For almost all of the nearly 20 years that I’ve lived with sheep, I’ve had border collies herd them, move them, and control them. I never thought we could do it without them.
I was wrong.
When Red died two years ago, we decided not to get another border collie. We had three dogs, sheep, donkeys, cats, and chickens, and I wasn’t really up for training another border collie, as much as I loved doing it.
I’m 75, and if you get a border collie, you better be sure they have work for their long lives every day.
We wondered if we could handle moving sheep around without dogs like Red or Rose. The answer is yes, mostly. We missed Red the other day when we had to get our escaped sheep back through a broken fence and into the pasture.
We were saved because some of the sheep didn’t go through the fence, and since sheep always like to be together, we knew time was on our side. It was.
Red would have brought them back in about four seconds without asking. Fate, as we know, is a love child and doesn’t herd sheep.
Now we have begun rotational grazing, limiting the hours’ sheep can graze in any one pasture and distributing the pastures’ craving time evenly.
I’m not sure how to say this, but Maria does almost as good a job as Red.
I went out with her this morning; we wanted to move the sheep out of the South pasture where they had been grazing for a couple of hours. We don’t want them to wear any single field down.
She walked out behind the flock (donkeys too), held out her arms, asked them politely to move, and they all went rushing off. There are limits. Neither Maria nor I can move as fast as a border collie or nip the sheep on the nose when they misbehave.
But she got the sheep out of the pasture in about five seconds. And she does this every day, several times a day.
They know her and trust her and rarely give her a hard time. If they do, she asks for help, and I come running out with a big stick bellowing like a bear.
That usually works but is rarely necessary. No offense Rose and Red, if you are watching. We are managing well.
I knew it. You are like a big bear.
Cuddly, I hope..
You have less than a dozen pet sheep. I have 1500 wild range ewes. Very big difference! I could not manage without two or three stock dogs.
Yes, I know, Noelle, I’m very familiar with the work of border collies. I’d never diss their work, I’m only speaking about us…I cannot imagine having 1500 ewes of any kind.
Truly a woman of many talents. A border collie snail whisperer who repairs fences when she’s not creating works of art. You are one lucky man, Jon Katz!
Maria is a natural….. an empath…..which animals respond to so nicely. No dog needed….though it would be grand to have *Red* do what he did so well! Plus you and Maria spend so much time with your animals that they trust you! We live on a large acreage (we rent) that leases the property to a cow/calf rancher. The herd rotates through here every 4 weeks or so and occaisionally there will be a breech (sp) of our electric perimeter fence…..and similar to your technique, I’ve come home and found 5 cows/calves in our *yard*…..armed myself with a long aluminum pole….and used my outside voice successfully to herd them back out. Sometimes WAY more physical effort than I was comfortable with….but it works (usually) LOL!
Susan M