|
|
Herding
| Shelties haven't been selected for herding
ability for at least a century. Nonetheless, many of them
retain herding instinct inherited from their distant ancestors, who
were all around farm dogs on the Shetland Islands. |
|
I started herding in 1994
after watching the ASSA National Specialty Herding Trial in Lodi.
I had had a chance to try Molly on sheep a couple of times before
the National, and on the strength of that, I entered her in the AHBA
Herding Test that same weekend. She passed and I was
hooked. |
 Molly |
|
Raven |
Many of the beginning Shelties
tend to race around the livestock, or to run the livestock.
With training and experience, they learn to use just enough force to
keep the sheep moving. |
|
Most Shelties tend to work too close to
the livestock in the beginning. With training they learn to
back off and to move the sheep without scattering them. Dustin
here worked so close to the sheep that several times I had to give
him a stop command, just so I could extricate myself from the
woolies. |
Dustin |
|
Raven |
|
Molly and I worked long and hard to develop this
wide an outrun. |
Molly |
|
Fetching is moving the sheep
toward the handler.
|
Raven |
|
|
Molly |
Driving the sheep (moving them in a direction
other than toward the handler) is difficult for many Shelties. |
Sheep in large flocks behave
quite differently than they do in small groups. We never
passed up a chance to do large flock work.
Molly |
|
|
