German sheep wolf

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Moobli

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Tay, my GSD bitch, is now two years old. I’d spent the first year of her life putting in the foundation work and getting control, and teaching her sheep were not to be chased.
For the past few months I’ve been starting her working the sheep alongside the collies and she’s actually really quite good. A few people have commented that it should be no surprise as GSDs were of course herding dogs originally but I honestly think these people fail to understand that GSDs haven’t really been used in any great capacity (and certainly outside of the HGH world in Germany) for generations and certainly not on wild native hill sheep. They were used on trained, heavy docile flocks who come to the call of the human shepherd and were used as a living fence to stop the flock from eating crops that weren’t intended for them and for keeping them out of the way of traffic. Therefore Tay has no natural heading or balancing instincts like a border collie but she does like to keep the flock together and I’m training her left/right around posts and cones at the moment to hopefully transfer that to sheep over time.

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A couple of short videos (if they work)
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=363460402123099

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1018176392335772
 
Second video doesn’t work probably because there’s music on it, but it can be watched on FB if anyone’s interested enough ?
 
Love her ?. We were holidaying in keilder one year with my first malamute and messed up when we thought a field we were going into was empty, there was in fact a dog leg at the bottom that we couldn't see with a flock of sheep in it. When we got there Tehya had rounded them up into a tight bunch and was keeping them all together. No idea where her herding instinct came from, although someone did suggest she was merely getting them all together to eat one at a time ?, bloody lucky no farmer was about to see her in with his sheep though.
 
Shows just how versatile the GSD can be with correct training. Super dog.
A sheep farmer local to us who was heavily into sheepdog trialling once bragged that he could train any dog to work sheep. He was offered a spaniel to train and to the owner's amazement he trained it and even competed it successfully in some sort of trial. I only heard this second-hand so don't know full facts.
My sister's collie lurcher can be quite helpful and sometimes seems to understand what she is doing. We call her the sheep lurcher.
 
Really nice to see. And a good illustration of where they get that gait from/how they are actually supposed to move!

Have you ever seen the German video of the dog walking along the boundary and a sheep pops its head over into the crops behind it and the dog just spins round like OI, NO! and the sheep darts back into line again :p
 
Roxylola said:
Oh she's lovely, seeing her in contrast to the collie made me smile - collie all super intense and she's like ooh left a bit guys,right a bit yep yep looking good looking good, just sort of cheery doing her job ❤
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I loved this too. I was imagining the collie like "who is this idiot bumpkin what does she think she's do-... why is it working oh what is happening here" ?
 
Equi said:
I really enjoyed watching that video!! Im always in awe of working collies anyway cause the focus and knowing the job is just so amazing to watch, but watching Tay was very cool! Totally different method, very laid back attitude compared to the collie.
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Thank you. I never get tired of watching working collies ❤️ I’m hoping to get to Germany at some point in the future to watch the Bundesleistungshuten herding trial which is for GSDs. It’s a different style to how our collies (and my GSD) work but it’s how the breed was traditionally used so would be very educational.
 
Fabulous!! I wonder how the sheep feel about the different styles of work? My terrier is an awful sheep dog and I truly wish I could put up some film of him trying his best to help. He is quite good at trundling along at the back and not bad at going where asked though not with any real sense of purpose...The worst thing is that just being a dog is sort of helpful but if he catches sight of a bird overhead, that's it, he downs tools and bogs off after the bird!! Our ewes do not take him seriously at all and the 'proper' sheepdogs (Jet and Jill) simply can't bring themselves to acknowledge him if he is with us when we have a bigger flock. I do love watching him trying to do something that his breeding has never factored in though; he really is terribly keen to please but clearly cannot see any point at all. Dear Jill is the opposite - she simply lives to work bless her.
 
palo1 said:
Fabulous!! I wonder how the sheep feel about the different styles of work? My terrier is an awful sheep dog and I truly wish I could put up some film of him trying his best to help. He is quite good at trundling along at the back and not bad at going where asked though not with any real sense of purpose...The worst thing is that just being a dog is sort of helpful but if he catches sight of a bird overhead, that's it, he downs tools and bogs off after the bird!! Our ewes do not take him seriously at all and the 'proper' sheepdogs (Jet and Jill) simply can't bring themselves to acknowledge him if he is with us when we have a bigger flock. I do love watching him trying to do something that his breeding has never factored in though; he really is terribly keen to please but clearly cannot see any point at all. Dear Jill is the opposite - she simply lives to work bless her.
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For the sheep themselves, I don’t think it’s so much about the style as the pressure and pace placed upon them by different dogs. Our sheep are regularly worked by dogs so respect them and that helps. Well dog and sheep have respect for each other.
 
ycbm said:
Great videos. I wonder how many people, like me, are surprised to see a GSD work sheep and then wake up to the middle word of the name ?
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It’s an uncommon sight in the UK I guess. They’re much more often seen in the police/military/guarding role but yes their original purpose was as a “shepherd” dog ?.
 
Fascinating videos especially the different styles, and what you said about the original purpose of GSDs. Thanks for posting, it's so interesting to see.
 
I just love your GSDs, I’ve always dreamed of having one like yours but I think my little collie dog has taught me I am clearly not a good enough dog trainer!
 
BBP said:
I just love your GSDs, I’ve always dreamed of having one like yours but I think my little collie dog has taught me I am clearly not a good enough dog trainer!
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Thank you! I’m not much of a dog trainer either. The main thing with my GSDs has been firm but fair handling with lots of basic training (which you’ve done with your collie) and plenty of exercise and company.
 
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