Well, I can’t tell you that last night went smoothly, but my Willie boy tried his best and ended up learning a lot about working sheep last night. (We went to a good friends, Peg, who has a lot more sheep and a lot more land than I do and is extremely generous with her time.) First, Will and I drove a flock of about 35 sheep into a pen at the end of a long field, and then turned and walked 40 yards in the other direction, where Peg had brought out a group of 5 or 6 ewes about 250 yards away. I waited until I was sure Willie had seen them, and then sent him “Come Bye” (clockwise). He began correctly, but then stopped part way there and looked back at the flock he had just worked (who were behind him and me both). I said Come Bye again, and he started right but again slowed and looked back. Eventually he ended up driving directly toward the flock he was supposed to run to the back of, and actually drove them away from me at one point. I whistled stop, lie down, come bye, etc etc, all to no avail. It was abundantly clear to me that he was completely confused, so I stopped trying to signal him and went to help him.
As I started to walk toward him he got around the sheep and brought them toward me, or more accurately, he ran behind the sheep who were now charging in my direction toward the larger flock behind me. The group he was trying to work ended up smack dab against the pen’s fence, with a few thin boards separating the small and the larger flocks. That was Willie’s next challenge–pulling the small flock away from the large one, and he just couldn’t manage it. He needed to force himself between the fence (and most relevant, the larger flock) and push the small flock away, and he just couldn’t do it. He kept looking at the sheep inside the fence, and as an excessively strong-eyed dog, he simply couldn’t detach himself from wanting to work them too. I suspect it was partly a confidence issue, Willie being a dog full of fears, but the draw of the other sheep was clearly a huge factor as well. I went over and helped and we got it done, but when we tried it again he still had trouble. We’ve worked a bit at this at home, but what we’ve done is new enough that it didn’t transfer to a new context.
Peg and I switched directions to make it easier for Will, but now the sheep were on the upside of a pasture with two hills and big dip in the middle. Will lost sight of the sheep halfway through his outrun and began to run flat (toward the sheep rather than around). He tried to fix it when he got the sheep back in sight, but by then he was too close, and struggled to get control of them once he got around them. He brought them to me eventually, but it wasn’t very pretty. I was sure he had just never been in this situation, (losing sight of the sheep on such a long outrun) so I sent him one more time, and damn if he didn’t run a perfect outrun, take control of the sheep much more effectively (not perfectly, but not bad either) and bring them spot-on to me at a perfect pace. Whew. Good boy, good boy.
Of course, by now he and the sheep were a bit tired (Will over heats pathetically fast, so between runs 2 and 3 he had taken a rest in the shade, drunk water and had water poured on his paws), so that partially explains the quiet pace, but nonetheless, it was a good place to end and I was pleased he had clearly learned from experience. We’ll try again next week if we can fit it in before we go to Africa, but meanwhile I’ll work on the issue of shedding the sheep off of a fence with a flock right behind at home.
Meanwhile, back at the farm: Besides walks with dogs and working with sheep (and scrubbing water tanks and grinding nails… all the boring stuff we all do to maintain life), lots of time at home is being spent of preparation for Africa. Oh my, hard to believe that in 2 weeks I’ll be with a pack of animal lovers watching hippos in an underwater viewing area in Tsavo National Park. I won’t be able to send posts from there, so I’m going to write articles before I go, to be posted throughout the time I’m gone. Who knows, maybe I will have internet access in some places.. that would be great fun to write you all from there!
Closer to home, here’s Will and flowers, two of my favorite things:
Alessandro Rosa says
Hippos. Yikes!!! Be careful. Talk about a species in desperate need of your Fiesty Fido book. 😉 Their bite pressure makes a bite from a Rottie seem like a gentle kiss.
