Herding

[Liz]

Lady B - the short drives are really fun http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/smile.gif We're in Sun Prairie and the herds are up past Portage. I like the drives mostly because then I get to ride, had a Morgan mare years ago and had to give her up, so it's nice to get back on a horse and Theresa has a Morgan stallion that I get to ride on drives.

I do tend to gear activities towards the specific dog, in Janni's case I never expected her to be good at herding, we were just up at the ranch one day working obedience and Theresa told me to just let her out there with Bear (an older rottie male) to see what she'd do - she LOVED it - she thinks cattle are better than boomer balls!!! She was already ob trained and trained to hand signals, plus she's always been a responsive bitch with me, so we didn't have any major problems other than her nasty hock grabbing habit.

Orville, if I were buying stock to work my dogs with, I'd get beefalo!!!! I know, I know, sheep are cheap [hehehe], but working beefalo gives you all the advantages of sheep, calm, placid, lots of hair in all the gripping spots, and you can do the long drives - of course this requires that you have a few thousand acres [g] And BTW - they taste great, sheep don't - in beefalo, you can enjoy your mistakes http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/smile.gif

Liz

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http://www.inxpress.net/~harkon/

[Orville Story]

German, If I had a large sheep ranch and needed the best herding dog possible then I would research to find the best. But I am a Rottweiler owner who loves to compete with rotties. I want to show how vesitile they are and train for Confromation Shows, ACK Obedience, Schutzhund, and maybe Herding.

Lady B or Diane, do you have any recommendations of the breed of sheep that is best suited to use as training stock?

[frontierrots]

Like I said way up top, hair sheep breeds are best- IF you can find them. Try to find some sheep herding people in your area and see what they are using and buy some of their sheep that are used to dogs http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/smile.gif

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Diane
Frontier Rottweilers & Shiba Inu
www.w3-sales.com/frontierrots/main.htm