Smalahundur

Why delete? Everybody likes a happy ending. Congrats btw with the succesfull rehoming.

Sounds a bit silly terrecar, but I think you should just try shedding. I am no "crack" by any stretch of the imagination, but my experience was that some of those "advanced" tasks like shedding and penning may turn out to be less daunting than you think, if you actually just give it a go. In my personal experience this happened with penning, and my first real stockdog Gláma ( fine worker but not brilliant, bless her, and with the bonus disadvantage of being trained by a newbie). I imagined that penning would be really difficult, turned out she was quite good at it and getting it down was a lot easier than expected ( not really sure who taught who though...)

I would recommend "Herding dogs, progressive training" by the late Vergil S. Holland. A very practical guide to training a stockdog. It doesn't assume any knowledge from the reader, it takes you through all the stages of the proces in a structured manner. Lots of exercises, and practical advice, no "fluff". It is very much focussed on bordercollies, and their style of working. I wouldn't worry too much about your dog barking at this stage, I think it is most likely, as you say yourself, the excitement of this new experience. Good luck with your training, and yeah, there will be sheep in your future.... We zouden dit gesprek overigens ook in het nederlands kunnen voeren, maar wellicht wat onbeleefd voor internationale meelezers,

The sweeping statement was made about the breed, as compared to other breeds. I expressed my disagreement about it. In my opinion the bordercollie is or at least should be a rugged working dog.

"Not built for it", seriously? If bordercollies were not built to endure cold weather and freezing cold water I would have little use for them. Roundup season is September/October here in Iceland. Getting a bit wet playing on the beach in the winter, I wouln't worry about it...

Ha! You are not dealing with a "mere" dog. You had to get yourself a bordercollie, you allready lost. Better accept it...

Conformation class...? Come on man . 'Gait nicely on a leash', you mean thet ridiculous showwalk where the dog strains his neck to constantly stare at the face of his proud owner? No thanks. And no strangers are allowed to run their hands all over my dog, let alone their " very private places".

I still think yor logic does not take differences in breed in account; in a breed where the ewes are polled and the rams have horns, strongly reducing testosterone is likely to stop horn growth alltogether. But in a breed like the icelandic, where ewes are also horned ( but with smaller, thinner horns than in the males), the reduced testosterone might only have an inhibiting effect, resulting in wethers that have thinner horns than uncastrated rams. After a burdizzo castration afaik, testicles become completely necrotic, and therefor stop producing testosterone. In principle no difference to removing them. For now I stand by my hypothesis

No mistakes, all wethers here are horned (unless obviously those from polled stock). Those horns grow like Shashlik's; long and wide, but thinner than in uncastrated rams. Significantly bigger than in ewes. That's why I thought him to be a wether, actually I still do. I think a botched burdizzo in which the sperm ducts are succesfully severed, but bloodsupply to the testicals remains intact sounds rather unlikely ( but who knows...?)

I think the explanation is simpler; the breed. Icelandic ewes also have horns ( the majority that is ). In a breed where the rams are horned and the ewes are not, I can imagine castration has an stronger inhibiting effect on horn growth than in a breed where both sexes are horned.

If you are talking about a true vasectomy, then the sperm ducts are blocked, but blood supply to the testicals remains intact, and testosterone production is not affected. Then it should not make any difference when the operation is performed. Here in Iceland lambs who come home after the slaughtertime is finished ("too late") are habitually castrated to be slaughtered as wethers next year. We just pocessed two of ours for home consumption, they were in the dog training group over summer. Those lambs are at least 5 months old at the time of castration. Sometimes people castrate adult rams they don't want to use anymore, at least a few months before slaughtering. The castration method is by burdizzo clamps. How sure are you an actual vasectomy was done, and not a burdizzo castration? Your description of Shashlik (great name btw) and his looks do point to a true wether.

No, I would not define a ram with a vasectomy as a wether, just like a human with a vasectomy is not a eunuch. Icelandic rams at least (dunno about other breeds but would think it´s the same) grow slightly slimmer and clearly wider horns than intact rams. I would expect a ram with a vasectomy to grow normal horns, no doubt it is the testosterone that is the factor. I would be very weary of a ram called "Ramrod"...

Ha! I had him pegged as a wether ( you posted another pic with him in it, the one with the funny captions), because 1. In with the sheep, and 2. His wide growing horns. Meant to ask about him, but forgot.

My dogs prefer coffee.

Yeah having trees is pretty cool. We do have some, a few rather pathetic rows of willows planted by the previous owners, about a km from the farm. But it is a thing here in Iceland, forestry, and we are looking into it. Not very high on our current priority list....

No wonder

What a nice update. Happy for you and Bonnie. How are things going on the new farm? Settling in? ( we are still in the middle of the "settling in" proces....)

What a nice way to introduce yourself to this community. Read the description of this section. And if "it´s not rocket science", then why don´t you figure it out yourself...

Unless you are keeping sheep in your appartment this question is better suited for the general bc discussion part of this forum.

Do not think of a pink elephant right now . Is it working?

Disclaimers: 1. The following is totally regardless of the emotional bond you have with your dog. 2. I can (obviously) not really say what I would do in your situation, just what I'd do in mine with a dog like you describe. That said my harsh answer would be, I would have him put down. This kind of dog is in my opinion a liability. Biting strangers just because they are in reach is of course totally unacceptable behavior. If the only way to correct this would be a many months long traject with a professional trainer ($$$$....), then that price is simply too high for me. I would rather spend my money, time, and energy on a biddable talented dog who does not have such problematic issues.

Yeah, before I got into sheepkeeping I would not have believed how different two sheep can look, even when they are both white and horned ( "regular" though we also have polled and quite a variety of color). I wasn't on horseback this time, they were not that far away, and the lower parts of terrain are peat moors, most places you can walk through them ( in your wellies) but horses can get in trouble.

I hope it isn't pannus for your dog's sake, rather something cureable. My Glàma's eyes have deteriorated the last months, she clearly has impaired vision right now. So bad that she isn't able to work. And this is happening alltough she is fully on meds. Before her bad spells (she has never been as bad as now) were controllable with medication. It seems to have stopped working. I have a glimmer of hope she might improve a bit over the coming winter (dark, no dust) as she was always better in the wintertime, but frankly I am preparing for the worst. I hope your Gibbs makes a full recovery.

Thanks everybody. I must admit these pictures are a bit deceptive, autumn has hit, and this was a rare beautiful frosty day with hardly any wind. But lately there have been quite some with stormy weather, sleet, snow and rain showers...Days are shortening quickly, the long dark winter is coming, there are reasons this part of the world is rather sparsely populated. But yeah, I would not want to live elsewhere. The fleece is beautiful, for interested people, here is some info about it https://www.icewear.is/us/what-makes-icelandic-wool-special The sheep, and especially the lambs looktheir best right now, coming down the mountains in full fleece.

Yeah, I know what you meant. The sound generated by a shepherds whistle is afaik based on so called Helmholtz resonance. I have not found analysis of the shepherds whistle sound but I did of another Helmholtz resonator; a tea kettle. This shows a lot of ultrasound being generated, so that may also be the case for shepherds whistles , though they are of course of rather different dimensions than a kettle. Here is the link, way too technical for me btw; https://engineersportal.com/blog/2017/9/24/acoustic-signature-of-a-tea-kettle