When Cass first arrived at the farm, her herding mojo was in a serious twist. She hadn’t had consistent access to sheep and herding training for the first two years of her life (my fault), yet she was incredibly keen to work. Her intensity was overwhelming her working instincts, and she would run at the sheep like a lunatic, often leading with her teeth, and the flock would quickly become terrified of her. The sheep would then run away, triggering more chasing from Cass, and the situation would quickly swirl down the toilet.
Denise Leonard, the masterful herding trainer I’ve worked with, suggested that Cass needed to go to boot camp for the kind of consistent and intensive training that might break the negative cycle. Cass’s breeder, Fiona Robertson, doesn’t usually do this sort of thing, but I think she was intrigued by the challenge, and figured that knowing Cass’s family traits might give her some insights. Cass spent almost a month at Camp Fiona and came back transformed. I jokingly tell people that she went to Canada for a brain transplant (socialized medicine and all..) and returned a fully-functioning herding dog.
One of the few challenges since Cass has been back is that Fiona was so thorough in dissuading her from chasing and biting that she became a little timid around pushy, insolent sheep. I’ve talked a bit about working with Cass to reclaim her teeth in the service of gaining the flock’s respect, and we’ve made lots of progress on this front. But the biggest challenge is finding balance. I’ve been waiting to see if Cass is developing the judgement to wisely use her full repertoire, from gentle soul to raving lunatic, and today was a really nice demonstration. She put on her fierce mask while I was putting out corn, and then I asked her to lay down while I was doing other barn chores.
I know I promised no more cute lamb pics for a while, but this is video! And I was so proud of how Cass interacted with the lambs that I couldn’t resist sharing it. Many, many thanks to Denise and Fiona for getting us to this point.