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Farmer's dog to trials?


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This is a strange question perhaps.

 

We raise sheep. We have sheep dogs to help us as we browse the sheep loose. We are often on horseback and the dogs help us control the stock.

 

Our old dog is very quiet and is very good. But not work quick, he is a very deliberate dog. Someone sent us some videos on sheepdog trails. He is not like those dogs, as he does not go fast like that. We really enjoyed the tapes. ( we have never even seen a trial.)

 

We live in very brushy rugged country and the dogs do not make wide 'outruns' they cannot due to the terrain.

 

They might in some circumstances have to split a flock in order to get to the front. In case we really need to stop the sheep.

 

But we were given a little sheepdog from the dog pound, who knows where she came from. This little dog would be fun to trial.

You can see she is more like those dogs.

 

But will it confuse her because the trialing is done in such a different way than what we must do here at home.

 

Thank you.

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I would not think trialing your new dog would confuse her. In order to be competitive at trials dogs need much more training and obedience than they do for daily farm work since trial work is more unexpected and exacting. This additional obedience will allow you to control your dog better during farm work.

 

I would expect that once she is trained for trialing she will be reluctant to split through the sheep to get to their heads but you may well have enough commands and control on her by that time that you can direct her to do this.

 

Good luck.

 

Beverly

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