Border Collie Archives - Page 9 of 9

A Border Collie Named Skye

I like to say that all our dogs, Border Collies or mix breed dogs we have lived and worked with, are dear and special to us. We currently have five dogs living with us on the Homestead.All these dogs go on goose control trips in New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, most participate in sheepdog trials and herding demonstrations at local festivals. We have now had eight dogs pass on. All these dogs are unique, loved and valued.They all have or had essential roles in our lives and work.

I used to manage farm museum programs which utilized the historical and rare breed types of farm animals, and yes dogs, inside an educational context. These programs were on Open Air or Museum Villages, think, Sturbridge Village or Colonial Williamsburg.It was great fun! We cut and processed hay with horses and oxen. We milked cows by hand or used oldfashioned machinery and collected and packaged historical and heirloom vegetable and herb seed for sale. But the working farm dog project on the historic farms was one of the most popular. We herded sheep, cattle, and pigs with the Border Collies. Our Families first dog Chelsea a mix breed rehomed female had great fun keeping the gardens and livestock safe back in the 1990s. Over the years dogs named, Merck, Will, Faith, Rhos, Ben, Tarr all worked with me at the Museums and on our Family Homestead (small farm).

So what about this dog Skye? Of all our dogs she is the only one from a litter that we have raised ourselves. Her dad, Ben, and Mom, Rhos, both lived here, were owned by us. It was an oops breeding. Ben was a “racial,” so you get the picture.But as is often the case with those type “events,” we got beautiful pups.I picked Skye out of the litter for us to keep, finding good homes for the other pups. She seemed bold and self-assured. But as Skye grew, she became a wild thing. As a young dog, Skye continued to be hyper. She often would not listen when asked and would rush her work and frighten the sheep or poultry. Living and working with Skye was a real adventure in patience. Her first years called for constant reminders that I needed to keep looking at the long-term goal. It can take a while for a pup or young dog to grow into an excellent working dog and companion. Many farm dogs will mature in three years or so.For Skye, she was rushing about no matter what I tried even at age five. A hyper Border Collie can be a big problem on a farm. Most farm Border Collies are not like you think, they can be calm and happy when they have the work they love. But like some people who take longer to mature she sure took her time to grow up.
As the old view of the “precocious” human girl manifested in the young adult Skye, she was into everything. Skye was a busybody, always wanting to take over jobs that may not have been hers and would burst out the door of our house almost at every opportunity to see if a marauding squirrel was at the bird feeders or a chicken had escaped from the poultry run.She is still very much like that at age seven and a half! But what has changed is, like me, Skye is a step or two slower. And there is a significant change in Skye. She has put the hyper worrisome spirit into an asset.She now has an eagerness which is almost always driven to do good work, to take care of the life on the Homestead and get the job done on goose control trips. Skye has become the mother dog, mama dog, of our pack-family, as Temple Grandin calls it. She is often concerned with keeping the pup, Tara out of trouble and always watchful that things with our sheep and poultry and on goose control trips are the way they should be. Wisdom and passion in dogs might not be scientific enough qualities to attach to dogs. But at this point, with Skye, it’s hard not to see her in those terms.

Traditional Farming/Goose Control : It’s a”Three Species Relationship”, Border Collie,Human,Sheep,Geese.

A few years ago I read a post by one of the top working Border Collie People here in the North East, Carol Campion.In the post, she talked about a “three species relationship.” Carol Campion was trying to get her readers to think about how working with Border Collies, or any herding or stock dog, and the sheep make up a three species relationship.

Border Collies were initially bred to “work” sheep in Great Briton and Ireland. However, as we do here on our homestead, they can “work,” herd, poultry, and other farm stock as well. The implication is that You, the being in charge of the situation, supposedly, should well understand your dog, and not forget that You need to understand the sheep. Of course, people should “get” themselves! Without a handler thinking about and even contemplating his or her actions and thoughts when working with a dog and livestock, failure will be close at hand. But, back to the dogs.There is a lot to know about dogs, to be in a “working/living” relationship. A handler should have a deep understanding of the breed he or she is working with, Border Collie, Kelpie, Aussie, for examples. And that individual dogs are, well, individuals. And to make things more complicated, sheep are much more variable than most people think. If you farm sheep, you know there are many different breeds, all with a variety of instincts, behaviors. Instincts make “working” with sheep very interesting. Some breeds are “high strung,” some breeds are “Mello.” These variabilities mean that when You are trimming sheep hoves or giving them medication, what sheep you are working will be either easy to handle or complicated or very hard to restrain. It is important to know, understand sheep when herding them with a dog. Flight Distance in different breeds can be huge. If a handler and dog rush some breeds, the sheep will run so hard that they will end up on a hill somewhere completely out of bounds. Sometimes sheep “turn” and face a dog.This is a challenge to the dog. And Your Border Collie needs to have the skill to handle the situation properly.

