“All my own work” – Bronwen proved highly efficient working in the pens at Dean Farm this morning
We arrived at the farm at 6.30am, and Bronwen and Kay set to work gathering the ewes and lambs from a large field. The two dogs work very well together. Kay works efficiently on whistle commands, and Bronwen’s not yet been trained to the whistle; she ignores the commands I give to Kay. I can work the two by using only voice commands for Bronwen and the whistle for Kay.
Eventually I’ll train Bronwen to the whistle but using different sounds to the ones Kay knows. For the time being though, the system works well.
The two dogs brought the sheep down to the farm buildings and into the handling pens without incident, and I decided to let Bronwen work inside the pen on her own. Kay’s not keen on pen work, so I thought I’d give her a break on this occasion.
It was a good decision; Bronwen really seems to be settling down well now. She works calmly in the field, and she was excellent in the pens. Bronwen is prepared to push the sheep up as required, without being over-aggressive. As a result the sheep went through the race smoothly, and without unnecessary stress.
See how we train our sheepdogs to work in the pens in our online tutorial, “Eve at the Pen“.
When a job needs to be done, but time isn’t an issue, I’ll train a young dog “on the job”. It makes life interesting for both of us!
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