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Info on Kent Kuykendall's dogs


Dixie_Girl
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He is the Maternal Grandfather of Skip. Just wondering if anyone has seen this dog work and what kind of worker he is. Anything else that you might know would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

I have seen Coon work. Awesome dog, and he and Kent were a great team. From what I've seen he is a confident, powerful dog - with a lot of authority on stock (both sheep and cattle). I watched Kent pour out 50 lbs of feed for a group of hungry lambs, and then have Coon pick them right off of the feed trough "Yes sir, Mr. sheepdog, we're not really hungry, we are walking away from that yummy grain and going up that hill, yessirree!" I've heard (through the grapevine) that he did have his share of "grip outs" at trials, and that maybe he has a bit of a "short fuse".

I have a Coon daughter running in Pro-novice. What I like about her...She has a ton of natural style and ability. She seems to read new sheep very well and learns things quickly. Very good sense of balance and pace. She wants to please me, and tries very hard to takes her commands (all though sometimes she still folds to the pressure and takes a wrong flank, or gets sticky on the drive away.) She responds best to a quiet voice.

What I don't like about her...she lacks a little confidence sometimes, and she is not very "dog friendly". She has good self control, but really does not appreciate other dogs invading her space. She went through a period at about 1.5 years old where I wanted to strangle her - she started out awesome as a pup, and then became a nasty gripper. I stopped training her for a while, because I didn't think she could take the kind of physical pressure I needed to apply to stop the gripping without turning her completely off sheep. Brought her back a year later, she was mature and she has been doing great ever since.

 

I know there are others on this boards that probably know Coon much better than me. Robin, Denise?

Laurie

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Thanks Laurie. That really explains a lot of Skip's personality traits. He has not turned on to sheep yet and I am hoping it will help him with his confidence. Although, I am not sure if it is really a lack of confidence now after reading about Coon, and knowing what I know of Bud and Hope(parents). I think he acts the way he does because he is PUSHY, not a lack of confidence/fear thing. I do wish I could contact the breeder of Coon and with Kent. I am going to call Skip's breeder and see if he knows how to get in touch with them.

 

 

Robin, thanks so much for the pic of Coon! I have pics of his parents, so now I have one of the granddad!

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Freya is a Coon granddaughter (Coon x Fieldstone Holly) x Imp Jill. She never gripped out in trials. Actually, I had to encourage her to grip after making the mistake of never allowing her to use her teeth. Her sons though, are more than happy to bite hard. I would agree with some of the things that Laurie said as being true about Coon offspring and descendents, but I think it really depends on what lines Coon was crossed with. Overall I would say I like my Coon granddaughter. I would like to see a little less gripping from her pups, but they are teenagers still :rolleyes:

 

Freyaherd17.jpg

 

Freyaherd8.jpg

 

Keepstonecoolingoff.jpg

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Thanks Laurie. That really explains a lot of Skip's personality traits. He has not turned on to sheep yet and I am hoping it will help him with his confidence. Although, I am not sure if it is really a lack of confidence now after reading about Coon, and knowing what I know of Bud and Hope(parents). I think he acts the way he does because he is PUSHY, not a lack of confidence/fear thing. I do wish I could contact the breeder of Coon and with Kent. I am going to call Skip's breeder and see if he knows how to get in touch with them.

 

One thing - In my experience, you can't really correlate one dog's working style (Coon pushy on stock) with another's non-working personality traits (your dog isn't turned on to sheep so i'm assuming you mean pushy in life). I don't think Coon was pushy or stubborn off stock, at least he didn't seem to be in the many times i was around him. :rolleyes:

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16-contemplatinglife_edited-1.jpg

 

I have a Fieldstone Holly x Coon grandson. This is Rudy above. He's a love. He was on sheep years ago, ( we don't have sheep anymore) He learned very quick, natural balance, pace, very eager to please. No griping here, a little too soft, but always trying. He is extremely sweet, loves all people, ( except men in hats ) kids, other dogs. He's our hiking companion now. I've never seen Coon in person work, but have seen some cattle dog videos. You could probably get a hold of some videos to see him work.

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Touche' ! You are right, of course. ^^^^me grasping for straws^^^^!

 

I just don't know what to do with Skip. Even working Jackson in the pen, with Skip just hanging loose didn't do much to encourage his interaction with the sheep. Carol Anne wants to let Jon(her DH) work with Skip next, see if it helps. But, I do know that regardless of breeding, sometimes, it just doesn't work. And that's ok. I just had a lot of high hopes for the little guy.

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Sometimes it takes a while, and some creativity to get one going. A lot of times, i'll have Spottie come in and move sheep back and forth, side to side, right in front of a dog, trying to touch off some heading instinct. Or it could be that Skip would turn on if there was a puppy in there creating havoc. Or maybe try a packed pen even. It would be very odd to not get *any* working instinct at all in there.

 

ETA: One other thing - i have had dogs come out who just won't work for me, but they will for the owner. Usually once they get started and hooked, they'll tolerate working for me more or less, but are always more keen for the owner.

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Thanks Robin. It does seem odd that he has "no" reaction to the sheep. BTW, I was in the pen working Jackson. When I had Jackson pen the sheep, Skip did come over to have a sniff. Unfortunately, the sheep, seeing a dog at the corner of the pen(on the other side of course) created havoc and when they jumped, so did Skip! I will try the suggestions. Or re-name Skip Odd-ball! :rolleyes:

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Thanks Laurie. That really explains a lot of Skip's personality traits. He has not turned on to sheep yet and I am hoping it will help him with his confidence. Although, I am not sure if it is really a lack of confidence now after reading about Coon, and knowing what I know of Bud and Hope(parents). I think he acts the way he does because he is PUSHY, not a lack of confidence/fear thing.

 

Not really sure what Skip's behavior is, but I think there is often a resource guarding or confidence issue if he's reacting to other dogs in a bad way. Maybe he's resource guarding you? I don't think it has much to do with whether or not he turns on to sheep, although I've seen sheep bring the confidence out in fearful or timid dogs. Dogs that have " misguided stalking/chasing behavior" sometimes change when they find out what it is they are "really " supposed to do with those instincts.

Gotta would be very happy if she, sheep, ducks and I were the only beings in the universe. She likes people, tolerates respectful Border Collies, but every other living thing is either a "sheep" (big dogs/animals), or a "duck" (little dogs and cats) in her mind.

L

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My Zeke is a Coon X my Stilhope Joy. He was briiliant and brave on sheep. He had tons of push as a younger dog but as he got older, he lost some of it. No temperament issues except he was busy in his kennel:

 

37039813.jpg

 

 

More Zeke pics

 

 

He's retired for trials but is loaned out for now and works on a commercial sheep farm.

 

A video of his last trial run.

 

 

I knew Coon pretty well. I have lots of videos of him working. The pic Robin posted was one I took of him at my farm years ago.

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