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What to look for when your dog first meets sheep?


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I agree that if someone wants to raise livestock and they find what they want, there's no need to wait for a dog. I also don't see anything wrong with having the dog first and then getting stock. Sure, some folks keep stock only for dog training, but many of us raise stock because we enjoy raising stock. I keep my ewes for fiber and their lambs go for meat. Ewe ambs that are being kept as replacements (or wethers saved back for butchering for personal use) are worked by dogs until they enter the breeding flock after their first year (this provides me with a fresh set of sheep for dog training and is a means of making those young sheep "productive" while I support them until breeding age, which for me is the fall after they turn a year old. Nothing stays that's not productive, with the rare exception (there's always a special old one or similar). But I also can't imagine managing my flock, or the other flocks here (including poultry and goats) without the help of dogs, especially this time of year when we're putting out hay and feed.

 

I recently helped a local farmer get her sheep and goats up for worming. They were kept on a large pasture (40 or 60 acres) and she was experiencing losses because she was unable to reliably bring them up for checking and treatment, She was ready to get out of raising small ruminants because of the difficulty she was having managing them (they also raise cattle). We found her a good trained dog and her outlook has changed completely. She's a prime example of someone whose farming life was turned around by a good dog!

 

Anyway, I guess the problem with getting a trained dog now if you're (BPoint) not retiring for another 5 or 6 years is that the dog could be approaching retirement itself at that point. Also, depending on what sort of livestock you raise and how you set up your farm, you might be able to manage with a less-than-talented dog until you can get a trained dog. That is, you could work with what you have while you're starting out, then add a started/trained dog later. The problem with a pup is that you just really have no idea if it is going to be a useful worker or not, and of course by the time you find out the youngster is 2 or 3 years old and you then you have yet another who can't help you do what you need to do.

 

J.

Excellent post Julie. Many things to think about.

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Thanks GentleLake and Mum24Dog. I agree that you should not necessarily judge by one exposure to sheep. We tried Bailey in the pen three times over two days, and his behaviour was getting more extreme - the first time he would not look at the sheep or go near them, the second time he barked and barked once we got into the pen, the third time he started barking before we got in the pen. He did not set teeth to the sheep - he would not go that close - but they were moving when he barked and he was not showing any sign of focus or desire to work.

Oscar and his brother George came from working stock. Bailey's breeding is a mystery. We got him from someone who had been given him as a gift and then gave him away. In Australia, all too often merles are bred for looks, not for working ability, by BYBs, and we suspect this is the case for Bailey. One reason we took him was so we could desex him and prevent him being used for more backyard breeding. He has a completely different body type to Oscar and George, more stocky and thickset, shorter legs. Still, I wanted to see if he did or did not have working instincts; I was not going to assume that just because he was merle, he could not be a working dog.

I don't think the trainer has any colour prejudices - he has a short hair EE red as his main working dog, and a short hair Blue as his second. He has just got a black and white, traditionally marked puppy to train up for the future.

It is possible that, given time and gentle encouragement, Bailey could discover herding instincts. It will take a lot of reassurance as he is quite an anxious dog, but unless I have a lot more access to sheep than I do currently, I do not know that it will be able to happen.

Bailey is still my sooky boy who I love to bits; that is never going to change. He is still the dog he was before. I am not critical of him because of this. I actually find him more rare as the sheep dog afraid of sheep! I started training him in agility, but while he loves tunnels, he hates coming out of them! He gets to the end and lies down. So I will work with him towards obedience and rally, and in any event, he will be part of our family.

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I didn't mean to say that you should push Bailey into something he's not comfortable with, just that one time out or being merle isn't necessarily indicative of anything.

 

And I totally understand the rationale to focus on the dog(s) that seem more promising, especially when your access to livestock is limited. And especially if the dog is old enough that this reaction isn't likely to change.

 

The prejudice against merles just gets under my skin. I'm happy that that doesn't seem to be the basis for your trainer's assessment.

 

Unfortunately here in the US most merles are bred for their color than for working ability too, and there's been an explosion of them, the result of which is probably fulfilling the prejudice as they're bred further and further away from their working roots. :angry:

 

Fortunately there are a few breeders here who are breeding merles for work, and they're slowly showing up in trials. B)

 

Kudos to you for rescuing Bailey and loving him for who he is. :D

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