Dog numbers

Sanversera

Sanversera

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Musing over the recent tragic event re the dog walker and reading the excellent article about pack behaviour and given that the law regarding hunting with dogs says no more than two, should the maximum number of dogs a person owns be no more than two and should only one or two dogs be allowed to be walked at any one time. I must admit we never need more than two border collies for working the sheep,yet a neighbour regularly takes six with him.
 
Backtoblack said:
Musing over the recent tragic event re the dog walker and reading the excellent article about pack behaviour and given that the law regarding hunting with dogs says no more than two, should the maximum number of dogs a person owns be no more than two and should only one or two dogs be allowed to be walked at any one time?
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No.
 
There’s a similar thread already on this topic, but in terms of working dogs I think there would need to be an exemption on a maximum limit as my OH shepherds around 3000 ewes and 1000 hoggs over 15,000 acres of hill ground so on gathers regularly takes more than 2 dogs at a time.
 
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How many sheep do you have OP, on what sort of ground and acerage?
We have 7 working collies between 2 of us, another possibly arriving next week and pups hopefully at the end of the year.
We need at least 3 each working and a youngster coming on as an older one winds down. We shepherd 1700 ewes with number rising on 17000 acres of Highland hill ground, we only have about 500 acres of fenced ground the rest is open.
When working the dogs don't even see other people or dogs (or deer etc) even if they are stood right in front of them they only see the sheep.
 
Absolutely not! I know more one dog owners with problems than people with a few. We're sick to death of people with a screaming lunging oodle thing (other mongrels are available) saying "ooo you've got your hands full" to two of us with our four walking along nicely looking at their dog like it's stupid.

How many dogs a walker should have at once is a different matter, a safe pack is built over time, not a random group of dogs and humans chucked together for a walk once a week.
 
No, its extremely common for those in sports circles to have 3 + dogs. I have 4 myself although only 3 do sports (14yo is a little old for the newbie to start ?).

I do think there needs to be more responsible dog ownership, especially pet homes, but it would be impossible to police so it can only come from owners themselves but those who are most irresponsible, in my experience, are those who don't see a problem with their behaviour.
 
stormox said:
No. People in dog sports often have 3+. A retired one, a top dog in work and a trainee.....
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I can’t claim to be a working home with only four sheep but even as a fairly casual dog sport person this is exactly it, three is just natural progression/replacement numbers. In sled dog racing you’d often be dealing in multiples of four.
 
Backtoblack said:
Musing over the recent tragic event re the dog walker and reading the excellent article about pack behaviour and given that the law regarding hunting with dogs says no more than two, should the maximum number of dogs a person owns be no more than two and should only one or two dogs be allowed to be walked at any one time. I must admit we never need more than two border collies for working the sheep,yet a neighbour regularly takes six with him.
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Would this be per person, or per household? If the latter, then a household of four would be eligible for eight dogs. It would, of course, do nothing about large numbers of dogs per walker, or ensure that single dogs were kept in, under control, or that they were picked up after.
 
No, I currently have 8 - pup on order, litter planned, probably got a bitch to whelp for a friend/client from which I will keep a pup. So by next Autumn I could conceivably have 12-13 here.

When working I usually have 3-4 out at a time. Then 1-2 trialling dogs who don't go on the commercial shoots. Currently 2 sofa surfing retirees. And the show dogs of a different breed (only 2 of the terrors at the moment).
 
NO….. my 3 are better behaved both on and off lead than loads of the single dog owners…people I meet on my walks with multiple dogs usually are off lead as mine are and they mingle, say hello and walk on, The single dog owner has dog on lead and is in a panic so I
put mine on lead while they hug the side of the path or the one this morning walk into the middle of the farmers field, which was a bit overkill and not respecting the farmers land.
 
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There are people with several dogs, who are fine, there are people with one dog who have no clue about behaviour, so no this is not any kind of a good idea.

I do hope we find out a bit more in due course about what happened to this poor woman, as the speculation and blame culture is just rife at the moment, not at all helped by the press looking for another angle on the story will fill the pages of their paper.
 
It's some of the single dog owners who are the bloody worst for letting their spoilt beast rampage and cause chaos IME; certainly round here, where true country folk are a dying breed being replaced by people who want to copy the lifestyle they see in glossy magazines.

(A cynic, who, moi? Never..... ;))
 
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