Sheep Dog for gathering on Hill

HillFarmer

Hi all,

Anyone any advice on what type of sheepdog is suitable for gathering a hill.

Our Hill goes up to 200 metres, but its mostly gradual. Its fairly overgrown the last few years so i need a powerfull dog.
I was gathering the weekend and the sheep have become brazen.

I need a dog!

Any here any experience gather sheep on hill? What type dog would they recommend
Collie, Kelpie...?

Conmaicne Mara

Both will do the job, but I'd have preference for collies.

Richk2012

HillFarmer wrote: »

Hi all,

Anyone any advice on what type of sheepdog is suitable for gathering a hill.

Our Hill goes up to 200 metres, but its mostly gradual. Its fairly overgrown the last few years so i need a powerfull dog.
I was gathering the weekend and the sheep have become brazen.

I need a dog!

Any here any experience gather sheep on hill? What type dog would they recommend
Collie, Kelpie...?

Just as a matter of interest what sort of money are you willing to part with for a good hill dog ???

HillFarmer

Richk2012 wrote: »

Just as a matter of interest what sort of money are you willing to part with for a good hill dog ???

I suppose enough to get a good one!
Seriously, havn't thought about it much, I don't know the value of of a good hill dog to be honest.

I'd probably spend up to 1K, not looking for a trial dog or anything, just something that can drive sheep and can go left and right left and right would be a start.

I've thought about buying a pup or 1 year old dog and try training myself, but since I've no experience at it, thinking might be best tobuy one of someone who knows dogs.

Bodacious

HillFarmer wrote: »

I suppose enough to get a good one!
Seriously, havn't thought about it much, I don't know the value of of a good hill dog to be honest.

I'd probably spend up to 1K, not looking for a trial dog or anything, just something that can drive sheep and can go left and right left and right would be a start.

I've thought about buying a pup or 1 year old dog and try training myself, but since I've no experience at it, thinking might be best tobuy one of someone who knows dogs.

If I were you I'd get a big strong pup, upright border collie type, big breed of dog not a full bred or definitely not a creeper!

Go to a hill man and get a pup from a proven working dog family 100euro tops and give him to someone local to you that'll train him Right for what you want to do ... He'll train you also ! ;-)

nexlar

I think both are suitable for that.

HillFarmer

Cheers lads.

Next to find someone with sheepdog pups. Don't know of anyone local so might check out donedeal

grazeaway

Bodacious wrote: »

If I were you I'd get a big strong pup, upright border collie type, big breed of dog not a full bred or definitely not a creeper!

Go to a hill man and get a pup from a proven working dog family 100euro tops and give him to someone local to you that'll train him Right for what you want to do ... He'll train you also ! ;-)

know feck all about herding sheep but we have always had dogs for the cows. We have been lucky in that the dogs we have had were great workers even the lad we have now is very good pity we dont do as much herding as he would like. Our lad came from a mounatin breed so is storg as an ox but most importanly obedient. what ever training you do you make sure the dog will respond to YOUR calls. My dad had a dog a few years ago and he was brillant and was very intellgent as he would respond to either my dads whislte call or my me calling him. not much good to you if you and get a great dog but he'll only respond to the calls from the fella that trained him.

A friend of mine from kerry told me about a dog his uncle got a few years back to herd on mounatins. spent a lot of money on him but the dog was plain usless and wouldnt do a thing he was told so took him back to where he got him from. The dog had been trained by the breeders elderly father who spoke irish as his first lanuage. The dog was trained as gealgie so those were the commads he worked to. The dog was great as long as you talked to him in irish.

Bodacious

grazeaway wrote: »

know feck all about herding sheep but we have always had dogs for the cows. We have been lucky in that the dogs we have had were great workers even the lad we have now is very good pity we dont do as much herding as he would like. Our lad came from a mounatin breed so is storg as an ox but most importanly obedient. what ever training you do you make sure the dog will respond to YOUR calls. My dad had a dog a few years ago and he was brillant and was very intellgent as he would respond to either my dads whislte call or my me calling him. not much good to you if you and get a great dog but he'll only respond to the calls from the fella that trained him.

