Our subject
(We’re both going to contribute to this post, since the experience was quite different inside and outside the pen. BTW, some of these photos link to our Flickr page, which means that you can see bigger versions by clicking on them, then clicking on the “All Sizes” tag above the photo.)
This morning we hustled the family into the car and drove to a farm an hour outside of Toronto to throw Photon in a pen with sheep. This is a test to see if she has any “herding instinct”.
The procedure is: Dog, owner (in our case, Laura) and shepherd/instructor go into the pen with four sheep. Owner tries to keep the sheep between her and dog by a lot of running around the sheep! Hopefully at some point the dog gets the idea to run after the sheep and exhibit herding behaviours of chasing, circling and wearing (going back and forth to keep the herd together).
The herdees
The session was like old home week for Stoverly Aussies: Photon’s breeder, Sue, was there with several of her young dogs; James and Lori were there with Cobalt and Denim; at least half a dozen other mini aussies and their owners were there as well.
The gang’s all here!
“Um…Photon…the sheep…”
For the first few minutes of her test Photon paid no attention to the sheep, and not much to Laura. She spent a lot of time sniffing around the pen’s perimeter, or nibbling on sheep poop. (Photon had refused to eat her breakfast, knowing something was going on before we left, so she was starving when we got there.) Laura: It was a bit dispiriting, running after the sheep like a loon while my dog was ignoring us completely (the thought going through my head: Great, with a crowd watching Photon will be the only dog this morning to fail!).
We’re now thinking that, aside from confidence, part of it might be that the combination of two years of obedience training and being with her primary trainer meant she wanted to stay on her best behaviour, so she just mentally tried to disengage from the sheep.
Photon: “Wait a second…”
After a few minutes Photon started getting the idea. She started chasing after the sheep, and circling around them to gather the herd. The behaviour came in bursts, short at first, as though she was testing how Laura would feel about it, or was awakening an old instinctual muscle.
“Step lively now!”
She wasn’t consistent. But over course of the 10 or 15 minutes she went from being a dog that didn’t seem to know why she was there, to being a dog who wanted to keep those sheep just-so.
Photon shows a bit of teeth and circles to keep the sheep together
Even better, when one sheep split off from its flock Photon would run after the singleton, trying to move it back.
“Get back in the flock, straggler!”
What are ewe looking at?
Laura didn’t get to see too much of this since she had to keep moving around the sheep away from Photon. But those were the times where Photon’s quick instincts really shone: as soon as one sheep broke off from the herd, she was on it, driving it back.
“What did I say about stragglers?!”
“I could get used to this!”
At the end of the test Photon received an evaluation sheet (comment at bottom: “Took a while for her to kick in, but she did gather sheep & fetch them — just lacks a little confidence”) and a spiffy certificate showing that she’s Herding Instinct Certified and can actually list the initials HIC after her name, were we so inclined.
Addendum: The following quote is from the book Herding Dogs: Progressive Training by Vergil S. Holland, which we think pretty much describes Photon to a tee:
Problems that may occur during your dog’s introduction to stock
Dog does not seem interested/does not “turn on”: Some breeds, particularly if they have had a lot of obedience training, may be reluctant to leave the handler or are not sure that this is really something that they should be doing! If you discourage them at all during their initial encounters with stock, it is as if they say, “I knew this was too much fun to be right. I’d rather please my master than obey my instincts, so I just won’t work stock!” … You may have to get right up on the sheep and pat them (which I was told to do!—L) to encourage the dog to get close to them…. Dogs who have been well trained in Obedience may need more help in beginning to focus on the sheep instead of solely on the handler.
Basically, she’s overeducated! 🙂
No comment yet
Grandma says:
September 28, 2008 at 10:06 pm (UTC 0)
Fantastic Photon! Does this mean you’re moving your family to a farm to raise sheep!
David "All Manners And Protocol And Stuff" Barker says:
September 29, 2008 at 1:35 pm (UTC 0)
Does this mean I have to call her ‘Your Magesty’ and stuff? C’mon, two years ago she fell asleep on my chest while we were watching The Simpsons!!
Pamela Cook says:
September 30, 2008 at 8:22 am (UTC 0)
Does This Mean I can start calling Photon BABE? Come On let me have some fun with this one. Mama Little Piggy. LOL
David "D'oh!" Barker says:
September 30, 2008 at 12:35 pm (UTC 0)
I can’t believe I – me! – missed the Babe joke!!
Peter says:
September 30, 2008 at 1:38 pm (UTC 0)
That’ll do, David. That’ll do.
Pamela Cook says:
October 1, 2008 at 3:08 pm (UTC 0)
BBBaaabe LOL
Laura says:
October 2, 2008 at 4:18 pm (UTC 0)
Here are some more pics of Photon herding (at her breeder’s site).
Susan says:
October 7, 2008 at 9:21 am (UTC 0)
Oh my heart! That Photon, she’s got it al . . .