Buying a trained sheepdog

DJ98

Currently on the lookout for a new working dog as I only have 1 at the minute and she's starting to slow down. The one I have at the minute I trained myself and she's of a good enough standard for what I need from her. I don't want to buy a pup as I don't have the time presently that it would take to train it up. So Im looking at purchasing a trained sheepdog. My question is what exactly would you want to look out for when buying a trained dog and how likely would a trained dog be to work with a new owner? They don't come cheap.

Cran

last two dogs I bought where trained, can only tell what I did. Know what you like in a dog & want from a dog also be willing to travel a distance for one. Go look at the dog let the owner run them first, then you run them with the owner out of sight. If there is anything you don’t like, walk away.

i must have saw a dozen dogs first time bought a trained dog and 6 last time. I like a dog with a good eye, temperament & personality. Lot of dogs I found trained for sale were like robots, follow orders rather than work the sheep. Lad I bought was very young only 14 months and doing nursery trials & didn’t expect to buy him tbh. He’s a dinger wasn’t cheap, but worth every penny

DJ98

What would be the key points you'd look for?

One thing I don't like about dogs I've seen advertised is lads going into the field with the dog and the next thing the sheep are up and walking around the farmer, like they're trained to reward to do this and its very hard to judge the dog based on this

sonnybill

I see that a lot too.. they see a dog coming and they start heading towards farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121151937#Comment_121151937

Used to see ads with lads looking for dog broke sheep or something to that accord, makes the dog look good

Limestone Cowboy

The sheep would start at that after a week of training with a dog anyway. You turn into the safest place to be for them and they figure it out fairly fast. If you keep an eye on working sheepdogs ireland group on Facebook there's videos of dogs for sale going up there fairly regularly. I see my own fella here would work for anyone, he's mad to go. Try and see them working a decent bundle of sheep in a biggish field. Not the 3 or 4 dogged ones in the half acre paddock beside the house would be my advice. You'll have a better idea what you are looking at and if they are only around a year old don't expect them to have everything perfected. There will be a bit of learning on the job to do at that age. If I was looking I'd like to see them keen to go, good to call off when the work is done or things aren't going to plan, running out wide when you send them off and no backing down when a ewe stands them up and starts stomping her feet at them. Outside of the call off the rest of those are things that come more naturally to them than something that can be trained. My own fella is 2 and a half now and is only really maturing into himself properly now and I put a huge amount of time into him from 6 months on.

farawaygrass

Finding it very hard to replace my last dog that I bought trained. She was good but had a few stubborn traits too.

funny enough I had the same experience as @Cran with a dog I took on trial this year. I knew looking at him when the owner was showing him working, he was just like a robot listening to commands but wasn’t looking at the sheep really and was going around with his head down.

I have a young dog now and he has a terrible habit of cutting in too tight on his runs. he's obedient though so hopefully time will help him come right.

Kevhog1988

Training my own here (think she might be training me more so ). She's just gone 2 now and really getting useful. Had 45 ewes brought through 4 fields into a pen and dosed in less than an hour on Saturday. Worth her weight in gold. My only problem is I don't get out with her enough. We have a right good bond built up now.

arctictree

I bought a 7 month old pup untrained and shes worked out great, took a lot of time and patience. Her only fault is that she keeps stopping on her outruns. Not sure what to do about that. She usent to do it.

OP, they say some dogs only work for their master. Thats no problem, just become their master.

Kevhog1988

Where ye were saying above about sheep being dogged I have a good example. My father was away in oz for a few weeks visiting the sister so i was checking the sheep at the home place. He rang me this evening and said "you must be working the sheep with the dog when your here because when I went into the field they all ran to the pen". Just shows how easy it would be to make a dog look good.