Jake tending sheep in the morning at the Iowa Sheep & Wool Festival Jake did a great job, first with a small group of replacement heifers with a bull in a 5 acre lot. First he had to deal with the typical cow curiosity, then survive the "Kill it" reaction and eventually get them to move off of him and stop for him. After about 1/2 hour Wayne was able to wheel this little group at a nice paced walk out and around feeders, into the dry lot, back out totally at his whims.
At that point we felt we had a nice set to demo with but the rancher wanted more, now he asked if Jake would be able to move a group of cows and calves from one grazing pod to another, the pods are 5 acre squares seperated by single strand electric, the rancher said a dog sure would be handy to bring up the stragglers. Off he, Wayne and Jake went, 40 pairs with a bull, once again never handled by a dog and good at running of coyotes. It was slow going at first, stand up to this one, don't let it have her way with you, push her back, but after about 10 minutes that group was off grazing in the next pod. But, wait, now they want to know if the dog can bring them back off the fresh grass.
Ok, here we go, I so wish I had not left my camera home it was a pretty sight watching Jake cast to and fro across the hillside working the cattle back toward the gate. Just as they were nearing the gate the old lead cow decided to change her mind and made a break back up the hill, Jake took off, cast deep and met her half way to the top square and flat footed. They stood their looking eye to eye for a moment or two, before the old cow turned and calmly retreated back down the hill.Jake was not perfect, we would have like to see him stronger at times, but then again he got the job done, the cattle stayed calm and controllable, the rancher was thrilled about seeing dog work that was practical to him that did not stress his cows. We are going to go back a second time before the field day just to remind the cows that a dog means business.
From there we stopped in to drop off a dog that I was working for a sheep producer for the past 30 days, nice little dog. I had her for a month, when she got here it was all "bust em up, run circles and be silly, when she went home she understood and executed her directions fairly reliably, had a stop and a walk up. We figured that it would be nice to drop her off at home since we were going right through, that way I could see how his place was set up and how his sheep responded to the dog. The sheep, Romanovs, were not what I expected, move off a person great, but a dog...no way. Stand there looking at it, followed by taking turns taking pot shots at the dog.
I showed the farmer how to help his dog move the sheep while keeping the dog with him. Previously when the dog could not move the sheep he just moved them for the dog and allowed the dog to run where ever, which usually was off out into the field flanking around to the head. He said then the dog would drive them back to the lot, or rather the sheep were glad to run away from the dog when it was in a direction they wanted to go. He would then throw a bucket at the dog, sending it to the house and then he would try again to get the sheep out to pasture, oh yeah, about 60 ewes.
Enough was enough, here comes Wayne with Jake, they spent the next 1/2 hour teaching those sheep that if they stood their long enough looking at the dog that it would result in a set of teeth firmly planted on the end of their noses. Kinda funny, this hardly impacted the ewes at first, they just would turn their heads, so Jake would grab the wool of their necks, after repeative lessons they decided that completely giving was a good thing. Early on when Jake would flank around to try to stop the group you saw no bend and barely a stop, by the time he was done they were bending and stopping as he was covering the eye of the lead ewes.
Near the end of the session the sheep decided they were tired of this game and made a break from the pasture to the dry lot, Wayne sent Jake to get them stopped. The onlookers standing just inside the dry lot all took cover up in the feed bunks expecting the sheep to run them over, but Jake got to the gate just barely ahead of them and stopped them in their tracks. The farmer shook his head and said "No dog has ever stopped those ewes from running through that gate".
At both places Wayne and Jake were able to get both sheep and cattle to yeild to a dog with only as much bite as was needed and without severly stressing the stock. There was not running or chasing, it was quiet and calm apply pressure, you move off, I release type of work. It was a good day and I'm really proud of our little dog, though not perfect, but he will get'er done. Marc Christopher repeated to us over and over at his clinics, if the dog handles one species of livestock properly he can handle all, it's all about pressure and release. He is so right, it's not about a cattle dog or a sheep dog, it's about a dog that can apply the right amount of pressure to get change.
I don't know how many times I kicked myself for forgetting my camera yesterday.
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