Herding with adult mix?

[FlyByNight]

Hi All,

If you saw my other post in livestock management, you know hubby and I are moving soon, and that I plan to buy land in Maine and begin small-scale farming. As we search for property, we've been living and working in SE Pennsylvania. My folks live in the area as well, and in my spare time I've been working with their herding-something mix. They never did much with her, so I've been impressed with her progress. She's very smart, and wants stimulation; right now we're doing house manners and agility.

Here's my quandary - when we leave the state, do I leave her behind? I'm starting to get a little attached, I'll admit. And my two current dogs will be "useless" on the farm - one's an old chow mix, the other a Plott Hound.

So I got to thinking and figured if she's decent enough around stock, maybe I could use her. But how will I know? Which leads to my questions:

- Is it ever worth trying a 5/6 year old mutt on sheep?
- She's killed a raccoon before without hesitation; will she just attack sheep? (she does live with cats)
- If it is worth giving a shot, who in SE PA could help me assess her?

 

Disclaimer: I know nothing about training sheepdogs. Forgive me if the answer here is obvious.

All thoughts/comments welcome -

[Sue R]

Question #1 - The answer is, "That depends." It depends on the dog, what natural talent and ability it has just waiting to be "released". There are dogs that have nothing remotely resembling a working stockdog of any kind in their background and yet have a certain level of potential. After all, stockworking instinct and abilities are refined predatory behaviors. The likelihood is not high but neither is it impossible. We had an Airedale Terrier that was a super hog dog, and her grandmother was a great bird dog (she worked with DH on a game farm, and learned quickly to catch errant pheasants with her paws and hold them for DH to take and put back in the big pen). Both of these dogs came to these "careers" well into adulthood. There have been numerous "farm dogs" that could do rudimentary work with livestock and you won't know unless you give it a try with someone supervising who is knowledgeable.

 

Question #2 - The answer is, "That depends on the dog." Many good dogs totally know and respect the difference between livestock and varmints, and particularly between their own livestock and varmints. Witness the dogs that are death on stray cats but fine with their owner's own house or barn cats. Or dogs like several we have had that would take on a raccoon or woodchuck in a heartbeat, but were all professional business working their own stock, or would mother a baby calf and protect it from anything. Many dogs have a strong sense of "ours" and "not ours".

 

Question #3 - There are a number of people local to SE PA and nearby MD who are responsible, well-respected, and honest. Some can be found on FB although I'm just not recalling any of the ones I've heard of that are here except Nancy Cox Starkey (who is active on these boards as NCStarkey). She would never steer you wrong. Other people would be Sue Asten or Deb Mickey (Chambersburg PA area); Nancy Obernier (Coatesville PA); Linda Tesdahl and Carla King (both in MD, I think). Mark Billadeau (who is on these boards as Pipedream Farm) is also in MD but I don't believe he works at all with anything but purebred Border Collies, so I don't know if he could help you. You could try contacting several of these folks through Facebook or someone else here, like Nancy, might have contact information for you.

 

Good luck with this! And if your dog does not pan out for you, you might want to look around to see if there is a trained dog or retired trial dog that someone might be willing to sell to you as long as you are taking lessons or otherwise working with a mentor, so that you can learn how to handle the dog and work the stock.

[Maralynn]

FWIW, my first BC would kill a woodchuck in an instant and would chase (but not kill) stray cats. But she was incredibly gentle with lambs and our cats and was very fair to the sheep.