Question:
Why should a pup not be allowed to work fowls; or with another dog?

Answer:
Fowls have nothing in common with sheep. If a fowl wants to go from one point to another, it will go, no matter what a dog tries to do to stop it. No matter how much the dog sets it, the fowl will keep walking and going in the direction it must set out for. This forces the dog to let go, fall back and take up another position. The same thing happens over and over until the fowl has got to where it wanted to go. At this point, the old hen is happy and the owner of the young dog has taught his pup to be weak. Continually working fowls will make a young dog so weak that he will give ground and let go whenever sheep walk up to him. Also, if the pup is strong at first the fowl will fly over the dog. A good, determined, strong young dog will jump and pull down the fowl. The young dog learns to kill fowls instead up of working them. He gets a hiding for being strong enough to stop a stupid fowl – and perhaps his master family has fowl for dinner!

As far as working with another dog is concerned, it is better to work a pup on his own, because he develops his own style of working. He learns to correct mistakes himself and not wait until old Rover, his master’s pride and joy, shows him how it is done ., There is a great chance that the young dog will be a better worker when fully trained than ever old Rover was. Pups will pick up bad habits before good ones. An inferior complex will be developed quickly. I have often seen good young dogs on stations, and out droving, refuse to cast without another dog going with them. This has developed from working the dog when young with another dog.

Question:
How can you stop a pup running right around a mob, thus causing them to gallop around in a circle, instead of moving in the required direction?

Answer:
Control of the pup, before showing him sheep, will help here. If he goes to run right around off point off balance of the mob, stop him. If he is the type of pup I like to see, he will wait awhile, watch the sheep, and move in the right direction himself, which is the shortest way to the point of balance, to straighten the mob and bring them towards the handlers If he goes the wrong way, stop him. Keep doing it until he goes the right way.

DON'T TELL HIM T0 GO. Let him think for himself. If he is never right and won't stop and think, yet he had got to the stage where he can hold sheep in a rough sort of way, this pup will never make a clever dog. Perhaps he will be a good slave droving, or in yards. There is a point of balance on three sheep or 30,000, only on three sheep the point is very fine and one mistake is one too many.

The pup that shows that he can detect this point of balance fairly well the first few times with sheep is the pup for me. This is better than all the eye and style any pup can produce, because none of it is any good unless they can balance their sheep. Never let a pup run round and round a mob of sheep.

There is no point in it. When the sheep are in a mob, walk off and let the pup try and bring then after you. Walk, don’t hurry. By doing this, you can stop your pup crossing between you and the sheep. You are always in a position to do this. If the sheep go past you, don’t hurry yourself, the pup should have enough sense to go to the lead of the mob.

STOP HIM HERE, and let the tail of the mob draw up to the lead while the pup sits or stands and waits. All the time you are walking slowly along towards the pup. Only when you get past the pup and sheep let him go. It is 100-1 the sheep will turn around and the tail will become the lead.

The pup should detect this, and move to stop the sheep going back the way they came. This is ‘balancing’ the mob. Therefore, this point of making a pup bring sheep to you is the fact that you can stop him crossing, and he learns to balance his sheep.

Question:
What are the advantages or otherwise of a pup or dog ‘bringing’ sheep as opposed to ‘driving’ sheep? Is one method better that the other? And which should be taught first if important?

Answer:
This subject is partly covered by the answer to the previous question. By making the pup bring the mob to you, it makes him balance the mob. Generally, this point of balance is somewhere between the point furthest from you and the point the sheep can get away from quickly if not stopped. Therefore, when walking along with a mob of Sheep, this point is somewhere from the lead to the tail on the side furthest from you. There is no point being with you at all. His place is on the point of balance where he can stop a break or straighten up the mob. A good shipman would never drive sheep, .and anyway the word ‘drive’ is all wrong. Years ago it was chanted to ‘drove’ by some bright fellow wanted his stock taken from one place to another, without losing condition. The idea of droving is to ‘steady the lead’ and let the tail DRAW ALONG. Even lame and blind stock will go miles a day this way if left alone to draw along. All the drovers or shepherds do is watch the point of balance and turn in anything that takes the wrong direction. A dog is no different here. He turns in and balances his sheep firmly, yet knows where and when to ease the pressure. By walking slowly when training your pup, stopping the lead, letting the tail draw up, he will get into the habit of working his sheep quietly, slowly and very firmly, and he will take appoint from where you are to balance his sheep. Therefore he will on the far side most of the time.