When it comes to goose control with our Border Collies, and our one mix breed, it’s a bit less complicated than sheep. Canadian Geese are instinctually pretty much all the same. Or at least that is how it appears to me in the 16 years we have been chasing geese for clients in New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Geese on a pond or a field react to being worked, herded/chased by our dogs pretty much the same way.However, there are variables. How the sheep and geese respond to herding or herd/chase, all depends on the experiences the sheep or geese have encountered. For instance, if someone tried to scare off geese in the past and it was not competent enough, I call this a “weak scare.” Geese will become resilient to being chased. Imagine that? If sheep have been handled/herded roughly, they will take off quickly, and you might have a mess on your hands. You may have sheep that are so hard to work with that they can never be adequately taken care of and take up too much of your time. We have neighbors who had sheep that were so out of control that they could never be penned and would go around unlocking gates to pig pastures, letting all the pigs run wild all over the nearby hills. If geese/sheep are not convinced from experience that someone who is herding or herding-chasing them “means business”, they will not move off and even can become resilient to future efforts.

However, there is an added layer of relationships during goose control client visits.It is not just handler and dogs and geese. We take two or three dogs on each client visit. We also have relationships with all the people and wild animals and birds in the environments we are working. We encounter people fishing, riding bikes, pushing baby carriages, driving cars, playing ball, picnicking.Working in public environments makes goose control complicated, and my sons and I assess the situation on any property we work before we start actively herding-chasing the geese.

All this comes down to what anyone on a farm or herding/chasing geese can do legally and ethically. And I am convinced that people who are “rough” on their dogs and animals, to use old-time words, are the “poorer” for it. What goes around comes around, cause and effect. The best teams of human handlers and dogs are those that have very good relationships. Both the human and dog have made an effort to study each other and the sheep if its farming or geese if its goose control. Working and living with our border collies, and yes that mixed breed Nash( see the “Our Border Collies” page) has been full of lessons hopefully many learned. Its been a joy doing this with my Family, I think we are a good team( see the “About Us” page.)

And above all, as another one of the top working Border Collie handlers, Chris Bowen said to us participants at what is called a learning sheepdog trial. ” Work on your relationship with your dog.” This response was about someone’s issue with their dog, but of course, that applies to all our relationships.

Seasons-How They Change for Border Collie Goose Control and Down on the Farm

We have been at this farm thing for some time now and at the goose control for a while too. I started managing museum farms back in 1981, and we have been running a small operation at home, we call it a homestead, for more than 25 years. The goose control service started in 2002 when I left my last museum farm position.( Museum farms are rural lifeways presented in a “living history” context. Museum farms utilize the animals, plants, gardens, field crops and crafts found on farms historically). So, not to sound too much like “an old timer,” as old farmers are called, but my family and I have seen a few seasons come and go. We have spent quite a few years down on the farm, in our case on our homestead and with our goose control service.

Seasons have their changes of course, and as a farmer, you have to adapt to that, especially here in the Northeast. And as a farmer or a gardener, you have to be prepared for all sort of natural events that can make or break your fields, gardens or animal “production.” Hail storms, infestations of insects and drought are some of the natural problems that can severely impact farmers.

After a farmer gains experience with weather-related issues and such things as incursions of wild animals that want to eat your gardens or farm animals a farmer learns to adapt, predict and solve problems. Working with natures impact on farming and gardening has become more difficult with the recent shifts in weather, and the radical and quick changes we now see.

Weather and its now more extreme nature affect goose-control as well. It’s only natural, of course. Geese will fly into properties as winter warms to spring and pairs of geese will nest. But as winter and early spring days swing wildly back and forth, as they do now, it becomes hard to predict what the geese will, or can do.

Two years ago we found that geese laid double their average amount of eggs and the hatches were huge. The result was many more geese! An important fact of wild goose behavior is that goose pairs will nest and hatch young at one pond and then may walk the goslings a long distance to another pond to raise them. It is important to know that in late spring and early summer, geese will “molt,” which means they will shed their wing feathers. This happens every year, and geese cannot fly at this point. This means that geese can be stuck on a property or that they are quickly chased off.

The molt is the time of year when property owners can contract with US Fish and Wildlife to net the geese. The molt is the only time of year that netting geese can happen legally. Of course, there are hunting seasons and migratory seasons. An important fact is that there are some Canada Geese which migrate and those that do not. The Canada Geese who do not migrate are called resident geese.

To understand the variables that seasons bring both on the farm and with Border Collie goose control, it takes some experience. One trophy given at sheepdog trails is called “The Long Road”. This trophy is given out to the owner-handler of a top- placed dog which was raised and trained only by the owner-handler. I was thrilled to receive that trophy last year at the Massachusetts Sheep and Wool Festival with our young male Border Collie, Blade. The Long Road takes a lot of time, and hard work but “The Long Road” in farming and goose control is, for me, well worth it.

Got Moves? ( herding sheep and chasing geese moves?)

My Family and I have lived and worked with Border Collies for now over 25 years. Each Border Collie has his or her own way of working, but there are similar patterns of course. Border Collies like other herding breeds are breed to do a particular type of work, herding, but they are all individuals. I am talking about “working line” Border Collies, as part of the “dog world” which are breeds that retain their instincts to live lives were individual dogs can participate in a collaborative, “making a living” with their humans. I find nothing wrong with well-cared pet dogs, breeds, breeding, but I just love to be involved with this age-old way of how humans and dogs, and in our case, farm animals have lived together. Each dog and human has their individual way of moving, thinking and being part of a team. With Wild Goose Chase NE we turn the farm-oriented activity “herding” into herd/chase, in this case, geese away from a clients property without harm to the geese.

