owners.'

“One dog takes the place of about three people. You don’t have to pay insurance. You don’t have to worry about them showing up late for work,” he said.

The business started about 15 years ago when Hopgood couldn’t find capable workers to help him tend cattle he was leasing. He couldn’t round up the cattle for shots and medicine on his own, and he couldn’t afford employees who knew how to handle cattle.

So he bought a dog from breeder Gary Ericsson of Oklahoma. He’s been raising and training dogs for more than a quarter century, according to Cowboy Magazine.

Ericsson also conducts training clinics across the country and sells instructional DVDs.

Hopgood bought a DVD and took a clinic.

Since then he’s grown his dog-training business into a seasonal job to supplement his summer work as a barn painter.
“This is helping me get my daughter through school,” he said.

The business has serious money-making potential, and Hopgood hopes it becomes a full-time gig one day.
A fully trained dogs sells for about $4500.

A more experienced dog like 4-year-old Chili can sell for around $8000. Chili’s father sold for $15000, Hopgood said.
For $150 a day, he’ll also teach ranchers how to train dogs themselves.

The expenses aren’t cheap, however. He pays around $500 each month to feed and train a dog, and Hopgood only sells 25 to 30 each year, mostly to ranchers in Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, Alabama, and Tennessee.

Right now, he’s happy just putting his daughter through school and watching his dogs succeed, but one day, he hopes and believes Midwest Cattle Dogs will become a big business, selling 75 to 100 dogs a year.

He’s putting together promotional materials and trying to earn a spot on an outdoor television program on ranching and dog training.

“This wasn’t easy,” Hopgood said. “I’ve worked really hard. I always tell people, ‘You can do it if you want to, but like anything else, you have to work hard, you have to be passionate.’”