Smokjbc Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 Hi all, Since I've got way too much time on my hands, I'm doing a sheepdog demo next week for a local farm festival, which will have "hundreds" of elementary aged kids on hand. Somehow, I've managed never to do one of these- figure we will have a little pen and some barrel "drive panels" and I will have a little headset so I can talk about what I'm doing. Anyways- if anyone has done one of these, I'd love to hear ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgt Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 Hi all, Since I've got way too much time on my hands, I'm doing a sheepdog demo next week for a local farm festival, which will have "hundreds" of elementary aged kids on hand. Somehow, I've managed never to do one of these- figure we will have a little pen and some barrel "drive panels" and I will have a little headset so I can talk about what I'm doing. Anyways- if anyone has done one of these, I'd love to hear ideas. Hi Jaime. I have some ideas - of what not to do. I give demos each year to hundreds of third graders as part of some sort of educational "farm experience" the schools set up here. Don't ask. For a while I used the good ole "Go ahead, kids. Try to pen the sheep." ploy. Naturally, the knee-knocking, brain dead sheep I use for the demos make the kids look like idiots. And then I take these overly dog-broke farm sheep and put them in the pen in 10 seconds with my open dog, who never even really has to try. The sheep see the dog and they know it's pen time. Works every time. Lots of applause. One year I even made the kids' teachers do it. The kids loved laughing at them. As did I. But. One year I somehow picked some very aggressive little third graders to try the pen. They spooked the sheep so badly the sheep squeezed through the horse panels. Demo over. I spent hours chasing the sheep through the fairgrounds (which contain the horse arena). Naturally, many other little demos were going on throughout the fairground. (This is a cow. This is a steak, etc.) I was quite the spectacular side show as I would chase a single through the "Corn: a many-faceted resource" demo, knocking over stuff, whistling like an idiot, etc. Moral: Don't involve the little bastards in your demo. charlie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokjbc Posted October 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 Moral: Don't involve the little bastards in your demo. charlie Oh dear....maybe I should cancel . Great story! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Good Shepherd Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 That just cracked me up Thanks for making me laugh this morning, I really really needed it I can just see the little monsters spooking the sheep and you trying to corral them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debbie Meier Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 We will be doing demonstrations this weekend also. We use 15-30 sheep at one time, yippee vet just left here after inspecting everyone for our health certificates. When I bring the kids in, I use 4 kids (I try to pick older ones) and set up a barrel about 3/4 of the way down the arena in the center and then two barrels or panels on the other end about 3/4 of the way down. Having them keep the sheep away from the fences seems to work well, we start behind the first set of panels/barrel down around the singe barrel and then back inbetween the panels/barrels Keeps it pretty simple but yet challanging enough for entertainment, and if I have to I can sneak a dog around outside the little course to help the kids out without them realizing it. If you ever get a chance, 20 indian runner ducks are a hoot, but I use 4 adults, not brave enough to do it with kids. We have a bridge that we challange the adults with, smaller version of what was on the Amazing Race a couple weeks ago, great fun to watch. It really points out the impatient get it done people and the sit back and wait for others to do it people... Deb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pearse Posted October 9, 2009 Report Share Posted October 9, 2009 One of the best demo's I've ever seen was done by Chuck O'Reilly at the Irish Festival in St. Paul MN. Chuck's a very good handler and trainer of dogs who's been doing this since the first two sheep came off the Ark. He does a demo every year at the Irish Festival, which is held on Harriet Island in the Mississippi near downtown St. Paul. It's a big deal with tens of thousands of people visiting over the course of a weekend and the place is literally packed with people, bands playing, kids running everywhere. So, one year Chuck shows up with his trailer of sheep and this three or four dogs and there really wasn't anywhere roped off for him to do his demo by some planning error or other. No matter says Chuck and gets out four or five sheep and one of his good dogs and works the sheep through the crowd. There were kids trying to tackle sheep, and kids trying to pet dogs, and still no kids were killed and no sheep were lost in the Mississippi. Anyone who ever wondered about a Border Collie's ability to work in the middle of total mayhem (I think when I got there, the Dropkick Murphy's were playing so no noise sensitivity in Chuck's dogs) would have had their questions well answered. The sheep were worked in and out of tents, through high traffic areas, down the center aisle of the main stage area. The next year, they had a designated area for the demo's and Chuck got to show his dogs off to greater effect to the average viewer but to anyone who knew what they were watching, seeing a dog work five nervous sheep through a packed crowd of thousands of people, was one of the more impressive demonstrations of Border Collie sang-froid ever seen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenS Posted October 9, 2009 Report Share Posted October 9, 2009 I've done quite a few demos. They can