Sheepandtrials

How do you pick a pup from a litter?
I believe that parentage is everything in a litter. If the pups are bred from good working lines there’s a really good chance that any of the pups will work well, but no amount of training can make a good worker out of a poorly-bred puppy.
Personally I prefer a black and tan pup although the red and tans often sell faster from our own litters and I tend to pick a bolder pup with a lot about it as our dogs work sheep and cattle and need to be quite tough.
Size doesn’t matter at all. I often find the smaller pups who have to fight for the milk are the more feisty, outgoing ones.

Do you teach the puppy any commands before taking it to sheep?
I like a pup to come when called, either just to its name or to a ‘that’ll do’ command.

At what age do you first take the pup to sheep?
Twelve to 14 weeks is an ideal time to start, but I don't usually start serious training before 6 or 7 months. Some dogs will be a lot older before showing much interest. If the pup just sniffs around and won’t look at the sheep I’ll probably put it away and try again in a month. Some dogs can be twelve months before they’ll turn on to sheep and one of my dogs was 17 months before he got really keen.
One way of encouraging a young dog to show interest is to tie it up and work an older dog in the pen in front of it, but I’ve never found actually working the pup with an older dog does much good.

How do you start the pup on sheep?
I like to have about six well-dogged sheep in a large round pen. A round pen is preferable to a square pen because the sheep can get stuck in the corners of a square pen and the pup can struggle to shift them. I use a lunging whip to tap the ground in front of the pup to keep him off the sheep and just encourage him to keep running to the head of the sheep while I move around inside the pen. I like to keep the pup moving and don’t use a stop command at this point as I find kelpies – unlike collies – are easily put off by too much commanding at a young age. If you keep stopping your kelpie pup you’ll find after a while you’ll struggle to get him started again.

Would you let a young dog work ewes and lambs?
I would never let a youngster work a field of ewes and lambs, especially since one of the pups I sold was killed by a butt from a ewe protecting her lambs.
However, we have mesh-sided lambing pens and I’ll let a young dog run outside while protective ewes try to butt the dog through the fence. This can encourage the dog to bark at the ewe, so the dog builds up confidence without any risk.

Would you work a young dog in the yards?
Probably not, but teaching the dog to back fairly young can be a good confidence builder in a youngster, especially if it’s a natural backing dog.

How do you teach a dog to back?
One method is to pack a pen very tightly with about ten sheep (no gaps between) and have one person holding the youngster on one side of the pen and another person calling the dog across the top of the sheep. This is the one time I would use an experienced dog to help, as the youngster will follow the older dog across the backs.
Another method is to have a few people hold three or four sheep in the corner of a pen and put the dog on the first back and call it off the other side. The advantage with this method is that you’re in with the dog to give it extra confidence. It’s vitally important during this early training that the pup isn’t given any chance to slip between the sheep and hurt itself.

So once you have your young dog happily heading the sheep in the round pen, what’s the next step?
Out on to a field with some nice dogged sheep, with me walking or running backward while my dog heads the sheep and balances them to me. I can’t stress how important it is to put in hours and hours of this type of training. The more you work on the balance, steadying the dog behind the sheep so that it learns to walk at a sensible steady pace, the better the dog will be.
I don’t like to teach a kelpie to lie down, I prefer the stand so at this point I will send it around to the head and then every time it pushes the sheep too fast I will use a ‘stand’ or a ‘steady’ and then a ‘walk up’. Only when the dog is doing this really nicely will I move on to teaching the flanking and driving commands. I find dogs learn rapidly between eight and sixteen months although they carry on improving until three years or more.

How often will you take the young dog to sheep
Fifteen or 20 minutes three or four times a week is quite enough for a young dog and if he starts to sour at all I will rest him for several weeks and usually find he comes back out all the better for it.

At what age would you start a dog on cattle?
I think 18 months is early enough to start a dog on cattle. I find a kelpie that barks to be a very effective cattle dog. My old collie used to nip the heels, but this would often cause the cattle to become upset and lash out, making both dog and cattle liable to injury. A good barking kelpie moves the cattle very effectively, especially if it has a nose bite when really necessary.

