You are here: Home / 2019 / May / 16 / It is hard work trying to train those stupid sheep I did not ask to be a shepherd. And I think I’ve done a remarkable job as a Shepard. But damn. Those sheep are stupid.
They gobble feed from my hands. I can pet then. I tried this evening to rope Clyde in by pulling on his ears. He did not take kindly to my multiple attempts.
Stupid sheep.
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The only things stupider than sheep is chickens.
Maybe.
I once saw one running away from a dog that ran into a fence head first and knocked himself out. Got back up and did the same thing again. And then he did it again.
Stupid indeed.
You’ve heard of Judas goats? That’s why they use goats to lead them. Not that goats are smart – but relatively speaking…..!!!
Have you ever been to a sheep dog trial???
Very cool to watch.
What is a sheep dog trial??
Sheep dog trials are contests between man/dog teams required to move a small group of sheep (usually 5 I think) around and through a specified course. The course usually consists of gates and barriers, and are set so that they aren’t straight, but the sheep have to be moved around them as well as through them. The handler directs the dog through whistle signals, and the dog moves the sheep around the course and back into the pen they start from. And they’re timed. They win by having the best time with no dings for mistakes.
To watch them, it appears that the dog does all the work, making decisions by itself. In fact, the person controls the dogs doing so through whistles. Pretty amazing. I don’t know how they train them. The tendency to herd is bred into them – in fact, if you don’t train them to some extent, they can be a problem because of that – but the training required to do the advanced work….that amazes me!
https://usbcha.com/sheepdogs/sanctioned-sheepdog-trials/
http://www.texassheepdogassoc.org/
I looked for something in Mississippi, but didn’t find anything.
That sounds too cool! training must be hard work. When the J-Man lived here, he tried to get Gilbert, his dog– whose suppose to be a herder– to get Clyde back in the pasture. THat did not work too well!
The problem is that the instinct to herd is bred into them…but unless you train them, it’s undisciplined which causes chaos. Dog’s ideas of where the sheep should go usually don’t match human’s ideas! I’m not sure how someone learns to train them – but I know it takes a long time to train the dogs, and my guess is that it takes the human a long time to learn the skill of training the dogs as well. I don’t even know how you learn or where you’d go to learn how to train them.
As I recall…it’s almost like magic because some of them use those dog whistles that we humans can’t hear, so it looks like the dogs are just doing the work all by themselves. And of course, to a certain extent, they are – but as the J-man can tell you, that doesn’t mean they’re going to do what _you _ have in mind!
I should have known….!!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0QEmXJbJzSEbdXq41MEg4g
Too cool! Thanks. One of the vids features a dog that acts just exactly like Bebe!