Angela Stockdale, Dog Aggression Specialist - Livestock Socialisation Classes

Sheep in a Stew!
Ingredients
Dogs and /or puppies,
One to six owners,
Two to four whole sheep,
One securely fenced field,
One trainer, One or two assistants,
Plenty of chopped liver or similar (not lamb!)

Place dogs & people in field. Gradually add sheep. Mix carefully for about one hour!

There appears to be two main contributing factors to sheep chasing problems :
i) Curiosity - what is that woolly thing? and ii) Isn't it fun when it runs!
By breaking down the problem, it becomes easier to solve.

I have six sheep specifically chosen for addressing the curiosity element. Three of them are lead trained and are confident with dogs. Henry, Dylan and Little Bill regularly go for walks with my own dogs, three German Shepherds, two Alaskan Malamutes, a Rottweiller and a Shih -Tzu. As you can imagine, they have no fear of dogs!

Dot and Chloe are not quite as confident. Morris is sheep through and through! Say "Boo!" and he runs. He hates dogs! I have found that this combination of sheep characters works well for teaching dogs how to behave around sheep. First they meet the youngsters. This solves the curiosity aspect.

By socialising dogs with livestock like this we can help reduce the possibility of a dog giving chase in such situations. These sheep do not run and give the dogs an opportunity to "investigate" these woolly creatures which satisfies the dog's curiosity.

If dogs are brought to the Livestock Socialisation classes at a young age, the problem can be recognised early and eliminated or controlled before it develops.

If a dog already has a stock chasing problem, workshops or individual tuition are available to eliminate it.

The training at both workshops and individual lessons includes, assessment of the dog's attitude to sheep i.e. which category does he fall into. After which a rehabilitation programme is designed for that particular dog and owner.

Dogs that worry livestock, generally, have a chasing problem rather than having a true sheep killing problem. Exercises such as the Static Retrieve and the Chase Recall are designed with an aim to teach such dogs how to control their predatory drive and to respond to control commands when "in chase". These have proved very successful.

The dogs are encouraged to pay attention to their owners by responding to simple obedience commands SIT or DOWN. whilst the sheep are present. The dogs are then asked to respond to these same commands whilst the sheep are running - usually to a food !

After the dogs and owners have achieved this, they are taken into an adjacent field where Dot and Morris are. These sheep react as 'normal' sheep would. They will run if a dog is in sight. Whilst not as fearful as sheep not used to dogs, they are not confident with dogs they do not know. Again the obedience commands, already taught, are repeated in the company of these 'normal' sheep.

These sheep give the dogs an opportunity to "investigate" the woolly creatures, thus satisfying the dog's curiosity. By socialising dogs with livestock like this we can help reduce the possibility of a dog giving chase in such situations.

Socialisation Sessions usually end with the dogs walking with a sheep, along the farm lane. All dogs and the sheep are on a lead. This teaches the dog that a sheep is no different to any other domestic animal.

After a short while the dogs show only mild interest if any at all. By the second session most of the dogs totally ignore the sheep., the dogs ignore the sheep. This exercise is carried out at the end of every socialising session

Most dogs, once having been introduced behave around them, ignore out exercising. Do remember though, no matter how much training and socialisation is done, you can never guarantee that a dog will never chase sheep in an owner's absence any more than a cat would not catch a mouse in the same situation.

Details of the Living with Livestock workshops can be found on the Workshop Diary page.

Email to book: angela@dog-partnership.co.uk