Debbie Meier Posted July 17, 2014 Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 Tending sheep is a great way to see just how much your dog understands. I used to take a good book, put on the sun screen and take the sheep and dogs down to the ditches for a few hours each day to graze. Really helps with getting you to work on flanking from one place to another and back again without putting the entire flock into motion. You can also see just how much your dog is reading the individuals and if they see the entire picture or not. I had one old trial dog that we were given that I could never tend with, she was absolutely beside herself "must move sheep" and at a fast pace too. If you didn't let her she would sneak off and cast herself out and around a 100 acre field to get to the other side in hopes she could move them from a different direction. After a few weeks of trying to get her to understand that it was ok to just hang out and let the sheep graze I gave up, my sheep lost way too much weight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emilyfalk Posted July 17, 2014 Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 Rachel, one thing I've done to help with pushiness is lie the dog down, ask him up saying "time", and if he gets up and moves at anything other than a walk, he gets downed again. Repeat as needed, but not something I'd do with a sticky dog. When getting ready for a trial on light sheep, Gabe is not allowed to break out of a walk at home, knowing that will likely transfer over to a trot or more at the trial Or a long line? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stockdogranch Posted July 17, 2014 Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 Tending is an interesting exercise. The dogs need to stay calm enough around the sheep so the sheep will relax enough to graze. They will need to flank correctly to move individuals or a few sheep back into the proscribed area without disturbing the others (pushing all the sheep out of the area on the other side). They will need to get up after laying near the sheep (not a good exercise for dogs with lots of eye). They may need to walk up in the face of sheep that have their heads down. And this is more like a job as opposed to drilling. Yes! We do lots of tending here. I have over 100 acres of lovely fenced pastures with fences that stop about 18" above the ground (originally built for horses), and I have Dorpers (escape artists). So, when there is grass, if I want to take advantage of it, I sit and watch sheep eat. I think it is one of the best jobs for dogs to do, and here it is a necessary job. I'm like you, Julie--I work with the youngsters a lot, but the dogs who are already trained don't get so much--just small, routine jobs. But even those small jobs (moving sheep from the night pen to a pasture for the day) tend to go to the young dogs as soon as they can almost handle them. A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted July 17, 2014 Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 Rachel, one thing I've done to help with pushiness is lie the dog down, ask him up saying "time", and if he gets up and moves at anything other than a walk, he gets downed again. Repeat as needed, but not something I'd do with a sticky dog. When getting ready for a trial on light sheep, Gabe is not allowed to break out of a walk at home, knowing that will likely transfer over to a trot or more at the trial Or a long line? Yes, this is what I've told students to do as well. If the dog doesn't have a tendency to clap and they come fast out of stop, the only "reward" they get is being stopped again. Most of them figure it out. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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