Run, Sheep, Run

Saturday, the pups and I went to Pittsboro to see a trainer about instinct tests for herding for both dogs and carting for Duncan. I’d have to say that the day was a definite success; both educational and highly entertaining.

The trainer has a flock of sheep, but for testing purposes, she only uses three. She also has goats, geese, chickens, a cow, three dogs and a couple of cats. She said that, during testing, she looks for more than just interest from the dog. Too much interest in the sheep is just as bad (and potentially worse) than no interest. She also watches how the three sheep respond to the dog, as well as what the goats in the next pen do. Apparently, the goats get very agitated if the dog being tested has too much prey drive.

We worked Reyna first, then Duncan. Then we did a bit of carting with Duncan, and then worked Reyna with the sheep again, and then Duncan again. Oh, and the stick she’s carrying isn’t to whack the dogs, its to block them from going in certain directions and to keep them from getting between her and the sheep. If I understood correctly, the dog is always supposed to be on the outside, with the sheep between the dog and the handler. Or something like that. She said if I decided to do more of this, she’d have me work with her dog while I was figuring out what I was supposed to do, so that I wouldn’t frustrate my dogs. Makes sense to me.

Reyna had a bit of trouble grasping the idea at first. I think she was just too surprised by the idea that she was not only allowed to chase the sheep, but she was actually being encouraged. The sheep stayed pretty relaxed (according to the trainer) and the goats weren’t at all interested in Reyna. Although, she was very interested in them… After a few minutes, Reyna seemed to have at least a general idea of what was going on, and she seemed to be enjoying it. One thing the trainer noticed with Reyna is that she doesn’t like to change direction too much. She figured it probably hurts Reyna’s hips, because the dog is supposed to stop and rock backwards to change direction. The second time through, though, Reyna figured out she could do a quick hop to the side and change directions, without ever rocking backwards.




Duncan was very interesting to watch. The sheep did not like him at first, and one of the goats was upset when Duncan was in the pen. The trainer said that it was most likely because the sheep and goat could tell that Duncan had less self-control than Reyna did. Of course, that might have had something to do with the fact that Duncan was lunging and whining for the first few minutes. The sheep and goats seemed fine for Duncan’s second run, though, probably because he’d finally calmed down a good bit. Isn’t that strange – I’d never thought I’d ever say that Duncan was more wound up than Reyna about something, or that it would take him longer to calm down… Anyway, Duncan took to chasing, er, herding the sheep pretty quickly, and seemed to think it was a wonderful game. He kept grabbing at them, and I had to explain to the trainer that Duncan has always been pretty mouthy. She said that it was pretty obvious he wasn’t trying to hurt them, and it didn’t seem to upset the sheep, so I guess its no big deal. She said the next time we go, she might have him try herding the geese. I don’t know that that’s a good idea, but they’re her geese…




The carting session went as smoothly as I figured it would. She has a very light-weight PVC cart that she uses with beginners, and Duncan was totally oblivious to the fact that he was dragging something. The next time we go, we’re going to measure Duncan and then add some length to the cart, because the only probably he really had was that he’s just too long for that particular cart. She had the shafts as far back as she could, and Duncan was still bumping the cart with his back feet half the time.