SHEEP
I breed purebred Border Cheviots. I raise sheep to help train baby stockdogs. They work clinics, lessons, demos and the occasional trial. Once I’m comfortable that someone has sufficient skill and proper facilities I will lease sheep out to students. I don’t sell sheep to people I don’t know. I do not send my sheep to auction and slaughter. I find it highly disrespectful to ask an animal to work as hard as my sheep do to help me keep a roof over our heads and then as soon as they can’t work send them off to a bad death.
Raising and Conditioning
Sheep need to be carefully selected and raised to teach dogs herding. My breeding stock are selected for mental and physical soundness. Working sheep need to have good conformation. They need to be able to quickly, easily move out of the way of inexperienced dogs. They need sound minds. My sheep’s job is to get moved around by the implicit or, in the case of baby dogs…sometimes explicit threat of teeth and toenails. Day in and day out threat can wear down anyone. I protect my sheep as much as possible, but still, living and working where the only thing between you and injury is a dog’s self-control and a beginning handler’s understanding of what the right action is, is nerve-wracking. My breeding stock are the animals that have successfully negotiated this life. The unsuccessful stay in the working flock to provide advanced lessons but do not pass on their genes.
As soon as the lambs are born, they are introduced to dogs. The first day of their lives they see Drummer’s big head staring down at them. They see dogs every day for the rest of their lives. By the end of the first week a dog will be moving them gently about the lamb pen with their mothers to help show them the way. Between following their mothers and the dog’s direction, they soon learn what’s expected of them.
My Working Flock
I no longer have test versus trial sheep. I don’t own “knee-knockers”. I thought long and hard about herding and how can I best teach my students the art and requirements of herding. Herding is about teaching a dog how to control the movement of livestock NOT to follow behind sheep that are Velcro-ed to the back end of a handler. Handlers that are taught in this fashion are always bitterly surprised when they get to trial level sheep. “What’s wrong with these sheep?” “Why won’t they stay with me?” “Why don’t they suck into the obstacles?” “Why are they freaking out just because my dog is maybe a “little” too close?”
When handlers learn on honest sheep they learn better skills. What do I mean by honest? Honest sheep stay still when no pressure is applied, move off smoothly and calmly when correct pressure is applied and are GONE when a dog goes AWOL.
My Border Cheviots
I love my Border Cheviots. I love almost everything about them. They are physically beautiful to me. Their heads remind me of an Arabian horse’s head with little erect ears and a dished, wedged head. They are physically very hardy. They are parasite resistant compared to some of the other sheep breeds. They are easy lambers…most times they meet me at the door with their lamb at their side. In 19 years, I’ve only had to help pull 4 lambs. Three of those were from the same ewe line and the other was an unintended yearling ewe that I didn’t plan on breeding. (The ram crashed the fence). They have strong, black, low-maintenance hooves, are relatively cheap to feed and small in size. This makes it easier for me to work on them alone.
They are a challenge to work. Border Cheviots were developed to run semi-wild on the Scottish Highlands. They are intelligent, suspicious and reactive. As they mature, they can read dogs quickly and accurately. They are more than willing to run a dog off if they perceive it as weak. Their reactivity will make them bounce off fences if chased. One of the unique traits of the B. Cheviot is that they do not flock tightly. If you watch a group of Black Belly Barbados sheep, one of the more common trialing breeds, you will see them pushing and shoving more tightly to each other when a dog pressures them. Cheviots split apart when a dog applies pressure. A dog needs to understand how to cover not just stay back off the bubble.
The Scottish Highlands have sparse grazing. Sheep need to spread out to find sufficient forage in these conditions. This inherited trait makes for a herding sheep who will break off if a dog is riding them too close. Cheviots are outstanding teachers for the dedicated handler who wants to teach her upstanding dog to rate and cover the bubble correctly.
They have a distinct breeding season from early September to around February as compared to many of the hair breeds who cycle all year round. This makes it nice for my rams who don’t have to be locked up all year. I expect my rams to work right along with everyone else during the off-season. This sometimes surprises people. The two common objections to not letting a ram work is: the ram might get damaged (i.e. some dog will reach under and grab his scrotum) and rams are bad tempered. My response is: if you teach your dog proper skills and don’t let them harass and disrespect stock the ram won’t get damaged. My response to the second objection is that if the ram is so bad tempered, why would I be using him to infect my flock with his bad temper genes?
