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Late Bloomers?


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I've got two very nicely bred male pups that will be a year old this month. Neither of them is showing any interest in sheep at all. I've taken them several times to the sheep and they just don't seem to want to bother. Hannah and Jae, my two females of different breedings are chomping at the bit to get on those sheep. I took one of the males in and tried stirring things up a bit to get some response but he pretty much just laid down and yawned. They don't seem nervous, just totally uninterested. I've tried letting them be there as Red is working sheep too, and they just don't seem to care.

 

I did speak with a lady that had bred her female to the same sire as my pups and she told me that every pup in that litter was a late bloomer and didn't show a whole lot of interest until 12-14 months, but that all the dogs did eventually become at least good farm dogs. But my two aren't showing ANY interest at 12 months and I'm beginning to get a little concerned.

 

How do you distinguish between a late bloomer and a dog that just needs a new career? I don't want to jump the gun and put them in pet homes prematurely but I don't want to keep putting time and effort into dogs that aren't going to work either.

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Lydia,

 

Let me tell you about Joe. Joe's a son of Aled Owen's International Champion Bob. He's just turned 14 months, and the penny finally dropped. The rest of his litter have been hell on wheels for months now, but Joe was scared of sheep until he was almost a year old. The fear left, and within two weeks he was working, shifting sheep, having fun, but still listening.

 

It has been really neat to work with a dog that has some mental maturity at the beginning of his herding career rather than scatterbrained and deaf puppies. I would venture a guess that in six months time he will be farther along than any of his littermates, all of whom started at "normal" ages.

 

I'd say you should give them time, let them grow up at their own pace, and see what happens.

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Bill wrote: "I would venture a guess that in six months time he will be farther along than any of his littermates, all of whom started at "normal" ages"

 

Bill is this a challenge?

 

Nancy O and Zac

 

PS I agree with you! I think the way a dog progresses is also greatly related to the experience of the handler. You would win there also!

Of course it will also depend on whether you can train or not, or whether your fields are ice flows (but of course people have already said they are tired of Pennsylvanians complaining about the weather!)

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Hi Bill,

Yes I have the littermate named Zac. He is the one that Bobby Dalziel got started for me, because he wouldn't go around his sheep. He has tremendous desire to work and has since he was 9 weeks old and got into the sheep for the first time (and certainly not the last). He's a wiry little sh** and could find the tiniest hole or even go through the wires of the lock-tight sheep fence up until he was about 7 months old. Time will tell how he turns out.

Nancy O

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Nancy,

 

Chris Smart comes back next week, and Joe will be one of his major projects. I worked with Joe today, and had him pen the flock of 400 so I could put out the feed. He was pretty happy about it -- so happy in fact that he almost went into the pen to push them all back out so he could have another go.

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