Herding video - Bond at practice today
I had my friend Roxie do a little video of us. Quality isn't great, because it's just off my phone, then uploaded in less definition for youtube. But I think you can see the general idea! He has really fought me on control (stubborn boy), and once he conceded physical control, he started barking...so now that is what we are working on....as you will see in the video. But he is doing great and I'm so proud of him. One big thing many new to herding do, is not get control of the dog. The sheep are not supposed to be pushed so hard that they run, or get hot and panting. In real life - this would be bad for a farmer's flock - they would be losing weight that that farmer has worked hard to put on them (and spent $$ on feed). The sheep may be pregnant, and running them would be bad and possibly cause them to abort. The weather may be hot, or the ground conditions slippery and cause an injury to the sheep. Bond has learned to give them space, but he also is SO in love with herding that he's working himself 100% harder than he needs to! When he's close to the camera, you can hear the grunting and panting HE is making. But he gives the sheep space and they are calm and not in the least fatigued. I'm guessing once he grows up he'll settle a little bit.  But a 2 yr old - he's still got so much spunk. Here's his video, showing his 4 minutes of herding fun - And then we stopped at The Paw and did a bath on our way home! Nice to be indoors, but the fine, powdery arena dust and his enthusiastic saliva is not a good thing. He is just crusted in dirt by the time he's done.  PS - we were indoors, and thankfully out of the bitter wind. But the temp in MN was 5 degrees (F) for a HIGH temperature today. |
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| next time that boy goes to herding by running behind the car to wear him down a bit. Too much 2 year old in him.........he's loving this work, but wound too tight yet. Always fun to watch a dog truly enjoying himself, good boy Bond. |
| Interesting to watch. I think he has got pretty good control especially for 2 years, I am just picturing Monty in with the sheep, he would want to be right up there with them and would probably want to chase them around. How will you work on the barking? Monty barks sometimes when we are waiting our turn in agility practice when he sees a really enthusiastic dog run. |
| Thank you for sharing Bond's sheep herding practice with us, I found it fasinating. I know Bond isn't suppose to talk "smack" to the sheep, but I guess it can be hard to keep it all in. I do, however, know how the sheep feel since my Asia seems to feel she needs to herd me to the car each day and she does keep her distance as she tells me to hurry up. |
He's actually barking at me, not the sheep so much. As he is progressing in his herding education, there are more rules - move the sheep where I say, stop when I say stop ("there", and sit), start out in the direction I say ("go bye", or "away to me"), don't push them too hard, nicely wear (the back and forth movement that keeps the "edges" of the sheep flock even and grouped tightly), don't split (dart between and break up the flock), and more. He has all this energy and would really prefer to do something more exciting...like race around and make those sheep really move!  So once he conceded to my rules (listed above), he started the lippy and somewhat frustrated barks. Not too much, but I prefer a silent worker. It's really mostly about him learning self control.  Real herding dogs don't bark while they work - the only exception is if they need to with a stubborn sheep/goat, etc.Right now, having to stop herding and sit, is his barking consequence when he barks when we are moving. Sometimes a bark just escapes...and I can just give him the "look" or a verbal reminder. A year ago - he was nonstop barking and protesting each time he had to stop - even just the planned stops. He thinks stopping is boring...so it's been a big training issue this past year. Having to sit for minutes at a time taught him barking got him nowhere - literally! This is by far his favorite activity in the whole world. After the 1st time we did herding, he was totally in the OMG I LOVE THIS! mode... Now my job is to help him shape this instinctive behavior into a great herding dog. He's ready to move up to the next level in herding, so he needs to settle in and continue to fine tune his herding education.  |
That was fun to watch. Still hoping to start Fred in lessons since she loved the instinct test we did last summer. Finding time on the weekends during the school year is proving difficult  Thanks for sharing! |
| That was great fun to watch. He reminded me a lot of Tiggy. She was that wound up with sheep. We never progressed past Tiggy's difficulty with wanting to run the sheep ragged as I had hip surgery and then started working full time and didn't have time to bathe her after each session. We worked on soil like that and after all the dribbling she would be filthy too. Tiggy only barked when she was frustrated too. That was mostly outside the pen when other dogs were having a turn. She started it at our second training and I hate it too. Every time she started I took her back to the car and left her there by herself for 10 minutes time out. I thought it wasn't working because I spent the whole day traipsing back and forward to the car. But on our third training session if a bark slipped out I just had to say 'Stop or we'll go to the car' and she'd stop straight away. It always amazes me how learning occurs. Sometimes it takes a day or two's processing before you see the results of training. |
| Loved watching you and Bond! We just started before the weather got us-(they don't have a nice indoor facility like that) so I am learning too. Can't wait to get back to it. |
 Great job! Thanks for posting! Cindy |
| This is awesome! Ah, a 2 year olds energy, lol. Ramsey turned 2 Sunday, I know EXACTLY how you feel right now, lol. |
| Way to go Bond! I got a little distracted b/c he has the cutest, happiest Sheepie tushie ever!!! |
| Dawn,,,I was very impressed by Bond's control!!!!! He (and you) are amazing!!!!! Thanks for posting. I learned alot watching that!!! Thanks for posting!!  |
| Thanks guys! I'll try and update when I can. My herding buddies know that I'm sharing with my OES friends, so they are always willing to help. Thank goodness - as it's cold here now, and running the phone camera is not hand and finger friendly in this weather. Last Sunday he had a new experience. We were in this same indoor arena, and he worked the entire flock of about 15-20 sheep. So it was the heavy (slow and calm) sheep, mixed with the light (flighty and more likely to bolt away) sheep. It was quite the challenge to keep that large and varied group together. It took him a few tries to figure it out, but he was really getting it (amount of pressure and distance needed) by the end. Good physical and mental workout. Chewie is doing it too - but in rehab mode. He got really burned out when we started working on even more skills and with more rules....and he just plain shut down. Wouldn't stick with the sheep, just walked over to the fence and pouted. So we have been working short and fun, and getting back the joy of herding. Last Sunday he did really well, so I'm hoping I'll be back to having 2 herding hairy boys soon.  |
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