My rams can be…surly…shall we say during breeding season. The young rams will try my dogs during their first season or two. I will not tolerate bad temper toward me or the dogs past that first breeding season.
As an example of ram temperament look down at the last picture on the page. You will see a sheep with a bad haircut (I used a pair of scissors that year; my clippers were acting up). The sheep is my foundation ram, Zeus. The puppy is Drummer’s mother Morgan. She was maybe 10 weeks old. Zeus was a big puppy off breeding season. He would hang around with me while I mucked out the sheep pen. He loved to be scratched anywhere above his mid rib cage. As you can see, he was tolerant of dogs, but he would work when needed. His first breeding season with me (I had bought him after his first breeding season elsewhere) he was a yearling. I had to boot him in the head once when he came at me and sic Shania on him once or twice. After that, when breeding season rolled around, my yard pet would take himself off in a huff, breed his ewes and then at the end of the season, come back for pets.
They do have a few drawbacks. They are very heat sensitive. They can’t work very long or hard in high summer. You run the risk of lung damage if they run in high heat. They have to be worked often and gently as lambs or they can’t handle the stress of dogs. They are escape artists. They are big, fleecy rats. Like a rat, if they can get that little, tiny head under a fence, miraculously, that big body WILL follow.
If you look at my sheep you will see that each carries a yellow ear tag with the sheep’s name on it. My sheep are named according to the first letter of their mother’s name. This allow me to know which bloodline the sheep belongs to. When I look at Sue, that reminds me that her mother was Suga, whose mother was Star, twin daughter of Sonic, daughter of the line’s foundation ewe, Schiz.
I get razzed by more main stream sheep people. “You’re making pets out of livestock.” Maybe so. But I find that it has one other useful benefit besides an easy pedigree prompt. It helps new students remember that sheep are NOT toys or objects. They are living, breathing, bleeding creatures who deserve respect and consideration.
I breed purebred Border Cheviots. I raise sheep to help train baby stockdogs. They work clinics, lessons, demos and the occasional trial. Once I’m comfortable that someone has sufficient skill and proper facilities I will lease sheep out to students. I don’t sell sheep to people I don’t know. I do not send my sheep to auction and slaughter. I find it highly disrespectful to ask an animal to work as hard as my sheep do to help me keep a roof over our heads and then as soon as they can’t work send them off to a bad death.
Raising and Conditioning
Sheep need to be carefully selected and raised to teach dogs herding. My breeding stock are selected for mental and physical soundness. Working sheep need to have good conformation. They need to be able to quickly, easily move out of the way of inexperienced dogs. They need sound minds. My sheep’s job is to get moved around by the implicit or, in the case of baby dogs…sometimes explicit threat of teeth and toenails. Day in and day out threat can wear down anyone. I protect my sheep as much as possible, but still, living and working where the only thing between you and injury is a dog’s self-control and a beginning handler’s understanding of what the right action is, is nerve-wracking. My breeding stock are the animals that have successfully negotiated this life. The unsuccessful stay in the working flock to provide advanced lessons but do not pass on their genes.
As soon as the lambs are born, they are introduced to dogs. The first day of their lives they see Drummer’s big head staring down at them. They see dogs every day for the rest of their lives. By the end of the first week a dog will be moving them gently about the lamb pen with their mothers to help show them the way. Between following their mothers and the dog’s direction, they soon learn what’s expected of them.
My Working Flock
I no longer have test versus trial sheep. I don’t own “knee-knockers”. I thought long and hard about herding and how can I best teach my students the art and requirements of herding. Herding is about teaching a dog how to control the movement of livestock NOT to follow behind sheep that are Velcro-ed to the back end of a handler. Handlers that are taught in this fashion are always bitterly surprised when they get to trial level sheep. “What’s wrong with these sheep?” “Why won’t they stay with me?” “Why don’t they suck into the obstacles?” “Why are they freaking out just because my dog is maybe a “little” too close?”
