dog after sheep

jimini0

hi everyone
i know this topic has bein talked about over and over again but im out of ideas. i have tried every training method talked about on here on how to stop dogs chasing sheep.
they have not worked and only half an hour i had to beg a farmer to put the gun away and not shoot. my fella does not try to bite the sheep he just runs around chasing them, i shout at him and try distract him but it does not work. away from the sheep he is great, he obeys all our commands. please can someone give me advice im seriously thinking of getting one of the shock collars

andreac

Put up proper fencing, and keep him on a lead when you are near sheep. It really isnt rocket science.
Your dog is very lucky, next time he wont get a second chance.

You say he only chases them. Im sorry but most of these sheep are lambing at the moment and this kind of stress can kill the lambs and cause them to abort their pregancy so please do your dog a favour and keep him locked in properly.
Thats what responsible owners do.

jimini0

thanks andreac i know the dangers that can be caused to sheep this time of year im a small time cattle farmer (no sheep) i guess i should know better. i have proper fencing up but i do like to let him run on the shore in the evenings and thats when the problem beging he spends ten minutes chasing birds back and over the shore then he spots the sheep and just looses control im not letting him run loose again . i just thought someone would be able to give me a good tip on how to stop him doin it.

Whispered

God OP you had a lucky escape!!! You should be counting your blessings. Must have been some shock for you.

Most obvious thing is to change where you walk. We have to do this depending on the time of year too. (cows in our regular off lead area certain months)

Disregard the shock collar - not only is it cruel and a lazy substitute to proper training, I'd be 90% sure it would have no effect on him if he decides to chase sheep anyway. They tend to switch off to a lot of things around them when in that mode and only proper training will help.

For now get a flexi lead so when you are walking you can give a bit of freedom.

You'll have to start on recall training from scratch, but to be honest, with a chaser, I'd never really take the chance again of letting him off around sheep again.

How do you react when he goes for a chase? If you're doing the "hey, hey commere, dog, heeeeere dog, come BACK HERE" type thing it really only excites them and spurs them on. A one word return command is much more effective, or a whistle.

I asked for advice on recall here before too OP, my dog is very excitable and would switch off if he decided he was going somewhere. The best advice was to choose a method and give it time. We were walking on saturday, a deer crossed our path, the two dogs set off in a run and a whistle brought the older fella back (the hyper one) and the new guy followed the old guy back. We were so proud of how far his training had come without us realising it. But it did take time.

We live near the curragh where there are loose sheep everywhere and you always see owners walking their dogs offlead through a herd of sheep. The sheep are so used to it they barely react to the dogs, and the dogs are obviously desensitised to the presence of the sheep because they are used to walking near them. Do you have anywhere like that you can go and have onlead walks for a while until sheep stop exciting your dog? (**Make sure it's somewhere like the curragh, open to the public and where dogs are expected - do not do this on someones land**)

Good luck.

jimini0

thanks whispered. ya i got an awful shock but not as much as my girfriend if she finds out. i have a 25ft lead which im goin to use from now on and im goin to ask a neighbour if i can walk my dog in his field where there are sheep and as you said let him get used to seeing them and he wont be so excited. he chased one of my calves one day he thought it was great fun until the calf turned and gave him the head and sent him flying into the air that stopped him chasing cows

TooManyDogs

What about negative association? If your neighbour is happy with you walking your dog through his sheep then bring a rattle bottle with you. It's basically a coke bottle half filled with small stones, don't let your dog see the bottle. Keep him on the lead. When he begins the signals prior to chasing the sheep (staring, body stiff and alert, licking lips) shake the bottle behind his ear. It'll startle him out of the behaviour but also leave a negative association with focusing on the sheep. Your timing has to be perfect and you have to focus on the signals before he actually tries to chase a sheep. Then call him so he looks at you and reward him. Quite quickly he should realise that if he focuses too long on a sheep a horrible noise happens but if he looks at you he gets a reward.

jimini0

my neighbour is delighted to help me out he said in a week or two he will be movin the sheep that have lambed a few weeks into another field so i can go in there whenever i want he said the trick with the bottle and stones was a great idea. so fingers crossed after a few sessions in the field my fella will find the sheep less interesting and stick to chasing the birds on the shore

Tranceypoo

Slightly off topic but if your dog is going to be running round that field where the sheep were, be careful he doesn't eat the sheep **** left behind, my dog is mad for it, God knows what's in it that tastes so nice but I have to be careful when it's on the road, he will be wolfing it down in a nano second if I don't steer him round it!!

Re the sheep chasing, when I got my dog about 4 years ago (rescue), after a few days we were out walking and passed a field with some sheep, he hadn't shown interest before but they started running and that was it, he was off, luckily he came back but not after giving a good chase, luckily there was no sheep harmed and thankfully the farmer wasn't around. He literally has not been off the lead since apart from in the woods where there are no sheep in sight. Even if I trained him, I just would not feel 100% safe with him and sheep, it's when they start running he just cannot focus on anything else.

I think the training round the sheep whilst on lead is a good idea though if you have the time and patience to put into it, but even then, I wouldn't risk it.

