Tending - Training, Resources, Suggestions?

[TAC2]

HI again.

 

We now have a lovely 7 year old border collie bitch named Lena to help on the farm. She isn't Open level material but has competed in N/N, is well trained for my needs and I feel blessed to have her. She has lots to teach me, and I have lots to learn about herding. I've already introduced her to our un-broke sheep and tomorrow we start working together with them. One thing I would like to do with her down the road is have her "tend" our sheep. I'm told this is the correct term for having a BC guarding and keeping the sheep together as they graze open areas, not gathering them from out in the hills, but as they did in the old days on the village green. Does anyone here know of resources or folks that teach their BCs to do this kind of work?

 

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

 

~ Tru

[Bill Fosher]

http://www.whitecloversheepfarm.com/sh-home.htm

 

This is a guy in upstate New York who offers tending lessons. He flat out states that Border collies are not suitable for tending. I have done a little bit of it with my dogs, but decided that it was a better use of my time to set up electronet to enclose the area. With tending dogs you may be able to get your sheep fed, but you will not manage your pasture well, as you will not be able to force the sheep to graze the ground clean.

[Mark Billadeau]

We've used our dogs to graze our yard (keeping the sheep off the landscaping). The dogs need to relax so that the sheep will relax enough to graze. They also need to move calmly around the group to push a few sheep off the landscaping without moving the whole group around the yard or panicking the whole group. These sessions are more about training the dogs than grazing the yard. We use Electronet when we’re just interested in grazing the yard.

 

Mark

[TAC2]

Thanks for the replies guys. It is more to utilize all of the grassy areas available. Closing the gate and hooking the electonet from pasture to pasture at the top allows the sheep to graze the drive between pastures. Electronet is also used to section off the pastures so everything gets grazed down. I figured allowing the sheep to graze the lawn areas (this area has always been farm so "lawn" is actually mixed "native" pasture grasses) and in between the fruit trees where we currently have to buy gas and mow would be much more efficient, but there is no fencing and no charger nearby. Lena is pretty calm about just watching sheep, but that was with her previous owner on dog-broke sheep --- we'll see how things go with our wool brains this afternoon.