Willy Nilly dog

[ragtimedog]

I read where this topic was touched on some time past, but it wasn't exactly my situation. I have a 5-yr-old dog who does a pretty good job around the farm. But when I take him out with the whole flock (7 ewes and wethers), he will focus on any that might be running and ignore the rest. I had his uncle who used to do this, but I would lie him down and make him look back. He eventually got the idea, but this guy doesn't seem to get it. He looks great if we're working 3 Katahins who have velcro for hair, but my flock is pretty dog worked. Not that any are super heavy, but they may split or wander off and he'll come right up the middle (after a beautiful wide outrun) I can make the Ahhh noise and he knows exactly why and goes back to pick them up, or I can make him look back, but he seems to focus on the ones that move the fastest (that time around.) Is there anything I should be doing to get the idea across?

Thanks,

LP

[Vergil Holland]

I read where this topic was touched on some time past, but it wasn't exactly my situation. I have a 5-yr-old dog who does a pretty good job around the farm. But when I take him out with the whole flock (7 ewes and wethers), he will focus on any that might be running and ignore the rest. I had his uncle who used to do this, but I would lie him down and make him look back. He eventually got the idea, but this guy doesn't seem to get it. He looks great if we're working 3 Katahins who have velcro for hair, but my flock is pretty dog worked. Not that any are super heavy, but they may split or wander off and he'll come right up the middle (after a beautiful wide outrun) I can make the Ahhh noise and he knows exactly why and goes back to pick them up, or I can make him look back, but he seems to focus on the ones that move the fastest (that time around.) Is there anything I should be doing to get the idea across?

Thanks,

LP

 

Sorry for the delayed response, I am on the road trialing.

 

You are doing the right thing to turn him back. My guess is that he was corrected at some point in his training for grabbing at the ones that didn’t move off easily and so decided it was better to please the handler and bring the ones that moved. This means that he has never learned to push.

 

When you chastise him and turn him back, give him a chance to and encourage him to mildly “chastise” the slow ones and then bring them to you.

 

Good luck -

Vergil

[ragtimedog]

You just may be right. He tries his best to do what I want. When he was just starting out, he had a tendency to be a bit rough on the sheep. He has settled down and will grip when I ask him to.

We'll just keep on working. He was better this week so I guess there's hope.

Thanks.

L