Dog training and sheep – 4th October 2008

I found my hat.

I decided to head back up to the same area of moorland I had visited the day before. This bit of moorland always holds a good few sheep. I cast cast Grace off and she ran pretty well from the outset. What I have noticed with regards sheep is that it only takes a few days for them to get used to you. There are some fields I take Grace through where the sheep won’t even get up as we pass now, with Grace being more interested in the ‘food’ the sheep leave behind than the sheep themselves. On this area of moorland the sheep have just started to get used to us and don’t bother moving away until we are right on top of them. For a dog with an obviously high prey drive this is quite an exercise.

As Grace worked an area of moorland infront of me a few sheep moved off to the left leaving a single ewe on our right. As Grace came back towards me the ewe decided to rejoin its disappearing flock and ran towards me from the other direction. Keeping a good few metres away from me it came across Grace heading flat out towards her. Grace was intent on working so didn’t seem to notice. As the ewe crossed infront of me so did Grace. I blew the whistle, Grace dropped, and the ewe carried on. They crossed with a gap of only two metres at the most between them. I was really quite pleased. The ewe headed off without much of a care and so did we. Grace does fully understand the importance of dropping to the whistle which is good to know.