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cgt

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About cgt

  • Birthday 02/29/1916

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    http://utahstockdog.org/
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    Utah

cgt's Achievements

  1. Is it possible that this person "Stardew" did in fact need such a correction?
  2. I always thought that If a dog has the "weak gene" it will frequently have a hard time moving cantankerous sheep.
  3. Hi Pearse. First, I agree with you wholeheartedly; "instinct test" makes me cringe. Having said that, I have from time to time had the good fortune to stand with some gifted handlers/trainers when I first put some of my young dogs on sheep. All I ever see is 5-10 minutes of chaos. These fine trainers, seeing the same thing, would make some tentative suggestions as to the amount of eye present and amount of presence. Over the next year or two I would come to see that they were always spot on with their initial estimate. It never fails to amaze me how some of us can be so talented that way. charlie
  4. Hi Donald. About 10 years ago, before I got sucked into this livestock-dog nightmare, I watched a sheepdog trial (an ancestor of what is now "Big Willow"). It was beautiful. I thought, "How hard can this be? I'll do it." Damn. charlie
  5. I rarely have had to deal with the bottle-fed lambs, so, you know, disclaim... but I wouldn't use bottle lambs. They are barely even sheep. They don't act right at all, and the dog will be getting a very weird first impression which *might* flavor a lot of the subsequent training. The dog needs to see/feel what effect he/she has on the sheep from the very start, and I don't think you will get that very well with the bottle creatures. charlie
  6. Regarding sheep behavior, particularly with regards to handling by humans and dogs... I always wonder which is more significant: environment or heredity. While I can often detect certain behavioral things which go with this or that breed of sheep, I always end up concluding that it's how the sheep have been handled in the past which controls how they behave. - charlie
  7. I keep about 30 of these in support of the Navajo Sheep Project. http://navajosheepproject.com/ They are not very big. They are hell to shear. They are really cool looking. They are tough as nails. They will eat anything. They never have parasite problems. They rarely need any help with lambing. If treated right, they work great with dogs. charlie
  8. Hi Jaime. I have some ideas - of what not to do. I give demos each year to hundreds of third graders as part of some sort of educational "farm experience" the schools set up here. Don't ask. For a while I used the good ole "Go ahead, kids. Try to pen the sheep." ploy. Naturally, the knee-knocking, brain dead sheep I use for the demos make the kids look like idiots. And then I take these overly dog-broke farm sheep and put them in the pen in 10 seconds with my open dog, who never even really has to try. The sheep see the dog and they know it's pen time. Works every time. Lots of applause. One year I even made the kids' teachers do it. The kids loved laughing at them. As did I. But. One year I somehow picked some very aggressive little third graders to try the pen. They spooked the sheep so badly the sheep squeezed through the horse panels. Demo over. I spent hours chasing the sheep through the fairgrounds (which contain the horse arena). Naturally, many other little demos were going on throughout the fairground. (This is a cow. This is a steak, etc.) I was quite the spectacular side show as I would chase a single through the "Corn: a many-faceted resource" demo, knocking over stuff, whistling like an idiot, etc. Moral: Don't involve the little bastards in your demo. charlie
  9. Although I am still a complete novice at agility, one thing I can tell you from my experience ... Don't use the standard Border Collie technique of pulling on their tail to control them. Tails everywhere. WTF? If my advice is too late - see Diane's post, above. charlie
  10. If you want to do it right, stay away from that AKC stuff. Have you considered visiting Norm Close? Norm is pretty damn good. He gives lessons, I believe. He's in Coeur d' Alene. http://www.handhillsbordercollies.com/ If it makes you more comfortable, you can tell him Charlie Torre sent you - but I won't say if that will help you or hurt you in the long run.
  11. "Brace" = Working a group of sheep with two dogs (at the same time). I, too, would like to see it over here. I've always wondered why it never caught on. charlie
  12. Last trial I went to, I smoked too much and downed an entire fifth of whiskey. My open dog did really well. Conclusion? Anecdotally yours, charlie
  13. How many acres are preferable? More. Always more. charlie
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