skinnydipper
Well-Known Member
Fantastic video of the dogs working as a team - brilliant. Thank you for posting.
Fate brought us together
- Thread starter Moobli
- Start date
TheOldTrout
Completely Unknown Member
He is named after Jock Richardson's Sweep, and was kennel mate to the famous Wiston Cap when Jock lived on one of the farms we now shepherd - so it seemed fitting.
(Sweep is the black dog on the left)
I was thinking Sweep as in Sooty and Sweep! Gives my age and intellectual level away...
He looks absolutely gorgeous.
Clodagh
Playing chess with pigeons
Wonderful videos - is it your husband directing things, or you? Dogs are amazing animals. I know lots of people like collies as pets but that is , to my mind, them doing what they are born and bred to do so.
I watched a dog and duck thing at a show once and he said the dogs are wanting to bring you the prey so you can kill it, which makes sense in his demo as the dogs were pretty well circling the ducks in his direction. Your dogs are driving them away from you though, so was he wrong? Or is it a stage of training thing? He used all rescued and rehomed border collies which was nice.
I watched a dog and duck thing at a show once and he said the dogs are wanting to bring you the prey so you can kill it, which makes sense in his demo as the dogs were pretty well circling the ducks in his direction. Your dogs are driving them away from you though, so was he wrong? Or is it a stage of training thing? He used all rescued and rehomed border collies which was nice.
JennBags
HHOSS Wonder Woman
Thanks everyone, he is great fun. I will try and remember to do a regular progress report when he starts his training
For those who enjoy seeing working dogs, here are a couple of videos I took yesterday bringing more ewes and lambs in for clipping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grcq_cPp-0Y&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4-Lr1yVzgQ
Great videos, what beautifully trained dogs, enjoying their work.
Moobli
...
Thanks again everyone.
Ha ha TOT - I remember Sooty and Sweep too.
Clodagh - my hubby is giving the whistle commands. I am only really good with one dog at a time on whistles but can work a brace with voice commands.
Working border collies have a deep rooted instinct to want to control a flock (keeping them together and not letting them get away) and will head sheep and turn them back towards the handler which is both instinctive but also the shepherd knowing where to place him or herself in order to allow the dog to find his point of balance (ie just enough pressure to stop the sheep from bolting but not enough to panic them). The herding instinct is definitely a modified version of a hunt and the last sequence (ie the kill) has been bred out somewhat through selective breeding. Most collies won't instinctively want to drive sheep away from you (although some find it an easier exercise than others) and so it becomes possible through training to drive and is then honed through proper day to day work.
Ha ha TOT - I remember Sooty and Sweep too.
Clodagh - my hubby is giving the whistle commands. I am only really good with one dog at a time on whistles but can work a brace with voice commands.
Working border collies have a deep rooted instinct to want to control a flock (keeping them together and not letting them get away) and will head sheep and turn them back towards the handler which is both instinctive but also the shepherd knowing where to place him or herself in order to allow the dog to find his point of balance (ie just enough pressure to stop the sheep from bolting but not enough to panic them). The herding instinct is definitely a modified version of a hunt and the last sequence (ie the kill) has been bred out somewhat through selective breeding. Most collies won't instinctively want to drive sheep away from you (although some find it an easier exercise than others) and so it becomes possible through training to drive and is then honed through proper day to day work.
ester
Not slacking multitasking
You've led into my question, are the 4 dogs on separate whistles?
My experience of sheepdogs has been ermm very minimal training, just learn from each other and know 'lie down' and 'get it'- though it always seemed to work well enough for them - very flat though so probably easier then!
My experience of sheepdogs has been ermm very minimal training, just learn from each other and know 'lie down' and 'get it'- though it always seemed to work well enough for them - very flat though so probably easier then!
Moobli
...
Yes they are all on different whistles (although the stop and that'll do whistles are the same for all). OH has six trained dogs that all have different whistle commands. I have absolutely no idea how he remembers which is which!
Last edited by a moderator:
Clodagh
Playing chess with pigeons
Thank you for the earlier reply, fascinating.
As to the whistles, now that I work 2 dogs together I think I should have different whistles for each but I know I would always use the wrong one, so have decided to muddle on.