Splitting

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I have about fifty wool ewes - the original stock was Western range ewes and I crossed leister, hair, and Texel rams into them over the course of the years. They have kept that, um, attitude, of "you and what army." They move ok, but they are quite happy to wander away at the slightest pretext of terrain, building or vegetation.

 

As you can imagine, it's especially bad around lambing. And unfortunately, that's the time when I'm doing the most moving around of the flocks. I can get it done, but it's not pretty.

 

I'm a ten year novice. I've basically just been piddling around at the farm level, with decent dogs, and a couple clinics a year, and some good talented friends who ARE at the Open level to watch and talk to. But this one's been bothering me for years and maybe you can give me a hint?

 

How can I help my dogs? If I try to hold them back so they are in a position to cover more of the flock with their eye, that seems to undermine their confidence. These ewes don't seem to like a lot of eye put on them. I've trained a dog with very little eye and he did best with them after all, but he was very hard for me to train and was ten before he was anything close to useful. I have had trained dogs with more eye and all of them had trouble - my bad handling combined with the ewes' intimidation.

 

I'd love to know how to get out of this cycle before I spoil the next two set of pups I've got coming up - one with a good bit of eye and already feeling that pressure from these monsters, and one with moderate eye.

 

By the way - these are the most trouble free sheep in the world other than a little matter of not staying in fences.

 

Thank you so much for your contribution here!

[JW]

Hi Becca,

 

I know what you mean. My Katahdins, who are super easy to move normally, become stubborn and ornery with lambs at their sides. While one is attempting to kill my dog, the others are drifting away.

As I said in my post to Jaime, I try really hard to build confidence in my young dogs. I want them to think they can move elephants. Some dogs are born with it, but many need building up. They need to know that it's okay to defend themselves. They need to feel okay about walking up to your ewes and doing what it takes to move them. Even if that's a cheap shot at first. The more confident they feel about moving the ewes, the less they'll feel the need to grip.

Okay, so now your dog has lots of confidence and the sheep still try to "divide and conquer". I'm sure there is a better answer to this problem, but all I know to do is to use two dogs, one for each back corner. I am whistle challenged, so all my dogs are on basically the same whistles. I still frequently use two dogs this time of year. It would be lots easier if they each had their own whistles, but it still works, especially once they know the job. It's pretty amazing how two dogs will almost instantly work as a team. They especially love forcing sheep into a trailer or small space.

 

Jeanne

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Oh goodie! I'm so glad I'm not "cheating" by using mulitple dogs! This time of year I even use three because of the heat. And the fact that one is eleven going on twelve! But he's the one who handles the stubborn ones the best so he enjoys his little contribution.

 

I am making sure the youngsters work stock they can move, and have the confidence to experiment if things get a little hairy.

 

It sounds like it might help to train the young ones on the big flock with an older dog as backup, also? Maybe that would make the difference.

 

Thank you!