Saturday, August 20, 2022
Border Collie Puppy Herds Sheep
A nine-week-old border collie in Ireland discovers he has power over a small flock of sheep. The sheep, no doubt, are used to being herded by dogs, but are still a bit confused as to what this inexperienced pup really wants at certain times. The puppy shows a great aptitude for his job! This was recoded at GNM Border Collies. (via Arbroath)
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3 comments:
I saw a documentary at one point about training border collies. For the first couple weeks of their lives, they don't really notice sheep. And some of them never really "click" like this. But to train them, you start taking them out to the paddock with their mother, and they will go around playing with sticks and stuff for a while, and then, at some point, some of them will suddenly just ... notice the sheep and go "I WANNA PLAY WITH THAT" and ignore sticks and balls and everything, and just do what this puppy is doing.
Border collies are trained by positive reinforcement. And the positive reinforcement that works best isn't treats or food or toys - it's sheep. The way you reward a border collie for learning all your training lessons well is by letting them keep going.
The good thing about sheep is they want to be close together. If one makes a break the dog just has to remind her she's away from the flock and turn her in the right direction. A bunch of sheep who didn't care would be impossible to handle.
I got to thinking after 4 or 5 minutes of no goal but train the dog, it's not like moving them from point A to point B where if they do the right thing he'll leave them alone. This picking on ewes becomes harassment.
as someone who has adopted young puppies before ... this puppy looks much older than 9 weeks old.
still a puppy, sure, but maybe twice as old as claimed
i guess "four month old puppy" just doesn't generate views.
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