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...
Forum Discussion
We will "try" them on what we call puppy sheep (very dog broke, willing to go with the flow) at about 6 months of age. They will not likely be mentally ready for training until they are 10-12 months of age. They need to be mentally strong enough to take corrections when they are not right but still willing to come back to work after the correction. We still are responsible to protect our sheep from abuse by inexperienced dogs. They are allowed to work when they are doing so correctly, they are corrected when wrong (by blocking them from working the sheep and forcing them away from the sheep), and after the correction they are rewarded by being allowed to go back to working the sheep.
They don't really learn by watching or following trained dogs.
We awaken their instinct to go to balance (place on the other side of the sheep which will turn the sheep towards us) and then use their desire to go to balance and to please us to teach everything else.
They don't really learn by watching or following trained dogs.
We awaken their instinct to go to balance (place on the other side of the sheep which will turn the sheep towards us) and then use their desire to go to balance and to please us to teach everything else.
