Dogs working hard
Moving our flock from one field to another is hard work right now. Hard enough that we are using 2-3 dogs to gather and move our small flock of just under 100 ewes and lambs. (We sold some lambs bec...
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Dog Folks wrote:Yes it is, and the more you learn about the subtle animal-animal interactions the more beautiful it gets.
Watch Border Collies work a flock or a herd is a thing of beauty.
Last night we were training and the 4 sheep we had were very hard; there were two adults that were wanting to go in any direction than to me and were willing to go by themselves. Nell's job was to bring me the 4 sheep on a straight line from where they were. All I did was tell Nell "take your time" (slow down and think) and I watched her make very small head and body movements to counter act each individual adult's subtle movements to escape. Frequently they were trying to escape in opposite directions at the same time. Nell used her instincts and experience to make decisions on what she needed to do to keep the group together and moving towards me. I was not telling her where to be (I could not see the subtle cues the sheep were giving on their intended movements); only telling her to take her time. I wish I had a recording of her working this group.
