Which dog needs the training

[Jeanne Bell]

Hi Sue,

 

I'm in Pocahontas County very near Snowshoe Mountain. Not so far from you. My son attends WVU. So nice to hear of someone in WV! We are really buried now. We got about 16-18 more inches of snow today and it's stil snowing. How about you?

 

Jeanne Bell-HIT (handler in training)

Fly working BC,

Glen Working BC

Isabelle Maremma

Patch working English Setter

Audax elderly Springer Spaniel

[Sue R]

Gee, my couple or four new inches are hardly anything compared to what you have! We are near Bruceton Mills, just about three miles south of I-68.

 

Do you have sheep? Would you ever like "company" to work dogs if you do? At least, when you thaw out?

 

My friend, Hope, and I go over to Berryville VA to Susan Rhoades about every three or four weeks for lessons. That is the only time our dogs get to see sheep. We have a small herd of beef cows here.

 

It is such fun to hear of other working Border Collie enthusiasts in WV. Maybe we will get to meet sometime!

[Jeanne Bell]

I liked Renee's example of the difference between a trial dog in training and a farm dog. I think it's an easy "trap" to fall into. You have a nice pretty biddable dog at home doing your chores. The sheep know the daily drills, and the dog knows the drill and the sheep. It's easy for the dog to get sloppy because the sheep know where they're supposed to go anyway. Like Renee's Rae, the farm dog should be corrected for sloppy and incorrect work because one day the farm dog may be required to do something entirely different than the daily routine, like separate the ram from the ewes after he's jumped the fence, or load the trailor,(penning). Open flanks and obedience are necessary to accomplish these tasks calmly and efficiently.

 

It was my interest in trialing that prompted me to correct my dogs during their daily chores, however I've seen such vast improvement in their daily work that I now feel correct work should always be the goal, even when it's "just" farm chores. It's so satisfying when the dogs are right.

 

Jeanne Bell and friends

Snowshoe WV

 

 

Jeanne Bee

[Jeanne Bell]

Hi Sue,

 

Email me privately about getting together. My flock is heavily pregnant right now but after we lamb in April and the lambs get a little size on them, it would be fun. Are your cattle dog broke? My dogs have never worked cattle. My email is condodoc@frontiernet.net

 

Jeanne Bell

Snowshoe WV

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

To Annette:

 

We don't have to wonder why the ISDS style trials were created. The folks who started the trials we are familiar with today (there were many types of trials before then), left records for us. they wanted to improve the way they managed sheep by creating a particular type of working dog. That's why the tasks are so oddly irrelevant to actual farm work. The requirements of an Open trial course represent an ideal that was set up to standardize a breed that would pass on certain working traits useful to the type of management those stockmen needed.

 

Thus, it's not EXACTLY true that the trial is there to find out whose dog is "best". It's a standard for you to measure your dog against. The competitive nature of it helps give an extra boost to the level of training and has raised the bar of inborn ability in our dogs over the generations.

 

It's amazing to me that during the time Wiston Cap was running, what caught folks' eyes was his natural outrun. These days natural outruns are taken for granted. That's what the trials have done for us, continued to raise the bar.