RUBY"S new pups!

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day, there is a short video clip on the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/SHEEP-Farmer/489540237795665
T.O.R.

 

[Latestarter]

They certainly have some paws to grow into... Thanks for sharing. Love me some puppies

 

[Baymule]

Those are two mighty fine looking pups!

 

[RacehorsesRock]

We plan to breed my German Shepherd when she's older and sell her pups as either service or police dogs, because of her lineage. She was bred to be a police dog but we are using her as a service dog for my dad. When should we breed her?

 

[RacehorsesRock]

We plan to breed my German Shepherd when she's older and sell her pups as either service or police dogs, because of her lineage. She was bred to be a police dog but we are using her as a service dog for my dad. When should we breed her?

 

[RacehorsesRock]

We plan to breed my German Shepherd when she's older and sell her pups as either service or police dogs, because of her lineage. She was bred to be a police dog but we are using her as a service dog for my dad. When should we breed her?

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day RR,firstly you need to know "why" she failed? I would not recommend mating her before she is 18 months old because by then she will be fully mature physically and mentally.T.O.R.

 

[RacehorsesRock]

G'day RR,firstly you need to know "why" she failed? I would not recommend mating her before she is 18 months old because by then she will be fully mature physically and mentally.T.O.R.

I didn't say this but she actually was supposed to stay with her breeder and not become a working dog, just pet, but the breeder had a baby around the same time and the baby was allergic to her, so we bought her discounted. She will still be trained in the police academy as we know some police and they offered to train her, but just in protection on command. She will also be trained in search and rescue, stability, and seizure alert. So she didn't actually fail.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

That's great RR,because it will make a difference in the value of her pups I would think...T.O.R.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

EXPECTING A MALE TO TAKE CONTROL?

There are many very experienced “doggers” on this site and so I expect some comments on my views on the subject. But my comments are restricted to “herding dogs” as opposed to guarding type dogs.

Generally speaking a farmer who buys a “fully trained” dog at quite some cost (at least $1500.00 )for a “paddock ready dog “is about 2 years of age. Yet to decrease this cost a farmer will sometimes purchase a 4/5 month old pup and after a few weeks put it out with the farmers existing dogs to “learn the ropes”, what this farmer fails to understand is that the pup will inherit all of the faults of the older dog, but place the “blame “on the pup and its breeder.

When I got my first dog (over 40 years ago) I sought advice from a well respected stock agent (who was our agent for livestock sales for over 30 years) and working dog breeder about my newly acquired bitch puppy he gave me some advice that I have never forgotten.”Let her grow, don’t let her get “knocked about by the stock” and don’t expect too much until she is 18 months old”.

My current dog MAX did not take control until he was 2 years of age by which time he had enough practice and the confidence to handle the sheep in our flock. The other day I had both Max and Ruby (she was having a rest from the pups) out together shepherding the new Dorper flock ,which by the way is a whole different proposition to the English Suffolk’s on which he was brought up on. The Dorpers take a dog with much more “confidence” to manage than the old mob and they are not afraid to “challenge” the dog and if it shows any “weakness’ will run over the top of it. This was the first time I had run the two dogs together and the differences in “style” were oblivious from the start. Ruby is a yard –bred dog and so in the paddock she “trails” the stock from behind ,keeping the mob bunched up, whereas Max has been taught to stay on the wings and move back and forth to “cover the wings’ ,he also has a “good cast” but rather than driving the stock towards me he controls the direction I want the stock move to, if they pass the gate he knows they must go through he will” on direction “go to the “head “ and block and drive them back in the direction he knows they must take to complete the task .Increasingly he will move “with-out direction” to correct the way the sheep are travelling to ensure they do not stray from the correct path.

Max will over time be a better dog than his father Jack, because of the gene’s he has inherited from Ruby. Jack was a “wonderful” dog and we sold many pups bred by him over the years and in the hands of a competent farmer never had a “bad word” or a pup returned to us...T.O.R.

We are going to keep both the pups from Ruby to train up and so we will not “lose” the female side of our type. They have been named, Rosie (black and tan) and Meg (red and tan) so over the next two years you will be able to follow their progress as they grow and learn.