Teaching A Dog To Herd Sheep

[lucylotto]

Wondering if anyone might be able to offer some advice.

My cousin and her husband have recently taken over from aged family, a working sheep farm. Sje has a new border collie kelpie cross. We came across some You tube videos of pups training to herd and in each one there were trainers holding either a rake or rake style tool and using to train dog in some way.

We were wondering if anyone on DOL knows what this is used for and how to find out how to train a dog to be a herder.

She would really appreciate any advice.

Edited August 1, 2010 by lucylotto

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

hi LucyLotto

There is herding training, like obedience training, for herding competition, but I guess it would do as a safe way to introduce a dog new to sheep, and then potentially develop useful herding skills.

So I would look up the NSW dog association, then the herding clubs that run competitions, then find a contact person and ask them if anyone in your area runs herding training, they could recommend.

http://www.dogsnsw.org.au/activities-a-events/herding.html

Beginner herding lesson for my dog involved a small round yard, three very shaggy "dog broke" sheep, a long line with knots in it, and a very experienced herding trainer and competition judge with a long bit of orange conduit - mostly used to encourage a dog to keep a sensible distance from the sheep - by whacking the ground between the dog and the sheep - mine head butt it a few times but wasn't hurt. Essentially we were hoping my dog would "show interest" in the sheep without attacking them, and then be strong enough to encourage the sheep to move around the yard. The sheep being very accustomed to this, did move, but mostly straight at the handlers - because that be safest place for sheep to be.

I expect rural stock and station agents would also know who the good dog trainers are. All the country people know stuff like that, it's a matter of asking enough people until you get consistent answers and then checking things out for yourselves. Sheep herding for managing a farm is slightly different to sheep herding for competition, but they often overlap.

sheep herding for fun and profit - video ad

[persephone]

The most important thing to have a good working dog, is that the OWNERS understand both sheep and dog body language, and the habits of sheep!! It is fairly useless to have a dog, chock- full of good instincts, and an owner who has NO idea what the sheep(both individually and as a mob) are thinking!

To have the dog do what you desire - instead of following its first instinct (usually to circle the sheep and bring them back to you) You need to really know your sheep!The dog is only half of it each sheep mob is different - age groups, fitness, presence of newborn lambs, or rams, or old ,knowing ewes.

Sheep soon suss out an inexperienced dog/owner!

Remember, sheep are prey animals, dog/human is predator- so stuff like critical distance come into play too to successfully hunt your prey- you must forst understand how it behaves :p

It is an interesting, frustrating and rewarding relationship!

here are a couple of links you may like to pass on? Just to give you/them some ideas? Apologies if they already know all this

http://sheepdogs.com.au/main/page_sheep__s...our_working.php

http://www.wool.com/Harvest_Shearing-Shed-...ep-Behavior.htm

[Vickie]

Probably the best thing they could do is buy a trained dog & find someone close who they can take some lessons from.

I know from experience, there is a lot more to it than having a herding breed & some sheep. Even with a very talented dog, there is still SO MUCH to learn. A good dog, badly handled can still ram sheep into fences & break their necks. Equally a young inexperienced dog can also be seriously injured by sheep.

Where are they located? Maybe some of us could recommend people we know in the area who might be able to help them a bit.

[cry123]

Vickie is spot on.

Much easier to learn to work a dog on sheep with a trained dog.

There is far too much involved to explain in post!

But you do use the rake to guide the dog around the sheep, usually in a round yard. Also use it to block the dog from crossing between you and the sheep.

I would suggest that they look to get some lessons off Greg Prince. He is wonderful and is super helpful. A great guy with huge amounts of knowledge. He is based in Dubbo, NSW, but he does travel around the country doing schools.

[lucylotto]

Hi everyone,

I haven't been on for few days and would like to thank you all for your advice! I will pass it on to this couple and I know they will heed your advice.