Small areas

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Ok, trainers out there - I'm interested in collecting some ideas.

 

What is your preferred method for getting your dog used to working lots of stock in small areas (feed lots, chutes, barns)? When do you introduce this challenge and how?

[Pipedream Farm]

Rebecca,

 

we don't have the best set-up for small area work; we have a 10'x16' shed that has gates on the opening. Right now it's geared up for lambing and not usuable for working dogs. But I would be working my two (11 months and 1.5 years old) in small areas if I had right area. I have been doing close work up in the corners of our paddocks. Of course I won't be doing much more of this with our ewes getting into lambing.

 

Mark

[NancyO]

Rebecca,

 

I use a 10x10 holding area that opens to my chute system. I put in about 20-25 sheep, none that will automatically challange a dog.I put in enough sheep so the sheep can't run, but still have enough room to be able to move off the dog.

 

I like the dog to be able to balance and hopefully stop when asked. I may take the dog in on a very short line with the dog along the fence and have the sheep move off the dog as we walk around the pen. Once the dog has the idea, I'll take off the line.(I've done it with and without a line, depends on the dog, but make sure the line is very short or you will have sheep, dog and you tangled in it) I'll call the dog with me as I walk to the left and give the comebye flank. As the dog goes to the left, I continue walking to the left. I don't balance the sheep to me in this exercise because I would be squished!!!!

 

If the dog is afraid, you can take it by the collar and help it in between the fence and the sheep.

 

You don't want the dog just holding the sheep in a corner, you want it to be able to go around the sheep and move them in a calm manner.

 

I take a dog in as soon as it will stop and come off the sheep a year to year and half. I also use this as a confidence booster for a dog, hence the reason you don't want to use sheep that always will challange a dog.

 

Hope this helps.

Nancy O

[Denise Wall]

Becca,

 

I haven't had a young dog in a while but when I do, I start them right out in small areas. If the dog is nervous being in close, I just put them in an even smaller enclosed area with more sheep. Not much can happen in there with everyone all packed in. I figure you may as well work through that part right off the bat.

[Pipedream Farm]

One day I took Rae into the shed with all the sheep and discovered that deep down she was really a kelpie at heart. She decided she could just climb on the sheep's backs to get to the heads. It was kind of funny, but I was kind of worried she'd get hurt. She had a blast!

One thing I wanted to add about working in a small area is to stay very calm with your voice and movement. It really helps the dog to relax about the whole thing. I try to be very quiet with them in a small area. It's kind of mentally challenging for me because I'm scared of getting creamed!

[Sue R]

I work my young dogs on the heifers in the barn,which is about 14 by 45. I started them with a little barn work as soon as they were comfortable being around the stock in the field.

 

As Mark said, in close, you need to be particularly calm and easy. You don't need stock running over you.

 

When I started off, I just worked one dog with only two small heifers, so there was plenty of room for all of us. I could see the dog and the stock stayed close together. They were also easy, calm animals, used to the dog and me, so there was no panic, etc.

 

Now, I work five larger heifers with one or two dogs, and three of them are not bottle-raised and at ease around me like the first two. I can't always see just where the dog is so I have to watch the stock more closely.

 

The dogs have learned to manuever in the smaller spaces and slip past the stock to get where they need to be. I also think it has helped to make the dogs (especially my momma's boy) a bit bolder and more confident.

 

I do have to watch where I place myself . Sometimes I have come close to being squished but it's because I was dumb and didn't pay attention to where I was, while I was paying attention to the stock and the dogs.

[Pipedream Farm]

Sue,

 

I know it's a bit confusing since Renee and I share one ID. :confused:

I always sign my posts and Renee doesn't.

 

Mark

[Sue R]

Whoops! Sorry, Renee!

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I have serious problems with hysterics (not really, just getting overly stressed - and shrill - when trying to do something new) and I definitely agree that it makes a difference to make an effort to keep those emotions under control. I just came in from working some ewes out of a barn lot into a chute to release into the mothering paddock - I had about twenty ewes and their three-day-old lambs against the gate in a space about six feet wide, but the gate only opens one way - inward, of course.

 

Random was having a Random moment because I was on the other side of the gate and had to stand basically in the way of where I wanted him to move the sheep - I needed the leverage of the whole gate to open it, meaning I was close to the opening. And of course he could feel they'd "get away" in that direction. AND the way I needed him to go was The Evil Flank. Every time I gave him The Evil Flank, he'd start to dive.

 

I did a bit of screaming, then realized that that wasn't getting us anywhere. We were all so rattled that I had to flank him a teeny way, let everyone settle, praised him and talked nicey nice, then a bit more, more nice talking, and so on until he was in position.

 

You can tell I'm still a novice because it takes forever for me to think of breaking things like this into bite-sized pieces. It's still my first instinct to think "He's giving me the middle finger" when I'm asking a dog to do something that involved many new things at once - with no help. Oh, well.

 

Ugh, my ankle says it's going to snow tomorrow.

[Jeanne Bell]

Hi Rebecca,

 

Nothing like a real job to teach your dog, huh?

I think I'd try to start without the new pairs in the mix. My ewes would pound a nervous young dog.

 

Best,

Jeanne Bell

Snowshoe, WV

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Just to clarify - Random is a five year old Open dog so it's time he learned some of this farm stuff. He's done barn work without young 'uns and MAY have worked pairs before but never at my place. And a new place for Random is always a chance to go back to square one! But the nice thing is once he learns something he will do it or die trying.