Harford's Apprentice

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It just seemed to be something he did to entertain himself while he was on the water.A demonstration of the Border Collie’s herding instinct.At the back of the island, three small peninsulas went out into the sea. If I put a dogdown to bring the sheep off these peninsulas, very often the sheep would jump into thewater, thinking they were safer there, before the dog could get around them. But Jim soonfigured out that rather than go down the peninsula, he should swim out to the point of thefirst peninsula. This brought the sheep up the peninsula away from him.He could have then jumped up onto the point and followed the sheep from behind, but no,he was too busy swimming to the second headland to repeat his success with the sheepthere. By the time he got to the third peninsula all the sheep had already come back.He figured out this little performance for himself. It was certainly very effective and probablya bit of fun for him too.When we were gathering sheep to give them their final medicines before lambing time,there were often one or two weak ones that could not keep up with the rest of the flock.When that happened, I would go ahead to the pens with the strong sheep with the helpof whatever other dog I had with me, but leave Jim with the weak ones. Jim would workhis way back to the pens on his own with these lame or weaker sheep. Sometimes it wouldtake him up to two hours. He let these sheep set the pace, only moving forward to the penswhen they moved in the right direction, but blocking any movement by a simple shift of hisbody if they were in danger of ambling in any other direction. It was a job he loved and hewas a master at it. He just tickled them along. He never put any pressure on them but madesure they made it to the pens in the end for their medicine. Many a time I would sit andadmire him coming slowly towards us with his charges and wish that I could have caughtit on film.Although Dick and Jim had very different histories, and characters, both could think forthemselves as working dogs – but importantly, they’d been trained to know what they shouldbe thinking about and what was expected of them.So my advice to you would be to take time to observe your dog working on its own andhelp it develop both the skills and the confidence to manage sheep well, be their ‘friend’ butcommand their respect and be your working partner in managing the livestock to the bestof your ability. It may demand more of you as the handler, but you will be overall a strongerteam. More than that, it will be in the livestock’s interest too.28
The Importance of WhistleCommand Sounds for Dog TrainingA good whistle is an invaluable tool for a sheep dog handler, allowing us to issuea range of commands that are instantly recognisable to the dog working at longdistances – even in terrible weather. It’s always good to see a well-trained dogrespond instantly to the whistle commands which are easier to regulate and lessupsetting or confusing to the dog.During the very early stages, while the dog is still working close to you, your voice commandsare fine. A dog is not actually understanding the words as we would, but is listening to theexpression and volume of your voice and watching your body language to figure out whatyou mean it to do – and then whether you are asking or insisting and whether you are pleasedor disappointed, relaxed or tense.As the dog begins to work further away, you'll find that the best wayto communicate is through whistle commands. I’ve found that dogsrespond to the very first part of a command sound – whether it’svoice or whistle. It’s why most Border Collie names are just one syllable– Cap, Moss, Dick, Roy etc..I always teach a dog its whistle commands by using the whistle commandbefore the voice command it knows. That way it is picking up the whistle firstand will very soon be reacting faster to whistle than to voice.Make sure you use a consistent tone for each command, so practice with thewhistle out of the dog's hearing until you can produce clear consistent tones.Although there are some commonly used whistle command sounds – and youcan find examples and sound clips in our Whistle Command Sound Guide – youcan create your own set of commands sounds, ones that you find easy to produceagain and again and that you remember easily too. The key is to make sure that eachcommand is very different so the dog is able to distinguish between them easily.Our Whistle Command Sound Guide is an online resource and includes advice on…29
Page 1 and 2: HARFORD’S APPRENTICETeaching the
Page 3 and 4: HARFORD’S APPRENTICETeaching the
Page 5 and 6: An introductionYou have a young dog
Page 7 and 8: Some dogs showing excellent potenti
Page 9 and 10: STAGE 1As with any young dog, a Bor
Page 11 and 12: RECALL commandAlthough from a very
Page 13 and 14: STAGE 2The youngest age to contempl
Page 15 and 16: STAGE 3At around 8-12 months old yo
Page 17 and 18: Whether in the open field or in a p
Page 19 and 20: (Some people crunch a paper bag or
Page 21 and 22: There seem to be two main ways to t
Page 23 and 24: Movementup field4STOP 2The dog will
Page 25 and 26: Look backOnce the dog understands t
Page 27: Some dogs have natural authority wi
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