be really fun. I haven't done any for a kid specific audience, though. I don't see where there would be too much difference. One thing I would caution you about is to make sure the venue has proper sheep facilities. Being a farm festival they hopefully have a clue, but many venues don't. Of course, this can make for some great stories! A small group of us was doing a demo at a local Scottish Games. It was held in a park and adjacent rodeo grounds. We were in a nice horse arena with solid 4 rail fencing. Great for horses but easy for sheep to slip out of. We had constructed a small pen on one end to hold a second set of sheep, as we were to be there all weekend. When it can time to do our first demo, I entered the arena with my very sensible old dog, Woody. Some sheep were let out and they quickly proceeded to turn back to their friends, slip through the panels, and take off up the road to the stage and food area. I just sent my dog. I wouldn't have sent just any dog under these circumstances, but Woody was as honest a dog as one could ask for. The road the sheep took went up a small hill, and they were quickly out of sight before my dog left the arena. Soon, though all the sheep were trotting back to us, into the arena and followed by a huge crowd of people. I heard several accounts of what had happened out of our sight. Apparently, the sheep had run up and stopped right next to the stage at which a performance was occurring. From the audience perspective, They were watching the performance, a small group of unattended sheep run up and pause. Then suddenly a dog appears between the front row and the stage, calmly lifts the sheep, and takes them back down the hill, all with no human present. Now thats a good demonstration. We had another escape out of this arena the following year after reinforcing with orange plastic netting. That involved a young dog pressuring them out. It turned into quite a scene as the sheep made their way to where the history reenactors were doing a battle. Lots of costumed performers lying on the ground pretending to be dead when here come the sheep. We totally made their weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz P Posted October 9, 2009 Report Share Posted October 9, 2009 Sounds like the demos are a lot more fun when things go wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Journey Posted October 9, 2009 Report Share Posted October 9, 2009 Charlie & Jen - next time you all do demos will you tell me where so we can come watch the fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pearse Posted October 10, 2009 Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 Sounds like the demos are a lot more fun when things go wrong. Aren't most things? Pearse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokjbc Posted October 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 Aren't most things? Pearse And that is why instead of spending a bazillion $$ for the National Finals Rodeo every year, I simply go to the National Finals Bucking Horse Sale- costs a fraction of the rodeo price and, since it's all amateur riders and sometimes questionable animals, the wreck quotient goes up by at least 200%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pearse Posted October 10, 2009 Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 And that is why instead of spending a bazillion $$ for the National Finals Rodeo every year, I simply go to the National Finals Bucking Horse Sale- costs a fraction of the rodeo price and, since it's all amateur riders and sometimes questionable animals, the wreck quotient goes up by at least 200%. Things going sideways are only fun if you are a participant and, in hindsight. I'd rather watch skill than wrecks any day of the week Pearse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokjbc Posted October 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 Things going sideways are only fun if you are a participant and, in hindsight. I'd rather watch skill than wrecks any day of the week Pearse You are probably right- and although I'm sure it takes skill to stay on top of a bull, I'm not sure it takes much in the way of brains to get on in the first place ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokjbc Posted October 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2009 Well- it went pretty well. The kids were all school kids bused in for field trips and the noise from the grandstands made it really hard for the dogs to hear me. Plus we had a headset/mike fail to appear so had to have someone else do the talking (which wasn't entirely unwelcome) but very proud of both the dogs for doing their best and especially for being literally mauled by about 2500 kids in between demos. Jet, who loves kids but isn't super cuddly, decided after the 100th kid that she was done with being petted but Nellie stood nicely for every kid and had a blast doing it. Oh and Charlie- we didn't have any sheep escapees but you would probably get a chuckle out of what happened this morning. We had a grain/corn education booth set up next to where I was sitting with the dogs. A key piece of info was that several plastic wading pools were filled with grain products on top of a pile of the appropriate grain for kids to feel. Early this morning, I got out there to get the sheep in the arena (otherwise we would be threading them through a million people). Gave the young dog a tuneup so she was a bit hot and since it was still empty on the grounds, I didn't leash her as we headed back to our area. She headed right for one of those pools, thinking it was a water trough and being one of "those" kinds of dogs, she started to squat . Luckily, we caught her in time before she pee'd in the grain resource!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsnrs Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 Too funny! Glad all went well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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