PET CONCERNS

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It takes patience to teach a young sheep dog its job.

By Maggie Barker

I live on a small, hilltop farmstead in Ohio and have kept sheep ever since I was three years old (I'm 13 now). I've built my flock up slowly over the years and now have one ram and 14 ewes, which produce about 16 to 20 lambs a year.

Two years ago I realized how much time I spent chasing my sheep. I was running them off muddy pastures in springtime, cornering ewes to check their feet in the heat of summer, trying to catch quick little lambs that squeezed through the barn door in January and constantly trying to get sheep into the barn to trim their hoofs or give them injections.I needed help.

I tried using Zak, our Labrador retriever, as a sheep dog—but he chased the lambs away from me instead of to me. An Australian shepherd puppy I located at a nearby farm didn't do much better. Then a local sheep dog trainer, Pat Welsh, found a registered border collie puppy for me to work with. I named her Nell. As Pat pointed out, the border collie has the instinct (bred into it for generations) to bring stock to its master.

I've had good results with Nell, but it took a lot of time and careful training. I'll tell you the story of how I trained her, and I'll include portions of my day-to-day journal as I go along.

Feb. 2:I got Nell today for my birthday! She's a four-month-old border collie. I am being quiet and calm around her because she is a little scared.

During the first few weeks I played with Nell to get her used to me and took her on walks with the lead. (The lead is a 50-foot nylon cord. I always kept Nell on the lead or on a six-foot leash when she was not in her kennel. Otherwise, her strong herding instincts would cause her to race for our poultry yard!)

When she was used to the lead, I taught her to come when I called. I said, "Nell, come," in a friendly tone of voice and snapped my fingers and clapped my hands to encourage her. If she wouldn't come, I'd give a gentle pull on the lead, and then she would. I praised her and gave her a treat. Soon she would come with only a "Nell, come"—without either the pull on the lead or the treat.

After two weeks, Nell was ready to start learning the basic commands

The Basics

First, I taught her to heel (to walk close beside me). To do this, I put her on the leash, said, "Nell, heel" and quickly pulled her to my left side. Then I would start to walk. If she got ahead of me or behind me, I would give a couple of quick jerks on the leash. I stopped frequently and pushed Nell into a sitting position.

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