07 October 2007

Herding Weekend with Barbara Sykes in October 2002

As told by Angela Cocker:

Despite by administrative skills (or lack thereof), an international contingent of ACD owners made it to Bradford, for the herding weekend at the end of October.

Due to the variety of experience levels present, objectives ranged from assessing whether a dog had any herding instinct, to establishing greater direction, and control of dogs that regularly work.  Others where just there for fun.

Initially, the sheep were contained in a round pen, with the dog working outside the pen while the handler was inside.  No concessions were made for the fact that we weren't working collies - our dogs were expected to work in the collie style, opposite us, with the sheep between.  None of the dogs behaved terribly well, they either rushed around trying to get back to their handler, or wandered off to have a look around!

The dogs were then allowed into the pen, where almost all of them 'switched on'.  Our ACD's aren't stupid, why bother to waste energy on the sheep when when you're on the wrong side of the fence?  It was fairly obvious that most of the dogs were far more interested in driving than herding, and the dos were markedly 'harder' in attitude than the bitches.  If one were looking for a multi-purpose worker for a range of stock, the female ACD might be the better bet.

The 4 more experienced dogs (funnily enough, all International Champions, too) worked the sheep loose in the field, and all handlers had the chance to work Barbara's collies here too.  Whether people gained what they'd hoped for, I think 'yes' for the most part, they did.  I just went for fun, (not much stock in the centre of Bristol) which is just as well, as Dillon appeared to have forgotten most of his prior experience!  I don't think the howling gales helped anyone's stockwork, but the highlight of my weekend was Dillons successful search of a large field for one of the other handlers lost leads!

Anyway, I'd say the weekend was a success - all the sheep lived.

As told by Jennifer Taylor: (the truth!)

We had a very good time at the herding weekend Angela put together but were disappointed in the numbers, which were quite low.  However, this gave us more time with the sheep and dogs.  The hardest part of the time for me was learning how a sheep thinks.  I knew what Emma was going to do but how can you try to predict a dog's movements and keep your eye on these sheep who, however small, have brains of their own?

I thought it was very funny when the fence to the pen fell down twice on us.  I don't think Barbara's equipment was Cattle Dog proof, or ACD owner-proof either as I accidentally pulled down one of the bars myself. (Owners do become like their dogs!)  It was good to see that some of our Cattle Dogs were interested in herding the sheep.  It appeared that the older dogs weren't keen and, in speaking with Barbara, this could be due to the fact that we've spent the last five years training them to look at us, not sheep!  The younger dogs were keen and I was quite pleased to see some of the instinct come out in my bitch and Stephanie's "Skippy" showed an interest too.

When one of the sheep turned to face Emma and stamped its foot, Emma went right in to bite the nose and show the sheep who was boss.  So, the instinct does remain in the show dogs and we should keep encouraging the work ethic to remain in this wonderful breed.

I was able to meet two Cattle Dog owners whom I'd never seen before.  Darryl brought two of his dogs from Ireland and Caroline came all the way from Luxembourg to show us how her red dog works, by far one of the best controlled.

It is obvious that many of us don't have the reliable 'drop on command' that we thought we had.  Hopefully, we are all taking away with us the understanding that no matter how we think our dogs obey us, a new situation can change that in an instant.

And I didn't even really mentioned the blood....well, I do think that Barbara is not used to the bite that a cattle dog has versus her border collies.  I say this because when we left, one was sent to the pasture to heal (thanks Dillon) and another was in the pen still recovering (thanks to Darryl's Boy).  So now I know what a grip is and so does Barbara, Yikes!

Sorry Angela, I had to mention it.