So, now to the “moves” thing. Actually, herding is a very mental activity involving a strong relationship between handler and dog as well as deep understanding of the animal being herded, usually sheep, but also cattle, pig or poultry. And this, of course, is as variable as humans and their brains and personalities are.But even as variable as the dogs are, I have yet to meet or work with a Border Collie who is just like another.

Consider of our female BorderCollie, Skye. She has characteristics of her dad and as her mom as well. In the case of the pup pictured here, Tara, her litter mates are all pretty similar I am told, which is unusual, but you can parse out differences too.That is important for a handler to understand about dogs, see both sides of the same coin. Then you can understand how your dog’s brain moves. Which of course gets to how its body moves.

Every one of our five dogs got different unique moves when working, playing, eating or even sleeping which means, of course, individual perception of the world around him or her. Tara is calm and precise with her moves when herding. Our three-year-old Blade,( see “Our Dogs” page of this site), is athletic but can rush too much. Jim, our rehomed older male is a bit award unfortunately and gets on the wrong side of the sheep when working, as he never started learning much until he was six years old.

Were a herding dog places his or her self in relation to whatever is being herded ( herded/chased for goose control) and in relationship to the handler is all important. Communication is key, and knowledge and practice of “moves” lead to success. A pup that begins with poor perception or “moves” can work on “that” with his or her human. A pup with excellent or amazing talent can be a stunningly good worker, exhibiting ease and care of getting the job done without harm and be the natural wonder these dogs are. It is up to the human to get the moves down too, so the partnership can be a good team.

“Circles”

“Circles”
Or the different ways we live.
I don’t think I will tire of being with these dogs. Looking at the relationships between my son Sam, in this photo, and the dogs, you can see the depth of their care and connections. It comes from years of Sam “living and working” with dogs, and it is the very interesting nature of the individual dogs.
Its funny, but when I was younger I never thought I would spend so much of my days with dogs, working and living. I was a shy youth who at one time was really into horses. But here we are on a homestead with sheep, poultry, and dogs, mostly Border Collies. That all takes time away from time with Family and friends and doing other activities. Farm type living is intensive as is running your own business. Recently my circles got moved or changed. I gave up my part-time mail delivery work for substitute teaching at the local elementary school. My circle, or one of them, was moved from the old mail route to a building were lots of little kids and their educator’s intensively “live”, Monday through Friday.
I think back to a few years ago when a colleague gave me a New Yorker article on ” Circles”. It was written by an NYC dog owner and it talked about how people go between different social networks or don’t. That article made an impression on me. It made me aware of how I love to visit the different communities we do goose control in. It expands my ” world.” The article got me interested to see what different people find important in their lives. For some, Family is all, others it all about dogs, others sports, others it’s about the relationships they have in their Town. But more to the reality of the thing, it’s about how different people move in and out of social circles, which ones they spend the most time in, which circles are kept at a distance. It’s easy to feel someone who operates differently from you is somehow wrong. That farmer are social recluse, that dog or horse people are nuts or that people who spend most of their time with Family are tribal. But actually, maybe most people want to move in a variety of circles, we just only have so much time and care to give. I would be interested in how much of this is ” wiring” or learned behavior, experience, or how we individuals make different choices or follow different passions. Maybe, in the end, its that we find our own way, to be, happy, fulfilled, or just make every day happen.

Lessons Learned

Our dogs go to many goose control visits each week and participate in sheepdog trials and herding demos throughout the year.Therefore, understanding their work is very important, but just as important is understanding how to behave and interact with the sheep and the geese they are working, as well as the people and dogs we encounter.

I have to say, I try to learn things as we go along too, as in, how each dog differently relates to things like problem sheep, or loud noises or being tired. I try to refine and grow my handling skills as time goes on and take a realistic, evenhanded approach to each job, each dog, each situation. That's not always easy in a long day or difficult situation. But I find one thing learned from the farm very important, that each dog, sheep, or even chicken, each animal, person, can come off as good sometimes and not so, at other times.

Dogs tend not usually to take those swings from good to bad to heart, as many people do.It's important to try to do your best for the animals' and the operations' sake every step of the way, but it's important not to get upset or stay that way when something doesn't go the way you want it to. Being patient is key. Teaching your dogs to respect all the life that they work with, very important, that is actually the whole thing right there. But understand that your dogs, your sheep, chickens and so on, can do good things as well as bad, and forgiving and moving on to the best, keeps you from going down a rabbit hole.

These can be hard lessons, that it is not all nicey-nice, sheep, calves, lamb, bunnies lying down together, maybe what some think we should aim for, but you are actually working with predator and prey animals after all. You have to understand, learn, grow and be realistic and all the hard work can be very rewarding. Often I think, if we accepted each other's flaws and worked with each other with respect we would be better off. After all the number one rule of sheep herding is, be kind to sheep.

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