Taking Trek Herding

I took Trek out to Ft. Lupton for his second time on stock. The first time we went out, I took Brisco & Trek. Brisco has seen sheep before, so he had no problem getting right to work. Trek had never seen sheep or goats before and he wasn't too sure what to think. Cathy starts the dogs on goats because they're not a quick and scattered so the dogs can work with more controlled stock. The first time he was in the round pen, he spent the entire time sniffing around, watering the fence posts, visiting Cathy's dogs who were on the outside of the pen and trying to avoid the goats. The second time we had him in, Cathy brought in her dogs and have them move the goats. Trek followed the other dogs for a bit, then the light bulb turned on and he knew that he was supposed to herd! We let him get comfortable moving the goats around, then ended for the day.

Yesterday I took Trek back out along with our friend Mary & her BC Tangle. Trek was really excited to be there and he was looking at those goats ready to go! We let Trek off leash and he instantly started working. Last time we just let him circle and get used to the goats. Today Cathy wanted to stop the circling and start having him work behind the goats bringing them to us. We walked back and forth across the round pen and tried to keep him behind. He still circled around a bit, but he was starting to figure it out. He was great at his "lie down" when asked and was nice and quiet during his break outside the pen. The second time in the pen it was just me, Trek and the goats. I continued to work on him driving from behind. I started with the flag in my hand, but Trek didn't like me holding it, so I had to set it down and use my body motion and arms to redirect his path. He did pretty well and we definitely knew when he was starting to get tired, so we stopped for the day.

Overall I'm very proud of the little guy! He's doing pretty well for being so young. We'll keep working on his herding skills when we get time and who knows, maybe when he's more mature we'll think about competing.

Here are a few pictures that Mary took of him in action.