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Green trainer/Green dog


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Just try not to get run over by the sheep, and stay out of the way. The rest your dog will do.

 

Uhm, yes...that is what concerns me...getting run over by the sheep!!

 

I am working on that though... A friend recommended that I go out in the field with the sheep - without a dog - and get used to how they move, what it takes to move them in different directions, etc.

We tried this last night - moving the sheep from one end to the other, then she had me be the dog and we split them.... :rolleyes:

 

Hopefully this will help my comfort level when it's time for me to go in with my own dog.

 

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We worked again today and fell down. Got run over by sheep; my bad. No long term injuries; just bruised ego. Sure is fun learning all the things to do in a few seconds time. Now to dog break my own sheep so we can practice at home. Any suggestions? N

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hi Narita

As I see it you have two options- bring your sheep to your trainer's place and have her dog break them there, or, get fencing up. Around my place, I just priced fencing at $149.00/roll of 100 feet- 48" tall. Metal posts are $6-8. Put a post every 8-10 feet. It really isn't that much money to get a pen set up. Of course, if your sheep are "bouncy" you may need something stiffer like combo panels. But, whatever- I think it's time you just did it :rolleyes:

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We have a round pen but it is far away from the sheep pen. Tried with the calm dog this a.m. to move them but they spooked and we ran back and forth to no avail. Will try again tomorrow. We are working on another round pen closer to where the sheep are so we won't have these problems in the future. Thanks for your help. N

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When I first started out, the sheep were fairly dog broke but we didn't have dogs well trained enough to bring them from the barn to the working area. So we caught 3 or 4 sheep, loaded them in a horse trailer, and drove less than a mile to a fence proofed horse arena. We used a soft rope and we got really, really good at catching sheep :rolleyes: and it only took a little hay and learning that they got to go home to get them loaded inside the arena when we were done.. Luckily for the sheep (because I'm sure was all kinds of fun for them) we got our dogs up to speed pretty quick and only had to do that for a little while, but it may be an option for you if you have a horse trailer and a sheep-proof arena to use.

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Maybe the catching ram lamb is a good idea and taking them one by one to the round pen (about 500 to 600 ft from fenced area). We also thought about moving them to the big field and feeding them there would be a good option. Will give it a try tomorrow. Thanks. N

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Narita,

 

I never thought I would be saying this....since we started this whole deal with Australian Cattle Dogs....but, see if your trainer can find you a solid older border collie. You will gain so much knowledge from working with it, that will help you with training your Aussies. We still have our cattle dogs and train them on sheep, but I use my border collie to handle the tasks such as moving the sheep acrossed the farm from the pasture to the work areas until I get a good handle on the cattle dogs. I used to do it with our young cattle dogs, often it turned to chaos, to the determent of the dog and my training. Heck, the dog was not trained to the level of handling the task, and ended up accomplishing things we did not want them to, learning behaivors we wanted to avoid until we had enough handle on them to guide them through.

 

My first border collie was a 3 yr old freebe that had no training but it only took me a short time to be able to use him to do things that turned to wrecks with the cattle dogs, but I think I may have gotten lucky with him. A big lesson that the border collie taught me, defense before offense, the cattle dogs tend to push then try to gather, I was able to quickly get the border collie to gathered then push, making things alot calmer and safer for the sheep. After working with the border collies I was also able to see that the cattle dogs were leaning on the sheep creating the problems. No wonder my sheep were running all over, my dogs were working in a way that worked against the task, sending them to do it again only made it more difficult to get them to change their thinking in the round pen.

 

If you think about it, first you want the dog to calm and make the sheep feel reasonably at ease, then you want the dog to apply the pressure to get them to go where you want them. Excited frantic sheep are really tough to control, especially when the dog gets drug in and has fun making them more excited. When moving sheep around the farm I do not want to reproduce the speed that is sometimes seen at trials, I want a calm easy walk, at trials we may need to have the sheep speed it up to get through the course in the right amount of time or to demonstrate that the dogs can move things along. But at home, we are on stock time, no need for excitement.

 

I have to laugh, an open handler in our area took me aside after a trial that ended in frustration last year and told me that if I wanted to have fun at trials to go buy a border collie. Well, trials are still a challange and still frustrating, but I went out and bought an untrained high powered beast. But, I am having more fun with my cattle dogs now that I can see where things are going wrong and am able to step in (or atleast try) and get things back on track.

 

BTW, I've been run over by sheep and knocked down, not fun...it does not need to happen, somewhere I have a short story I wrote about little Sandra Dee hanging from a ewes tail as the ewe is hunting me at a full run like a heat seeking missle. Wayne was watching from the window laughing hystarically as I ended up piled in a snow drift. Needless to say, that was the straw the broke the camels back, we needed to change how we were training and what we were training before I got killed. IMO, if the sheep are coming to you that hard your dog is pushing to hard. Someone talked about their trainer wanting them to go out and move sheep, it's a great suggestion, but, go out with another person and try to get the sheep to run to them like your dogs gets the sheep to run to you, then do it in a manner quiet call manner, you will realize how much push is being applied when it is not needed, the calm manner will get the sheep to the other person with less effort, the sheep will want to go the way you are sending them, not trying to get a way and just end up at the other persons feet. Did that make sense?

 

 

Deb

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Thanks Deb; yes it did make sense. We are using the older girl to try and move the sheep. Worked yesterday but not today as hubby was "helping." I'll try again tomorrow when he is in town. Less confusion and maybe I'll learn to move stock by myself without a dog. It was fun to see how the ewes reacted and checked us out. It is a good way to spend a morning anyway. Our trainer is on vacation at a trial in NM so we won't have lessons for 2 weeks. I'm starting to take over training the dogs at her place; should be more fun at trials to work my girl and maybe the guy if trainer agrees. N

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Got the sheep in the round pen yesterday. Finally worked by just turning her loose and getting them in by sheer determination. Then worked her and the boy. Today we didn't get them in the round pen but worked them along the fenceline of the driveway. Tomorrow we will try working in other areas around the barn. It is more fun out in the open than in the pen. Makes us both think of what we want to accomplish and how to go about it. Thanks everyone for your encouragement. N

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