Made it to a trial

[Maxi]

^^ yep^^ ithis is what I was trying to say in my earlier posts. But obviously not as clearly as Julie.

[Donald McCaig]

Dear Aspiring Sheepdoggers,

Ms. Mum writes:

 

"People on here have said they train every day with their own sheep."

 

As do I. But . . .That's because the sheep must come to be fed, I've two open dogs needing work so the three year old gets to train maybe 3 days, the older one 2 and other days I just send the dog and put out feed.

 

I believe it is easier for novices to overtrain young dogs, forgetting that the dog's maturity has a lot to do with what he's ready for and endless circling in a small ring does more harm than good.

 

Ideally? Once a week.

 

Although some will disagree, dogs under a year not intended for nursery trials need no more than one training session every two weeks and since they really do pick up where they left off (after being a lunatic for a minute or two) once a month will probably be okay.

 

What the "trained" sheepdog will lack - importantly - is experience. When we Americans go to the UK to buy a trial dog, we're not looking for better bloodlines or more sophisticated training, we're looking for a dog that has had real work experience and that dog will fetch a premium. I often advise my novice students to "use your dog for chores. It won't be pretty at first but he'll figure it out."

Experience is what dogs lack that don't have frequent real sheepwork (like those mornings I just send the dog and don't pay any more attention until I close the gate).

 

If you want your sheepdog to introduce you to the sheepdog world and teach you things you might use for agility training and your dog to be reliable near sheep, that modest goal can be accomplished easily and inexpensively. But working a sheepdog for the work it was bred for is astonishingly beautiful very early on. Warning: Slippery Slope!

 

Donald McCaig

[juliepoudrier]

I own sheep. At this time of year, I do use dogs to push them off the feed bunks (I feed my pregnant ewes), but that's the only time my dogs are worked daily, and really, pushing sheep off the feed bunks isn't exactly rocket science for a trained dog, nor does it take more than a couple of minutes (at most).

 

On weekends, they get a little more work as I sort sheep for people who want to come work dogs (usually youngsters).

 

But it's certainly not necessary for dogs to be worked every day. I hate drilling (or just repetitive training, if you will), so if I don't have good chores for them to do, I generally opt not to just take them out and train them for the sake of training.

 

Maybe it's just me, but just wanted to point out that not all of us who raise sheep train our dogs every day, or even 3-4 days a week. Perhaps I'm just a lazy trainer, but once my dogs are fully trained (especially) I don't see a need to go out and work them repetitiously.

 

J.

[Jumpin Boots]

Coming from the agility world, I was a bit concerned when we started herding that there needed to be a structured time frame and that we would fail or get behind if I missed a week of herding. So when we started training I tried my best to stick to weekly lessons, then life got in the way and we missed a couple weeks. What I realized when we returned was some of the issues we had been dealing with had sort of worked themselves out and my dog had matured. Every time we have taken a break, he has come back better than our last lesson.

 

I find that there is a lot of pressure from the sport world and the pet dog world to get your puppy/young dog on a training program. Even though I didn't think that I was buying into these pressures, apparently I still felt them and unknowingly transferred that concern to herding at first.

 

At 2.5 years of age we probably average a lesson every 10 days or so. And typically have some sort of sheep chore once or twice between lessons. I suppose if I had a competition time line then I might want to be a bit more structured, I will add that when we started I did have a time frame goal for where I wanted to be...stock work is very humbling and the time frame was quickly thrown out the window Because herding has so much more to do with what the dog is mentally prepared to handle it just doesn't seem like adding timelines is going to help with that. With agility and tricks you can break down the end skill you want and train little pieces as often as needed to keep yourself close to a set timeline and path. But at least from my novice eyes, it's just not that straight forward with stock work.

[mum24dog]

I don't feel any pressure to train anything by a particular time. I have no one breathing down my neck and I will train him when I think he is ready whether it is obedience, agility or sheep work.

 

Whatever I want to train I will ease off during adolescence. I don't believe in making life difficult for us both by working against it.

 

If I had had regular access to sheep he would have had daily close exposure under control from day 1 but I don't and he hasn't.

 

I will now wait until he come out the other side of adolescence to see how cooperative he is likely to be. He's a determined little beast and we need to come to a clear mutual understanding before taking on any serious work whatever the field.