Sigma Force

Get one of those super long leads you can get in pets shops and some vets, keep your dog under control when out and train them in recall and don't let them off the lead until they have learned their recall perfectly.
To be honest it's not worth the risk to your dog or the farmers sheep keep the dog on a long lead when out in the field, and at home start training them to fetch a ball instead get the dog to obsess about the ball instead of sheep but once the dog is in the habit of chasing the sheep they love it so much it can be hard to get them to focus. Personally I wouldn't allow any dog loose in a field with sheep no matter how well behaved, unless they were a trained sheep dog of course.

jimini0

i wont be letting him loose in the field i have a 20 foot lead. my aim is to walk him on the lead around the outside boundry of the field so he can get a good look at the sheep. the next day walk him inside but tight to the fence with him at heel at all times. then day after day ill slowly let him out more on the lead and try distract him when he shows too much interest in the sheep.
i just wish he would concentrate on the birds on the shore cos he gets hours of fun at that racing back and over trying to catch one and only a couple of minutes at sheep before he is stopped.
i have a video of him getting awful confused when a big flock of sea gulls landed he didnt know where to start so he just got depressed and lied down

ISDW

jimini0 wrote: »

i wont be letting him loose in the field i have a 20 foot lead. my aim is to walk him on the lead around the outside boundry of the field so he can get a good look at the sheep. the next day walk him inside but tight to the fence with him at heel at all times. then day after day ill slowly let him out more on the lead and try distract him when he shows too much interest in the sheep.
i just wish he would concentrate on the birds on the shore cos he gets hours of fun at that racing back and over trying to catch one and only a couple of minutes at sheep before he is stopped.
i have a video of him getting awful confused when a big flock of sea gulls landed he didnt know where to start so he just got depressed and lied down

Its the same thing though, him chasing the birds and the sheep, you can't encourage him to do one and not expect him to do the other You need to stop him chasing every other living thing, he can't differentiate between what he's allowed to chase, and what he's not, he's a dog. If you want him to chase the birds at the beach, then you can never, ever let him off lead anywhere within a couple of miles of livestock.

Feargal as Luimneach

jimini0 wrote: »

i just wish he would concentrate on the birds on the shore cos he gets hours of fun at that racing back and over trying to catch one and only a couple of minutes at sheep before he is stopped.

Ain't much fun for the birds (waders/gulls/terns) being constantly harassed, while there trying to feed. This can often mean the difference between life and death to large distance migratory birds.

Or rare Irish breeding birds such as Little tern which have lost practically all their breeding sites due to disturbances on beachs particulary from people's dogs playing.

Knine

Feargal as Luimneach wrote: »

Ain't much fun for the birds (waders/gulls/terns) being constantly harassed, while there trying to feed. This can often mean the difference between life and death to large distance migratory birds.

Or rare Irish breeding birds such as Little tern which have lost practically all their breeding sites due to disturbances on beachs particulary from people's dogs playing.

Have to say I totally agree with this, why would you let your dog chase and terrorise the birds who soon will be feeding young?:(

jimini0

i never thought of it that way. ill have to stop doin that straight way i never seen it from the birds side i thought it was innocent fun but from what ye are saying its very bad thanks for letting me know

Feargal as Luimneach

jimini0 wrote: »

i never thought of it that way. ill have to stop doin that straight way i never seen it from the birds side i thought it was innocent fun but from what ye are saying its very bad thanks for letting me know

You're a true animal lover....

ppink

Can you give him a job to do? he is chasing for the excitement and thrill and i had 2 here who would chase bees in the garden if I let them but I diverted them to a kong with a rope. they loved that kong so much and with the rope on it i could fling it a lot farther than a ball. also I find when my girl now carries her kong with her on her walk that is her job, she bothers nothing else!
then allow him to chase his kong and only his kong. you can get floating ones also to throw into the water for him.

jimini0

ppink wrote: »

Can you give him a job to do? he is chasing for the excitement and thrill and i had 2 here who would chase bees in the garden if I let them but I diverted them to a kong with a rope. they loved that kong so much and with the rope on it i could fling it a lot farther than a ball. also I find when my girl now carries her kong with her on her walk that is her job, she bothers nothing else!
then allow him to chase his kong and only his kong. you can get floating ones also to throw into the water for him.

thanks ppink he loves his kong toy i never thought to use it in that way im going now to get a wee rope and try to get him to chase that. do i have to put food in it?

ppink

http://cgi.ebay.ie/Orange-Kong-Aqua-Floating-Kong-on-a-Rope-for-dogs_W0QQitemZ270694943908QQcmdZViewItemQQssPageNameZRSS:B:SILF:IE:102


this is the one I use as it can float. I dont put any food in the rope kong. they have their other kongs for food but this one is for exercise.
I would think too that if you are letting him run giving him food at the same time might make him sick. i always let mine rest before any food but maybe I am a bit paranoid about that;)

we have 5 kongs and we have graduated now to herself getting a sniff of one of them and then she is put sitting in the hall while I hide it. she has never failed yet to retrieve the one she got the sniff of and will not touch the others, even when they are lying on the floor around the place, she still searches out the one she had the scent of.
of course she thinks she is the bees knees then when she finds it:D