We live between the moors and sea , Sams walks tend to be either in local fields , woods or beach but so far , I havent ever walked him on Bodmin Moor ( only 5 mins away ) because of the sheep roaming the moors . He doesnt tend to chase things , sees and ignores cattle but sheep are a bit concerning . I was thinking that maybe now that he a bit more grown up at 16 months , it might be an idea to take him onto the moors on a long line to see what his reaction is , does anyone else have confidence around sheep ?
Re: Sheep Hi Kate We live in the middle of the North York Moors (lucky us ), in our village the sheep are hefted and graze freely, in fact they have right of way! We have special sheep proof catches and lamb guards on our garden gates. So all our dogs have to be used to sheep. From being pups they're introduced to the wooly beasts and told that they are to be avoided. Every time they look at a sheep they get a firm NO, which then gets downgraded to an 'ah-ah' as they get used to them until we can walk through a flock (off lead) and the dog looks away from each ewe. To begin the training I make sure I have the dog under control, probably on lead, as we approach for the first few times until they get used to the sheep and begin to look away; next we progress to free running but being called in to heal whenever we're near sheep until eventually they're OK to let go - under a careful watchful eye. I'm extra vigilant at tupping time (for the dog's welfare) and for the month before lambing until it's finished (for the ewe's benefit as we don't want to make them run - even accidentally). We've used the same technique on a couple of rescues as well as pups and for us it's worked, but then we have practice - every time we set foot out of the garden! I hope that helps. I put a story about Maia and a sheep on the Off Topic thread, medium black dog gets embarrassed. Kerryn
Re: Sheep Thanks Kerryn for that . I guess I have maybe made the mistake of not taking Sam amongst the sheep when he was much younger but will start right now . He is proving to be a responsive dog , he ignores horses as they trot by and also ignores our neighbours ducks and chucks, so with a bit of luck I havent left it too late to start , on long line at first though
Re: Sheep Don't worry, it's never too late, the same technique worked on our three year old rescued wolfhound many years ago, I'm sure it will be fine for Sam - he's a smart boy! A friend with another wolfie using the same idea but with added cheese (they're not as quick on the uptake as labs ;D ) got him to the stage where when he saw a sheep he returned back looking for the titbit which was initially required to get his attention. My lot have no choice, they're 'exposed' as soon as they're allowed out, even sooner if we have sheep down the lane scratching themselves on the gate whilst the pups are in the garden.
Re: Sheep I gather the real problems with sheep occur if there are two or more dogs together. I inadvertently let Lady into a flock on the farm where I mainly walk her and she "bounced" a bit at them but did not actually chase them and came back on recall. I was talking to the farmer (friend) just this morning about it and he said about the dogs running together being the problem. He suggested letting her run with the ewes with lambs because once she'd been butted a couple of times she wouldn't go near a sheep again! I guess that's the "old school" advice coming out there.
Re: Sheep [quote author=David link=topic=823.msg4398#msg4398 date=1351420171] I guess that's the "old school" advice coming out there. [/quote] Or the "School of Hard Knocks"? ;D
Re: Sheep A bit slow to come back to this one (sorry, been somewhat distracted...!) We got the school of hard knocks advice (nice name, David) too but it can backfire. Juno was attacked by a bad tempered ewe, she was actually at heel but we must have walked between the ewe and her lamb and the ewe came at us. Before I had a chance to stamp and wave it away Juno backed off a little, to stand behind me, and the ewe charged bowling her over before chasing her down the lane butting her a couple more times. If the lamb hadn't bleated for its mother, which made her give up the chase, I really don't know what would have happened. In hindsight it was a really funny sight, full tilt Labrador with swaledale in pursuit, worthy of a cartoon or a least a Benny Hill sound track ;D Anyway ever after that Juno hated sheep on the lane and like Lady would bounce at them barking to make them scatter and go away, she never went near them anywhere else. When Maia arrived, on several occasions as we passed sheep who faced us off Juno moved out to walk on the outside, putting herself between the sheep and the pup pushing Maia into my leg. Hard knocks might work but just be aware of the possible ricochet.
Re: Sheep Thanks and noted. I'm not going to deliberately put her in line for a butting but I'll work her in other ways I think. Funny picture of Lab chased by sheep though! Off subject, but your story reminded me of many years ago when we used to have a half feral cat that we had rescued. One day an Alsatian had come from somewhere up to our back door just as I opened it to let the cat out. She took one look at this great big dog and let out the most fierce yowl and attacked! The dog ran off full tilt up the road with the cat in hot pursuit until they both disappeared out of sight! The dog did not return (not clear if she had eaten it).
