Will chases the sheep at firstTesting aptitude with real sheep
Border collies are historically sheep herders and we have been very interested to find out how our young puppies would be if put on sheep. Jim has been in contact with Bev Lambert, a woman in Connecticut who raises border collies and actively competes nationally and internationally in herding trials. She advised that the pups should not be exposed to sheep at all until they are 8 months of age, so as soon as they reached that age, Jim scheduled some time with her to assess their aptitude on sheep. So a couple of weeks ago, we made the hour long trek to a small farming town in the ‘quiet corner’ of Connecticut to see what we would see.
Bev has a small farm where she keeps a small flock of sheep, apparently so she can train her herding dogs. Her main dog, Merck, accompanied all of us to the enclosed pen where she separated five of her sheep for the puppies to be tested on. Will went into the pen with Bev and Jim and the five sheep. Immediately, he started to run after the little flock of five, who ran around the inside perimeter of the pen. Bev was quiet and watched carefully, since I’m sure she didn’t want him to harm the sheep, but she let him run at will. After a few minutes of chase, he did slow down, watch the sheep, and walked after them rather than running. One of the sheep broke away from the others, and Will did what comes naturally. He went after that stray sheep and brought it back to the pack. Bev was watching for his tail movement. At first Will’s tail was up, in a playful position. After he got a little more serious, though, his tail dropped down, in the working position. Bev did think Will had the instinct.
Border collies are historically sheep herders and we have been very interested to find out how our young puppies would be if put on sheep. Jim has been in contact with Bev Lambert, a woman in Connecticut who raises border collies and actively competes nationally and internationally in herding trials. She advised that the pups should not be exposed to sheep at all until they are 8 months of age, so as soon as they reached that age, Jim scheduled some time with her to assess their aptitude on sheep. So a couple of weeks ago, we made the hour long trek to a small farming town in the ‘quiet corner’ of Connecticut to see what we would see.
Bev has a small farm where she keeps a small flock of sheep, apparently so she can train her herding dogs. Her main dog, Merck, accompanied all of us to the enclosed pen where she separated five of her sheep for the puppies to be tested on. Will went into the pen with Bev and Jim and the five sheep. Immediately, he started to run after the little flock of five, who ran around the inside perimeter of the pen. Bev was quiet and watched carefully, since I’m sure she didn’t want him to harm the sheep, but she let him run at will. After a few minutes of chase, he did slow down, watch the sheep, and walked after them rather than running. One of the sheep broke away from the others, and Will did what comes naturally. He went after that stray sheep and brought it back to the pack. Bev was watching for his tail movement. At first Will’s tail was up, in a playful position. After he got a little more serious, though, his tail dropped down, in the working position. Bev did think Will had the instinct.
Will gets the idea while Merck watches
Merck is in and Will still watches the sheepAfter several minutes, Will came out to stand with me, while Emma was brought into the pen with the sheep. As is her nature, she immediately went into high speed and chased the sheep around the pen. She trapped them into one side, and proceeded to bark at them, and scared them so that Bev did not want to leave her in the pen with them for much time. She had her own dog, Merck, in the pen at the same time, and he was able to keep the sheep at bay, while Emma was let out. Bev’s opinion of our little Emma was that she was afraid of the sheep, and I’m sure this is why she didn’t want to leave her in the pen too long. I would bet also that she didn’t want her sheep any more scared of the yappy little dog either.
Emma on the runBev’s final assessment was that Will had some instinct, but that she thought that Emma was afraid of the sheep. She ended up saying that we could try them again in about a month, if we were serious about this, thinking they might still be a little young for a true assessment. And her final word was that we might consider doing agility with them.
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