After deciding that the bottle fed lambs were too much of a hindrance to be in the same yard with, I chose to swap them out for some paddock raised ewe lambs that were about 8 months old. These ewes were not quiet, and behaved very differently to the bottle babies.
Jock had to work much harder to get around these sheep, and it was at this time that I realised the mistake I was making.
These ewes would not come off the fence. If they didn't come off the fence, Jock couldn't get in behind them, therefore he couldn't bring them to me in the centre of the ring.
I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong, so after finishing the training session, I got on the computer and emailed Gill and Andy at
to ask for help.
The fault was in fact mine. I was not giving the sheep enough room, so when Jock was trying to push in behind them, I was at the same time pushing them back up against the fence.
A few tips from Gill and we started fixing the problem, however these sheep were still not coming off the fence. This is when the DVD came in handy. Using my other dog (a Boxer with absolutely NO herding sense) to run around the outside of the pen, the sheep would move off the fence to get away from her, therefore creating a gap for Jock to get in behind them. As he became more confident, he starting creating his own gap, and now successfully moves the sheep off the fence.
Moral of the story.......... if you want the sheep to move, give them somewhere to go!
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