Yentos' first herding lesson

[Saskia]

Yentos will normally have his first herding lesson tomorrow.  Pictures will be taken.

Saskia

[Saskia]

Yentos had his first real experience with the sheep yesterday.  At the beginning there was little interest since they took shelter in the stable and the 2 BC that were close by were in season (one has to get his priorities straight ).  The BCs were put in the car and one sheep was dragged out of the barn.  Still little interest.

Then we put him in the barn to get the sheep out but they were packed too thightly in the back.  So we decided to leave and come back another time.  As soon as we were walking to the exit, they came out.  We went around the barn and blocked their path with Yentos.

As soon as they started moving Yentos got really interested and exited.  He really knows how to get them going.  The BCs are only half the size of the sheep but Yentos has about the same height.  Some of the sheep tested him by trying to hit him with their horns but he went back without hesitation.  They quickly learned that that big red thing won't go away.

His last test of the day was to get the sheep out of the bushes since this sometimes a problem for their BCs since they don't have enough drive to get them out.  But this went fine as well after a few pinches in their coat.

During all of this Yentos was still on a long lead so we could interfere when needed.  He needs to learn to circle the sheep and not to dive in.  But he certainly has what it takes to work the sheep even at the age of 7.  The sheep owners certainly want to keep training him since he posesses a great drive and will use force when needed but he won't take it too far.

I hope the pictures are OK (the daughter took them) since it was already getting dark.  We will certainly repeat this when it is lighter and bring the video camera with us.

So to be continued.

Saskia