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My male puppy is 4 1/2 months so I took him to the sheep lady(smile...Good Friend..and Herding instructor), to see what his instincts were. This puppy has super sound temperament with people, you can take him anywhere, anytime, anynoise, and the tail is wagging. He also has good recovery on anything that overwhelms him(though I really never see him overwhelmed).
He is big confident puppy that is always grabbing my two year old female around the neck as he tries to drive her until see nails him, that stopps him for about 5 seconds then he's back.
Well, she puts him on long line in big pen with three big wooly sheep and her border collie.The border collie is completely trained and stays to the side unless she tells him to scatter the sheep for the trainer dog to regather. At first he was a little overwhelmed at these creatures, though tail waggin and no hackles up. The trainer has the BC scatter the sheep and then regather them. As he is regathering them the male puppy started following him in chasing them also. She then instructed BC to scatter and go to fence, the puppy then went to gather them on his own. One dominant big sheep tried to dominate him and he maneuvered behind him and gripped him on the flank. The sheep scurried back with the other two. She had him take the three down the field and only had to break him from gripping a couple times on the flanks. By the third time he released the grip on her first verbal command.
When she brought him out of the pen she was beaming and said to me and two other people, that had BC and Aust. shepherd, that this puppy is phenomenal for his age. The one sheep she had in there would run dogs up to a year if they were weak but he handled him easily. She tells me that his grip is very strong for a puppy but his confidence and response to letting go was excellent and a sign of superior nerves. She says(laughing) it would be a travesty if I don't work this dog on sheep towards a title. I smiled, as he goes to training with me and older dogs now and I let him watch. I don't start formal obedience until one year so maybe I will let him have a couple more months of the sheep.
Felt pretty good about the little big guy.
He is big confident puppy that is always grabbing my two year old female around the neck as he tries to drive her until see nails him, that stopps him for about 5 seconds then he's back.
Well, she puts him on long line in big pen with three big wooly sheep and her border collie.The border collie is completely trained and stays to the side unless she tells him to scatter the sheep for the trainer dog to regather. At first he was a little overwhelmed at these creatures, though tail waggin and no hackles up. The trainer has the BC scatter the sheep and then regather them. As he is regathering them the male puppy started following him in chasing them also. She then instructed BC to scatter and go to fence, the puppy then went to gather them on his own. One dominant big sheep tried to dominate him and he maneuvered behind him and gripped him on the flank. The sheep scurried back with the other two. She had him take the three down the field and only had to break him from gripping a couple times on the flanks. By the third time he released the grip on her first verbal command.
When she brought him out of the pen she was beaming and said to me and two other people, that had BC and Aust. shepherd, that this puppy is phenomenal for his age. The one sheep she had in there would run dogs up to a year if they were weak but he handled him easily. She tells me that his grip is very strong for a puppy but his confidence and response to letting go was excellent and a sign of superior nerves. She says(laughing) it would be a travesty if I don't work this dog on sheep towards a title. I smiled, as he goes to training with me and older dogs now and I let him watch. I don't start formal obedience until one year so maybe I will let him have a couple more months of the sheep.
Felt pretty good about the little big guy.