Starting pups

Following on from the Flyboys' debut as sheepdogs, I thought I'd stick up a few other kind of recent clips of pups starting on sheep.

Mostly we start them in the round pen, mainly because it's easier to catch the pups. The small area and higher pressure of the pen can make it more intimidating for baby dogs, so sometimes we start them out in the paddock, hopefully using some quiet trainer sheep if we have them handy, with an older dog covering out wide. It depends on the puppy (are they quick enough to get around sheep in the paddock, and can they handle the round pen pressure?), the available sheep (the killer mob often includes unworked older sheep which either take on little dogs in the round pen, or take off running in the paddock) and the available facilities (sometimes our round pen set-up gets used elsewhere).

We usually show the pups sheep as early as possible, let them have a go in the pen or paddock at 4 or 5 months just to see what they do, and start working them properly when they're showing that they can handle it, which might be 6 months for one pup and 18 months for another (stand up, Pinky!).

Watching baby pups like the Flyboys having their first taste of fresh sheep poo, it blows me away to think about their great-grandmother, Glenview Spotty, who apparently ran in her first 3 sheep trial at 5 months, where she made the Open final. She won her first Open final at 9 months, and was still trialling successfully (and working for a living) at 13 years.

Here's Just Esme (Grassvalley Tippy x Boylee Ella), taken on the same day as the Flyboys clips last week. She's 5 months old now, and she has a bit more experience on sheep than the Flyboys- not a deliberate move on our part. She'd started taking off at the end of a walk to follow the delinquent Salli Kelpie down to the training paddock, where Salli would muster the training mob to the gate, and Esme would run amok. But it doesn't seem to have done her any harm.




From earlier this year, this is Kriszty's Secret (Mick x Ivanhoe Sally), on her first holiday back at the farm. She was also 5 months old- still a bit of a puppy, and a bit fired up at times, especially in the round pen, but she picked up confidence quickly later on.




And this is Secret's litter brother, Sonic, 6 months old, on sheep for the first time at the Jenny Parsons' clinic at Capel in February. He was a bit unsure and a bit focussed on getting to the heads (like his mum), but nice and calm, which I think took Karen by surprise. I did hear that he fired up more on his second exposure!