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	Steve Andrews from the Woolstone Kelpie Stud talks about starting a kelpie on sheep

	How do you pick a pup from a litter? I believe that parentage is everything in a litter. If the pups are bred from good working lines there’s a really good chance that any of the pups will work well, but no amount of training can make a good worker out of a poorly-bred puppy. Personally I prefer a black and tan pup although the red and tans often sell faster from our own litters and I tend to pick a bolder pup with a lot about it as our dogs work sheep and cattle and need to be quite tough. Size doesn’t matter at all. I often find the smaller pups who have to fight for the milk are the more feisty, outgoing ones. Do you teach the puppy any commands before taking it to sheep? I like a pup to come when called, either just to its name or to a ‘that’ll do’ command. At what age do you first take the pup to sheep? Twelve to 14 weeks is an ideal time to start, but I don't usually start serious training before 6 or 7 months. Some dogs will be a lot older before showing much interest. If the pup just sniffs around and won’t look at the sheep I’ll probably put it away and try again in a month. Some dogs can be twelve months before they’ll turn on to sheep and one of my dogs was 17 months before he got really keen. One way of encouraging a young dog to show interest is to tie it up and work an older dog in the pen in front of it, but I’ve never found actually working the pup with an older dog does much good. How do you start the pup on sheep? I like to have about six well-dogged sheep in a large round pen. A round pen is preferable to a square pen because the sheep can get stuck in the corners of a square pen and the pup can struggle to shift them. I use a lunging whip to tap the ground in front of the pup to keep him off the sheep and just encourage him to keep running to the head of the sheep while I move around inside the pen. I like to keep the pup moving and don’t use a stop command at this point as I find kelpies – unlike collies – are easily put off by too much commanding at a young age. If you keep stopping your kelpie pup you’ll find after a while you’ll struggle to get him started again. Would you let a young dog work ewes and lambs? I would never let a youngster work a field of ewes and lambs, especially since one of the pups I sold was killed by a butt from a ewe protecting her lambs. However, we have mesh-sided lambing pens and I’ll let a young dog run outside while protective ewes try to butt the dog through the fence. This can encourage the dog to bark at the ewe, so the dog builds up confidence without any risk. Would you work a young dog in the yards? Probably not, but teaching the dog to back fairly young can be a good confidence builder in a youngster, especially if it’s a natural backing dog. How do you teach a dog to back? One method is to pack a pen very tightly with about ten sheep (no gaps between) and have one person holding the youngster on one side of the pen and another person calling the dog across the top of the sheep. This is the one time I would use an experienced dog to help, as the youngster will follow the older dog across the backs. Another method is to have a few people hold three or four sheep in the corner of a pen and put the dog on the first back and call it off the other side. The advantage with this method is that you’re in with the dog to give it extra confidence. It’s vitally important during this early training that the pup isn’t given any chance to slip between the sheep and hurt itself. So once you have your young dog happily heading the sheep in the round pen, what’s the next step? Out on to a field with some nice dogged sheep, with me walking or running backward while my dog heads the sheep and balances them to me. I can’t stress how important it is to put in hours and hours of this type of training. The more you work on the balance, steadying the dog behind the sheep so that it learns to walk at a sensible steady pace, the better the dog will be. I don’t like to teach a kelpie to lie down, I prefer the stand so at this point I will send it around to the head and then every time it pushes the sheep too fast I will use a ‘stand’ or a ‘steady’ and then a ‘walk up’. Only when the dog is doing this really nicely will I move on to teaching the flanking and driving commands. I find dogs learn rapidly between eight and sixteen months although they carry on improving until three years or more. How often will you take the young dog to sheep Fifteen or 20 minutes three or four times a week is quite enough for a young dog and if he starts to sour at all I will rest him for several weeks and usually find he comes back out all the better for it. At what age would you start a dog on cattle? I think 18 months is early enough to start a dog on cattle. I find a kelpie that barks to be a very effective cattle dog. My old collie used to nip the heels, but this would often cause the cattle to become upset and lash out, making both dog and cattle liable to injury. A good barking kelpie moves the cattle very effectively, especially if it has a nose bite when really necessary.