When handlers learn on honest sheep they learn better skills. What do I mean by honest? Honest sheep stay still when no pressure is applied, move off smoothly and calmly when correct pressure is applied and are GONE when a dog goes AWOL.
My Border Cheviots
I love my Border Cheviots. I love almost everything about them. They are physically beautiful to me. Their heads remind me of an Arabian horse’s head with little erect ears and a dished, wedged head. They are physically very hardy. They are parasite resistant compared to some of the other sheep breeds. They are easy lambers…most times they meet me at the door with their lamb at their side. In 19 years, I’ve only had to help pull 4 lambs. Three of those were from the same ewe line and the other was an unintended yearling ewe that I didn’t plan on breeding. (The ram crashed the fence). They have strong, black, low-maintenance hooves, are relatively cheap to feed and small in size. This makes it easier for me to work on them alone.
They are a challenge to work. Border Cheviots were developed to run semi-wild on the Scottish Highlands. They are intelligent, suspicious and reactive. As they mature, they can read dogs quickly and accurately. They are more than willing to run a dog off if they perceive it as weak. Their reactivity will make them bounce off fences if chased. One of the unique traits of the B. Cheviot is that they do not flock tightly. If you watch a group of Black Belly Barbados sheep, one of the more common trialing breeds, you will see them pushing and shoving more tightly to each other when a dog pressures them. Cheviots split apart when a dog applies pressure. A dog needs to understand how to cover not just stay back off the bubble.
The Scottish Highlands have sparse grazing. Sheep need to spread out to find sufficient forage in these conditions. This inherited trait makes for a herding sheep who will break off if a dog is riding them too close. Cheviots are outstanding teachers for the dedicated handler who wants to teach her upstanding dog to rate and cover the bubble correctly.
They have a distinct breeding season from early September to around February as compared to many of the hair breeds who cycle all year round. This makes it nice for my rams who don’t have to be locked up all year. I expect my rams to work right along with everyone else during the off-season. This sometimes surprises people. The two common objections to not letting a ram work is: the ram might get damaged (i.e. some dog will reach under and grab his scrotum) and rams are bad tempered. My response is: if you teach your dog proper skills and don’t let them harass and disrespect stock the ram won’t get damaged. My response to the second objection is that if the ram is so bad tempered, why would I be using him to infect my flock with his bad temper genes?
My rams can be…surly…shall we say during breeding season. The young rams will try my dogs during their first season or two. I will not tolerate bad temper toward me or the dogs past that first breeding season.
As an example of ram temperament look down at the last picture on the page. You will see a sheep with a bad haircut (I used a pair of scissors that year; my clippers were acting up). The sheep is my foundation ram, Zeus. The puppy is Drummer’s mother Morgan. She was maybe 10 weeks old. Zeus was a big puppy off breeding season. He would hang around with me while I mucked out the sheep pen. He loved to be scratched anywhere above his mid rib cage. As you can see, he was tolerant of dogs, but he would work when needed. His first breeding season with me (I had bought him after his first breeding season elsewhere) he was a yearling. I had to boot him in the head once when he came at me and sic Shania on him once or twice. After that, when breeding season rolled around, my yard pet would take himself off in a huff, breed his ewes and then at the end of the season, come back for pets.
They do have a few drawbacks. They are very heat sensitive. They can’t work very long or hard in high summer. You run the risk of lung damage if they run in high heat. They have to be worked often and gently as lambs or they can’t handle the stress of dogs. They are escape artists. They are big, fleecy rats. Like a rat, if they can get that little, tiny head under a fence, miraculously, that big body WILL follow.
If you look at my sheep you will see that each carries a yellow ear tag with the sheep’s name on it. My sheep are named according to the first letter of their mother’s name. This allow me to know which bloodline the sheep belongs to. When I look at Sue, that reminds me that her mother was Suga, whose mother was Star, twin daughter of Sonic, daughter of the line’s foundation ewe, Schiz.
I get razzed by more main stream sheep people. “You’re making pets out of livestock.” Maybe so. But I find that it has one other useful benefit besides an easy pedigree prompt. It helps new students remember that sheep are NOT toys or objects. They are living, breathing, bleeding creatures who deserve respect and consideration.