A friend of mine from kerry told me about a dog his uncle got a few years back to herd on mounatins. spent a lot of money on him but the dog was plain usless and wouldnt do a thing he was told so took him back to where he got him from. The dog had been trained by the breeders elderly father who spoke irish as his first lanuage. The dog was trained as gealgie so those were the commads he worked to. The dog was great as long as you talked to him in irish.

yep,
Heard of lads paying big money for dogs and expecting the world from them and then roaring and bawling at them means that all the training in the world goes out the window very fast

Richk2012

Bodacious wrote: »

If I were you I'd get a big strong pup, upright border collie type, big breed of dog not a full bred or definitely not a creeper!

Go to a hill man and get a pup from a proven working dog family 100euro tops and give him to someone local to you that'll train him Right for what you want to do ... He'll train you also ! ;-)

Why not a dog with papers???

farawaygrass

A friend of mine from kerry told me about a dog his uncle got a few years back to herd on mounatins. spent a lot of money on him but the dog was plain usless and wouldnt do a thing he was told so took him back to where he got him from. The dog had been trained by the breeders elderly father who spoke irish as his first lanuage. The dog was trained as gealgie so those were the commads he worked to. The dog was great as long as you talked to him in irish.[/QUOTE]

read about a man that trained irish draught horses for logging in woods. the horse was brilliant and would do everything he was trained to do man then sold horse to france and got a phone call from new buying looking for the english commands! animals are so smart!

Bodacious

Richk2012 wrote: »

Why not a dog with papers???

Sorry Rich,

My ignorance maybe and sorry to offend you if you **** hot trial dogs with papers but any border collies here that Ive seen here that had papers were on a lead, retrieving sticks out of the sea and definitely visiting the hills, not working them

paul2davis

HillFarmer wrote: »

Hi all,

Anyone any advice on what type of sheepdog is suitable for gathering a hill.

Our Hill goes up to 200 metres, but its mostly gradual. Its fairly overgrown the last few years so i need a powerfull dog.
I was gathering the weekend and the sheep have become brazen.

I need a dog!

Any here any experience gather sheep on hill? What type dog would they recommend
Collie, Kelpie...?

Papers for dogs is a waste of time most of the time whats on the card ain't what your paying for and alot of the time trail type dogs go bad and are soft alright on low land some will make good hill dogs but very few i train dogs for a living and what i sell alot of is collie x kelpie good hardy strong dogs with loads of working power speed and drive these pups will back sheep if u want or need it very easy to train with none of the nerves or problems a reg collie can have it is a very good cross that makes for good dogs

yellowlabrador

Where I come from in Wales, they try sheepdog pups with poultry. If the pup tries to round them, that's the dog to go for. Always work on what's already in them.My granny was a sheep farmer and she had a hefted flock, it was magic watching the dogs work.
I had a labrador from a good strain of field trial champions. He was trained as a gundog but he was also a pet. I used to bring the cows in for my neighbour and used to use his cattle dog with my dog looking on. After a couple of weeks, he learned the routine, first the milkers, then the weanlings, used to round them up a treat, he also used to make each cow go into the right stall and supervise the milking. The only thing was, he needed to carry a stick when he was doing the job.

I really miss that dog he was quite a character.

funny man

HillFarmer wrote: »

Hi all,

Anyone any advice on what type of sheepdog is suitable for gathering a hill.

Our Hill goes up to 200 metres, but its mostly gradual. Its fairly overgrown the last few years so i need a powerfull dog.
I was gathering the weekend and the sheep have become brazen.

I need a dog!

Any here any experience gather sheep on hill? What type dog would they recommend
Collie, Kelpie...?

just wondering did ya get sorted.

funny man

paul2davis wrote: »

Papers for dogs is a waste of time most of the time whats on the card ain't what your paying for and alot of the time trail type dogs go bad and are soft alright on low land some will make good hill dogs but very few i train dogs for a living and what i sell alot of is collie x kelpie good hardy strong dogs with loads of working power speed and drive these pups will back sheep if u want or need it very easy to train with none of the nerves or problems a reg collie can have it is a very good cross that makes for good dogs

I too train a few dogs now and again and i can't say i've seen these type of dogs "with none of the nerves or problems a reg collie can have". a collie dosn't know if she has papers or not so it shouldn't interfere with her training, if a young dog breaks down and dosn't do what you want i put it down to the trainer, you will come across the odd dog that just dosn't make the cut, whats most important is to know how much pressure and how soon it can be applied. I never had a kelpie but i have a friend in England that has tried with little success, always seem to loose interest, i suppose there is good and bad in both breeds.