Im going to post my Raika herding story here and then Ill try to get a video next week because what my dog is doing is so funny and Ive never seen it before. I took Raika to see sheep - fine. We have sheep on the property so she knows about livestock. She comes in and sniffs/pees just about everywhere. Could care less about me or the sheep; she ignores us. When Raika is 30 yards away from us, one of the sheep finally realizes there is no reason whatsoever to stay with me - the dog is not participating. So that sheep starts to head in a different direction. I say Raika, Look!. She stops eating sheep poop and looks over. I point at the bad sheep. She says, yeah, thats a bad a sheep - let me take care of that for you. She then fetches that sheep and as soon as its is retuned to the group she goes back to eating shit. Hmm. This is not going according to plan, so I decide she needs a job. I head for the gate and the next paddock. I say, raika; help me!. She looks up and sees sheep not going through the gate. Yeah, no problem. She comes over and puts the sheep through the fence - and goes back to her shit. I move to the far end of the paddock where an obstacle has been placed for sheep training. I want the sheep behind the obstacle. Around that time the sheep turn around and head back to the barn. I say raika, help! . Ok, says, Raika. She goes and gets the sheep and brings them all to me at the statue. But I want them behind the obstacle, so I tell her that with a litlte body language and my herding stick. No problem - she positions herself perfectly and we put all of the sheep in position. When were done she goes back to peeing and eating shit. Ok. time to put them in a shed. I find a shed and open the door. Raika, help! She looks up, positions herself perfectly with awesome balance 50 feet off the stock, and puts them in the shed. And then she removes them when I ask her to. And then she puts them where she started. And not once did I get the feeling that she cared about any of this. The dog has amazing balance and stock sense - just no particular interest in moving stock around random paddocks for no reason. Ive heard about dogs like this but never seen one. Shes been on stock before and indeed I used her frequently with my chickens and goats at home, but one might expect A LITTLE more fascination with livestock. Nope. Dont see a trialing future for this girl. But I find that depressing since I see such awesome potential here. Heres an 11 second video I took of Raika back when I had brought some goats home. This is what she was like with no training. Imagine what she could do if she actually cared. Sad to see so much potential in a dog with so little enthusiasm. I might try a few more times. https://youtube/watch?v=qalMw-6htbU
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 01:04:26 +0000
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