Friday, May 27, 2011

Every dog has a job

It is no secret that I love dogs the best. I love the black and white ones, they are so classy. And watching the sheepdog trials was poetry in motion.

Although I do think the sheep thought the trials were a bit of an inconvenience. Each dog had four sheep to bring in.

The sheep were positioned 400 yards out in the field and the handler directed the dog to go left or right through a series of whistle commands.

 The dog herded the sheep through a series of gates on a course. If one or more of the sheep missed the gate, points were deducted from the 100 possible points.


The goal was to get the sheep down through the course to the handler and eventually into a pen.

They had 10.5 minutes to do it.

Keeping them together was sometimes a challenge.


This was a renegade sheep. She was not about to be herded around by any dog or human for that matter.


And the spa tub at the end of the run, it was the best. 

Time for the Saturday Pet Blog Hop
The Pet Blog Hop hosted by Life with Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume. Many, many thanks to the hosts, the Pet Blog Hop rocks.

Please join us, the rules are simple:
  1. Follow your three hosts
  2. Check out some of the our fellow bloggers, leave them a comment and tell them you are visiting from the Pet Blog hop
  3. Add your blog to the Linky
  4. Copy and paste the html code into your html editor

9 comments:

BZ Dogs said...

Makes my boys look like real slackers! Love the shot of the sheep running right at you? Did she leave sheep prints on your back? :)

Greyhounds CAN Sit said...

Living in New Zealand in a rural town and working in the rural sector I see a lot of sheepdogs working on the farms and never fail to be amazed at their ability to control and guide sheep. It's jaw-dropping material:)

sam said...

Hi! Sam here from the Blog Hop! Those sheepdogs are something to watch! Its really fun. Kudos!
Rrruff!
Sam

Cherie K. Miller said...

Thank you for letting us see these great pictures!

Stopping by on today's blog hop - go see my video today called "The Bad Dog Blues." www.pet-peeves.org Love to have your comments!

CeliaSue Hecht said...

sheep are crazy. I once had a whole pile of them escape and they ran all over the place. My dog Cici got to say hello up close and personal though. She does not herd, she's a Dal/pit bull mix, she just licks everybody and shows them her belly. Fun blog hop posting...visit us anytime

Carrie, with Tanner and Oliver said...

Aren't dog sports/jobs just great--gives a pup a feeling of contributing. Hope you have time to enter the Organix dog food giveaway: http://www.allthingsdogblog.com/2011/05/organix-dog-food-giveaway-12-bags-of.html

Sage said...

What fun! Well, maybe not for the sheep....And that bucket of water looks pretty inviting!

Sage

houndstooth said...

I grew up with Border Collies, and my dad took it into his head that he was going to teach our last one, Duke, to herd sheep. It's a lot harder than it looks! I still giggle to myself over watching my dad try to teach him to herd every time I see a Border Collie. I love watching them work!

Bunny says that she'll be happy to rescue Flocko in her pink thundershirt if he needs to be saved!

houndstooth said...

I grew up with Border Collies, and my dad took it into his head that he was going to teach our last one, Duke, to herd sheep. It's a lot harder than it looks! I still giggle to myself over watching my dad try to teach him to herd every time I see a Border Collie. I love watching them work!

Bunny says that she'll be happy to rescue Flocko in her pink thundershirt if he needs to be saved!