Thank you for your kind words. I will definitely be a more cautious canine owner for the near future. Darwin had a playdate at home last night with a good friend and I tried out the park again this morning for about 15 minutes. For the most part, he did okay and played a little, he was definitely excited to get there, but there were some barks and growls that I saw start to get his hackles up, so I called him over had him sit and fed him a treat. I did this a few times and then noticed that when he heard an angry bark he started looking up to find me, which is at least better than him taking off. When it started to look like a few of the dogs were getting a bit over zealous, even though not with him, I put him back on leash and we headed for home.
Darwin works well for food he likes, even to the point where he needs to overcome a fear in order to get it. There was a broken umbrella on the sidewalk last night on our walk that he wouldn’t go near, so I started luring him with treats, then laid them on the ground near the umbrella and built up to putting them on the umbrella. He wasn’t thrilled about it, but he did eat the treats off of the umbrella, which was a lot better than him dead stopped a pulling the other way 10 minutes before. So I will continue treating and trying to set up positive experiences for him and monitor when it seems to be more than he wants to handle and remove him from the stress. Thank you again. Be safe in Africa. And as for Willie, he’s probably just having a rough week. I bet the next time he will have those Ewes dancing as gracefully as Ginger Rodgers.
Kait B. Roe says
First of all, wow is your bee balm beautiful! (say that ten times fast!) Here in Maine we are still drying out from 28 days of rain in June and quite a lot of it in July, so our gardens are exploding but the flowers have been just pummelled.
Poor Will. He is so eager to please you, I’m sure it is just heartbreaking to watch him try so hard. Everyone has a few bad days… maybe he just deserves a break… luckily you are off to Africa soon, and he can just chill at home for a while. (The cat’s away, the mice will have a beer and watch a movie!)
Have a great time in Africa, and I do hope to hear more of Willie’s work soon. He is such a sweet little soul.
Liz F. says
I would love to get into working sheep someday… is there a command for ‘other,’ as in “Willie, get the ‘other’ flock”? Just curious, but I should probably look into Herding 101 or some equivalent. When I’m playing with my dogs with multiple balls and the dogs try to take the ball from one another, I ask them to differentiate: get the ‘other’ ball. Usually is successful. Think this transferred from asking for the trick ‘paw’ then also asking for ‘other paw’ and teaching them to switch left to right, etc… Funny for me to imagine telling a dog to get the other sheep in this way!
Any way, very nice to write articles in advance for all of us wishing we could join you in Africa! Thanks for all of the attention spent on this blog, it is appreciated. I wonder what Lassie and Willie will think of your scent upon your return, and if they recognize African smells from your previous trips (hmmm, she’s been out frolicking with the wildebeests again!)
Hope you have the most wonderful time.
Alessandro Rosa says
I don’t know if Willie has been able to perform the tasks you described before and just couldn’t do it perfectly last night, but is it maybe that he is sensing the change in your routine and maybe even some anxiety on your part in preparing for your Africa trip. “Mom isn’t herself lately and that is worrying me.”
Also you were away at the conference a week or two ago, maybe all of these changes in his daily routine are just overloading him right now and is why he had problems with the sheep and hanging out in your friends yard the other night. Just a thought….
Trisha says
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. Will does have a signal that means “other,” which is “Look Back.” He knows it well, but even at home finds it hard to do if he is “pulled” for some reason by the first group of sheep. If the “other” flock is close by, and he’s not locked on to the first group (making close eye contact), then he Looks Back without hesitation. His strong eye was his main problem that night: he is so strong eyed and the small flock was much farther away than I usually am able to send him. Think of magnets, both pulling the dog toward themselves, with the larger, closer one being stronger. The small flock far away just didn’t have enough “force” to attract Will. I think that’s why he kept looking behind his shoulder and stopped short on the small flock. I do appreciate the suggestion from Alessandro that perhaps my change in routine was the issue, but I think in this case it had to do with quite literally being asked to perform tasks that were much more challenging than usual. I do think routine changes can have significant effects on dogs, but probably not this time.