Last weekend Lucy and I went to Vågå in Jotunheimen to learn Sheepherding. It was recommended to me as good therapy for nervous and anxious dogs of herding breeds. There is a guy there, named Ørjan, the only person in Norway who teaches herding to breeds other than Border Collie and Australian Kelpie. The other breeds have a different herding style, moving closer to the sheep, moving them with their bodies rather than their "eye".
Unfortunatly when we arrived on the scene we were met by only these two ewes. The other 10 had dissapeared during the previous day/night and were not to be found all weekend, although Ørjan and his Kelpie went out looking between all our sessions.
To begin with Lucy was afraid of the sheep. She had to be dragged into the enclosure and once there, she barked, showed her teeth, snapped at their faces and twice made a grab at one from behind getting a mouthfull of wool and a proper scolding. The film below is of the afternoon session on saturday. She is now driving the sheep properly around the enclosure while on a leash.
Sunday morning Ørjan took the leash off. At first Lucy was nervous about that and barked and showed her teeth, but soon she regained her confidence and was gathering the sheep to the middle of the enclosure to be between herself and the shepherd. By now, she was running around free during her breaks, but came and entered the enclosure when we called her to begin working again.
Sunday afternoon we tried letting the sheep out of the enclosure to see what Lucy would do. She is back on a leash and Ørjan let her take the lead. Lucy showed good instincts, going wide toward the sheep before driving them along the fence and toward the small enclosure, then around and into it. She had to be on a leash because there was still a tendency to want to go too fast which would have resulted in sheep running all over instead of a controlled drive into the pen. In the film you can see that she is driving them quite controlled. Most of the time there is a little slack on the leash.
The sunday afternood session I got to work her inside the smaller enclosure. Lucy picked up on my uncertainty, but after a little while she was able to work pretty much as she had with Ørjan on saturday afternoon, gathering the sheep in the middle beween me and herself. If we were to continue there would still be a lot to learn: controll and obedience while working especially, but I am happy with her progress. Ørjan declared her a fine little belgian bitch, with great promise. He had come farther with her during this weekend than is possible in so short a time with most belgians. To show how much more confident she became, I end with a picture of Lucy relaxing in the pen with the sheep.
