First Lesson Tuesday....

[snook]

Moose and I have our first herding lesson/introduction tuesday. I really don't have any idea what to expect... I'm just excited to see if Moose is interested in sheep at all- he's terrified of cows (we took a walk among them the other day at my parent's ranch, Moose was on a leash wishing he was at home on the couch )

 

Any advice or tips for Moose and me before we plunge into the herding pool?

 

I just saw the little hats website and will be exploring that tomorrow.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Tassie]

First herding introduction - that's very exciting. That's where I was a year ago.

 

The littlehats site has great articles to read- but don't worry if they don't all make sense just yet. A lot of what will happen and how it will go will depend on your trainer. Assuming your trainer is fairly experienced, and has some nice dog-broke sheep (will readily come to the human), you can probably expect to have Moose in a smallish round pen - probably on lead at first - and maybe being held by your trainer at first, just to see what he might do. Don't worry if he eats sheep poo/sniffs all round/makes mad little dashes at the sheep - from what I gather, all of those can be normal in a dog just starting. And don't panic - essentially it is your trainer's responsibility to keep the sheep safe - at least in the early stages.

 

Hope it goes well - it'll be an interesting experience anyway.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I'll tell you what I tell everyone I know, who takes a dog to sheep for the first time.

 

No matter what happens, don't speak to your dog unless the trainer tells you to. Especially if your dog is really bonded to you. It's tempting if you see a sheep go flying or your dog floss his teeth with wool - but trust me, the instructor knows what to do to protect his or her own sheep.

 

The other thing is, there are very few things that can happen the first time out that mean that your dog is a failure at working, forever and ever. Very few dogs do, well, just about anything right the first time out. Good instructors can usually turn the bad things into good, pretty quickly (especially the more spectacular versions listed above), but don't be frustrated if that doesn't happen for Moose the first time.

 

GOOD LUCK!