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Electric On or Off?


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I'm going back to a really intensive grazing system this spring with a teeny flock, so my paddocks will average around 100 feet x 200 feet - no lie!

 

My Rick dog would have had no problem with this, but I'm not so sure about Random - precision work is not his forte. It's going to be my job to rotate them, so I can't cop out and tell Patrick to do it with his very careful dog, Doug the Dog.

 

Electric on, so the sheep have less incentive to bust fence? OR electric off, chancing a situation where I'm trying to unwrap live wire from sheep, dog, or both? Which do you who work with electic prefer?

 

By the way, Random getting a shock accidentally is not an issue - he'd never even notice it. :eek:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Rebecca,

 

I don't work my dogs with the electronet on. I use it to force the sheep to eat areas they are less inclined to graze (which is usually the really lush grass). When I am not working my dogs, the electronet is on, otherwise the sheep would be tangled in it. I don't want my dogs being afraid of getting between a fence and sheep, which might happen if you had the fence charged and the dog got zapped.

 

Also if I am using it to subdivide my lower pasture, I won't work young dogs in this pasture, even with the electronet off, have found out the hard way that if sheep start to run, they will run right through the electronet as if it isn't there. Pain to repair, not hard, just a pain.

 

Nancy O

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Sorry Christine, been swamped here and didn't notice your question - one run I'll probably use the e-net but most will be polywire/tape.

 

So maybe work Random in a small area "dry" and get him used to the maneuvers I'd have to do. It's not a Young Dog thing - I'm trying to teach an older dog to do stuff other than trial course stuff. The guy I got him from did the hard work breaking him out of trial mentality, but Random still gets a little dithery when confronted with something outside his ken. But once he understands it, he's very nice and sensible (though with his trademark random moments, but what dog doesn't have a quirk or two?).

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