Stories

How my new little pup Xena at 11 weeks got turned on herding sheep. We went out to Mullerup where there live a couple that are breeding cattledogs one of their dogs is Xenas grandma.

First we helped getting the sheep into the pen, to try getting the interest, she looked a bit but there were more interesting things fx sheep shit. Then we had a little break before we got into the round-pen. In the pen she she also started out eating shit and doing all things not relating to sheep. Then Henning tried holding one of the sheep so she could get close to it and see it run away, we tried that a couple of times and the suddently, like a switch was turned on and she got hooked on the sheep. Then it was time to a break again. We tried a couple of times again this time with a dog that really didn't want to leave the sheep again.

This weekend I went for a cattle clinic in Haslev with Henning as the trainer. The plan was to train both the dogs but I ended up only training the little one 11 month old. Xena then had a whole weekend of herding cattle and she lived up to all my expectations and more.

When we first got in to the round-pen she went straight to the heads of the steers so that was what I hoped for. She then showed how much drive she has for herding... She lost all contact with her brain the next minuts only having fun. We got her in touch with her brain again with the help of a belly rope and a rake. As you can see in the pictures she's holding her bite dangerously long. 

Second time we went in there we worked on her keeping calm and not biting unless she was told to. This time she thought it was smart to eat shit instead of paying attention to the cows, so one of the steers rolled her down in the dirt, making me thinking now she's scared but no she got angry and bit it back, and unfortunately she learned that she could pick a fight with the cows when ever she wanted to. In the picture she just picked a fight and I'm trying to get her away before she gets in and bite not that I don't like her to bite, but we needed to teach her that you can't pick a fight.

So status after the weekend I need to be aware that Xena doesn't get herself hurt because she's an SM dog expecting to have pain. Fortunately she also really want to work and is responsive to the pressure from the handler. See more pictures in Xena on cattle.