It's all very well training your dog to keep back from the sheep and not upset them, but what can you do if the sheep refuse to go where the dog's trying to put them?
For the welfare of the sheep, they simply must be handled, treated for any ailments and managed, so we need to teach the dog to get tough when the time arises.
Find out how Carew's confidence grew immensely once she learned to be more assertive. As well as difficult sheep, Carew can now handle stubborn cattle with relative ease.
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Hello Andy, I have been training our 15 month old collie since she was about 7 months old. She does training on the hoggs and helps with the farm jobs too (we only have a small 9 acre farm so there’s not that much work). She seems to struggle to move sheep that don’t want to move eg moving sheep out of fields into the yard. One of our new ewe hoggs faced up to her and she backed off. I don’t know if this is because I have discouraged her from being too hard on the sheep, or if I have been making her do too much too soon. Can a dog like this learn to stand her ground?
Too much discouragement won’t help of course, but you have to protect the sheep! The dog’s confidence can certainly be built up though Jane – with a little help from you!
Watch the tutorial carefully and make sure you’re close to the dog when she needs encouragement. Give her lots of enthusiastic support and if necessary, encourage her to nip (on command). It will boost her confidence to know that if necessary she’s allowed defend herself.
It helps to actually move a stubborn sheep yourself at first.
Thanks a lot! Even though I have watched the tutorial I still felt the need for a bit of encouragement (a bit like my dog does..). I’ll just have to be careful with her and support her all I can. I feel like if she just did one nip it might be all she needs to do to gain confidence and for the sheep to see she means business.
Best wishes,
Jane