Bitty Bet has an interesting love/hate relationship with sheep. Since coming here, she's settled down a lot, but she still doesn't like being "fiddled" with. Since "fiddling" is necessary here (the dog often doesn't know best how to get the sheep or even where they are), I've had to build up her tolerance for this slowly. Thus, since sheep require a lot of listening for a dog to be useful here, she greatly prefers working ducks and geese in the water, an activity which only needs about a quarter of the input from the handler.
Soon after Bet arrived, for instance, we had to put about 35 head, ewes and lambs, in our 15 by 15 lean-to pen. The sheep can play ring-around-the barn indefinitely if the dog simply follows the heads blindly in this situation - new dogs have to learn how to block that game, and how to act as a team with us to get the sheep in.
Since Bet Would. Not. Stop. - it was a minor disaster and she ended up frustrated and exhausted. We had to use a second dog to stop the merry go round action - once the sheep know they can do it, they'll keep doing it dog or no dog, unless you get a dog that can stop them, or a backup.
Today Bet made me proud. For some reason today the sheep were all over the place in our 15 acre back field, and Bet took every direction to find them in a blind corner about 200 yards back, then over the hill and down to the pond, then back down and further across the dam when I realized that wasn't all of them.
Not only that, but each time she brought them quietly and not railroading them along - very important since it was 91 degrees out there! She did need many reminders but she took them all and they didn't make her sulky!! Then, when we got to the gate, she took several off-balance stops and partial flanks, allowing me to sort off the ewes with lambs without any fuss. These were a real issue for her when she first got here.
She's going next month for a tryout with a wonderful goosedog handler in VA and I'm pretty sure she will make my friend very happy. But now I'm starting to think it wouldn't be so bad if she flunked out. . . .
Soon after Bet arrived, for instance, we had to put about 35 head, ewes and lambs, in our 15 by 15 lean-to pen. The sheep can play ring-around-the barn indefinitely if the dog simply follows the heads blindly in this situation - new dogs have to learn how to block that game, and how to act as a team with us to get the sheep in.
Since Bet Would. Not. Stop. - it was a minor disaster and she ended up frustrated and exhausted. We had to use a second dog to stop the merry go round action - once the sheep know they can do it, they'll keep doing it dog or no dog, unless you get a dog that can stop them, or a backup.
Today Bet made me proud. For some reason today the sheep were all over the place in our 15 acre back field, and Bet took every direction to find them in a blind corner about 200 yards back, then over the hill and down to the pond, then back down and further across the dam when I realized that wasn't all of them.
Not only that, but each time she brought them quietly and not railroading them along - very important since it was 91 degrees out there! She did need many reminders but she took them all and they didn't make her sulky!! Then, when we got to the gate, she took several off-balance stops and partial flanks, allowing me to sort off the ewes with lambs without any fuss. These were a real issue for her when she first got here.
She's going next month for a tryout with a wonderful goosedog handler in VA and I'm pretty sure she will make my friend very happy. But now I'm starting to think it wouldn't be so bad if she flunked out. . . .
1 comment:
Bet on sheep? Hmm . . .sounds like a gamble to me.
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