Lambs good for training pups
Lambing is looming closer and if you have a young dog that isn’t showing much enthusiasm for sheep take advantage of the window of opportunity this season offers.
Jean had no formal training and learnt on the job; she instinctively knew where to be and what to do.
She wasn’t a trial dog (she lacked noise), but she won a maiden early in her career and most of the time we would have a tidy run and pop the sheep out the top, but we didn’t turn heads with style and noise.
Ten months ago I bought a very cute fluffy Huntaway pup from a friend. Joy’s bloodlines went back to my Huntaway’s and she’d obviously inherited Jean’s coat; and that is where the similarities end.
A couple of weeks ago the ground had temporarily dried, Joy was 10 months old and it was time for an introduction to sheep. (I always do this in a medium sized yard to have complete control of both sheep and dog.)
I kept Joy on a lead and moved the sheep around making a few ‘sis sis’ sounds. It wasn’t long before she was pouring out the noise. I dropped the rope and encouraged her to work because I wanted to see what her instincts were – bark, bite, split, gather, etc.
She didn’t rush in splitting or biting, she didn’t stand back and give them space but she did enthusiastically bark, nonstop, with a lovely loud varied tone.
However she worked excessively close and if I stepped in and started waving my stick to keep her back, she’d bark at me, excitedly. Everything I tried was counterproductive.
I’ll mention here … don’t ever let a dog like Joy (totally untrained, very enthusiastic, with huge nonstop noise) loose in a big paddock with stock; likely outcome, total chaos; it wouldn’t be the dog that wanted shooting.
Usually I do most of my training off sheep; I find dogs learn easier and quicker without the distraction, and then when they have a reasonable understanding of several commands, bring sheep back into the lessons; I can then insist the dog obeys because it understands.
I like to teach Huntaway’s, unrestrained, to handle sheep, balancing them to me like a Heading dog but with noise, before I put a harness on and teach the dog to hunt sheep.
However I had decided I didn’t want to spend hours training Joy (too much deafening noise); I just wanted to get her balancing sheep and keeping off; that would give someone something to work with and they could put their own commands on her. But my usual methods weren’t achieving the desired result.
Reluctantly, I’d already tried Joy on the harness but she just got more excited; maybe having distance from the sheep in the holding paddock would work.
Some dogs will drop their noise when the sheep aren’t close, or they will bounce up and down straining on the ropes because they don’t like being kept back from the sheep, but Joy did the opposite. The noise was at full throttle yet she was calmer and listening.
After a couple of lessons she stood facing the sheep quietly, barked when asked, walked when asked, not pulling, going out to the right and left on command or with slight rope pressure -- naturally not perfectly, but she was a calmer dog, therefore open to learning; she just needed space from the sheep.
• Anna Holland is teaching people dog training. For more information www.annaholland.co.nz or Ph 06) 212 4848 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
