Types Of Sheep-working Dogs

[Kayne]

Dasha,

I am going to try to do a lot more work with the little tike now that he is 9 months old and more ready to get knocked about without losing interest.

I will be doing my best to educate myself at the same time . My biggest problem is distances and knowing so few people in Melbourne.

I can get out to see Herding_guy once a fortnight, but that is a fair hike for normal practice. I will be doing that though because I get a lot out of his lessons.

But it is the day to day practice I also need. I will be giving it a lot of thought over the next week or so.

[jesomil]

Kayne,

We also have the same problem about being in Melbourne and having no where close to train.

So we have indian runner ducks in the backyard. All my dogs basic training has been taught on the ducks and it transfers straight over to the sheep. Obviously there are things that can only be taught on sheep but for all the basics, the ducks are great. We can train whenever we want and dont have to drive for hours. On the weekends we go to a club to work sheep.

We set up a round yard in our backyard to work in till the dogs got to a high level of control then we just used the backyard. We also take the ducks to different open spaces to practise.

The ducks are a great focus tool, so you can teach most of the commands.

It might be something worth thinking about if you have the space and facilities.

[Kayne]

Jesomil,

Do chickens also work ?

[jesomil]

No, chickens arent any good. I wish they were though as i would love to get eggs!

Chooks split up, they dont herd together well and could teach some really bad habits to a young dog.

Indian runner ducks are the best as they stick together and herd beautifully and can run quite freely. They dont waddle like other ducks.

And the males are the best for suburbia as they are quiet. The females are the noisy ones.

[Kayne]

Hmmmmm ( Thoughtful expression again)

I wonder if I could get away with it. How noisy are the female ducks? If I can get eggs (Duck eggs are great for cooking) I might be able to persuade my better half that those messy little buggers are worthwhile.

Otherwise I need to find someone around that has sheep that need a lot of excersise they are currently not getting. LOL

[hopenfox]

How noisy are the female ducks?

Their quack is quite loud, but they do only quack if they're hungry, scared, excited or lonely...

My ducks also quack quietly and steadily every morning as they wait to be let out of their shed, then run out with short happy quacks. They are then quiet until their body clock tells them it's nearly time for me to come let them out of their pen for their 'free range' time in the afternoon, then they'll run/fly out yelling loudly in excitement. Warning Quacks are quite loud and the ducks often tend to get carried away and feed off each other's panic, so sometimes they'll just go on and on until I come out and scare off the cat or snake or whatever, then they'll go quiet again.

Oh, and they do talk a bit while they're being worked...

[Kayne]

Damn,

My neighbours would have a mojor coronary if i got noisy ones lol.

With the amount of properties within half an hours drive of me i would hope someone has some kind of stock I can practice on. I will have to do a drive around one day and ask.

[Kelpie-i]

Hey Jesomil, are you the person with Terra??? If so, he's gorgeous!!

I was there with my OH and our two Kelpies. I ran my pup in the City Slickers - he was the one that decided to take a nature break in the 3rd yard....

Our black/tan bitch Tasha came third in the Working Dog category of the high jump and third in the City Slickers comp. We didn't enter her into Encourage as we weren't there on Saturday.

I found this year to be particularly quiet compared to other years - what did you guys think??

Edited November 29, 2006 by Kelpie-i

[jesomil]

Hi Kelpie i,

Yes, Terra is my crazy young boy. I thought that you guys might be the ones from here but i wasnt sure. We should have said hi !! I get a bit shy walking up to people - i should just get over it .

Is your pup one of Herding_guys? If so, i think i remember who you are. Your older dog (black/tan?) jumped really well in the jumping comp. The jumping scares me a little though cause of the injury factor but it is great to watch. My dog was a bit stiff the next day from it as he had never jumped before.

Were there a few pups from that litter there? They kinda looked similar.

Yes, i thought it was really quiet which was a shame. It is such a great weekend. I think the city slickers was the only event with heaps of people watching.

[Kelpie-i]

I know what you mean about being shy, it's not like to me just to wonder up to people an ask "Are you a DOLer?"

Terra is a beautiful boy - he caught my attention!

Yes Gabe is one of Herding-guy's pups - they are all psycho just like their father Still young and stupid.

We were stoked with Tasha's jumping performance - that was her first competition jump. The first time she jumped was at Casterton where she bombed out after 2 jumps.

You're right the City Slickers seemed to be the most popular event this year. It's a pity it was quiet since it's a great weekend. I don't think there was too much media hype about it beforehand, which is probably why many people didn't know about it.