# herding pics...of a few different dogs



## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

We had our herding lesson today, and I came a little early and stayed a little late to get some pics of the other people's dogs for them. I have been putting together a site for our HGH club and it needs more pictures of our dogs! I thought I'd share a few...

First is Ellie...


















Then Delta...



















And then my girl Kessy...:wub:





































I have some video of Kessy working the narrow graze. It's not terribly exciting, but tending is a lot of standing around while the sheep graze! We did move the sheep from one graze to another before I started taking the video, but I was unable to get video of her move. I can't video and direct her and our trainer is not good with cameras. One day I will either need to bring my husband along, or set up my tripod.

Anyway here is the video...it's mostly just her patrolling in the graze. The flock is split - one half at the top of the graze and the other at the bottom. Kessy understands this and patrols them both. 
I'd suggest clicking on this to watch it in YouTube...it's so small here on the forum page!





At about 3:34 if you listen you can hear our trainer cluck to her - we just have to cluck and point to send her in a specific direction. Otherwise in the video she was working on her own. She has progressed to the point now that we can let her work independently in the graze the majority of the time.


----------



## BlackthornGSD (Feb 25, 2010)

What a beautiful mover Kessy is!


----------



## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Loved it, thanks for posting!


----------



## GSDElsa (Jul 22, 2009)

I love her gait! Thanks for these--I've always wanted to see a video of her herding!


----------



## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

thank you so much for sharing . That was a treat. 
Movement . Nothing exaggerated. Topline firm and steady , legs moving underneath the body.
Very clear . Very biddable, very responsive. What are the pedigrees of the others that you have. 
Carmen
Carmspack Working German Shepherd Dogs


----------



## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

Great video.. I loved it. You can really see the majestic-ness (is that a word? haha) in her movements and her temperament. She is out there, doing what she loves/was born to do.. excellent.


----------



## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

Thank you! Kessy definitely loves her job. I may be able to get some video of her moving the flock tomorrow. I hope so, I have a lot of video of her in the graze but only one very bad video of her moving them!!

Carmen...I had a really hard time finding the pedigree for the first dog (Ellie). But I finally did...she's not on the PDB but here's a link...
http://pequestvalleykennels.com/docs/rommel_connie.pdf
And here is the second dog, Delta...
Delta von der kleinen Wiese - German shepherd dog

We should all be getting HGH titles in October...Delta is still a bit young so it's a little up in the air for her, but Kessy and Ellie, along with our trainer's dogs and Delta's uncle (littermate to her mother) who is handled by Delta's owner's husband if that makes sense! LOL


----------



## KayElle (Mar 1, 2010)

Now THAT is what I always pictured in my mind as the perfect GSD....a worker AND a thinker. Just gorgeous watching her! Did you breed her? If not, what breeder did you get her from?


----------



## Coastie01 (Mar 17, 2011)

The Herding was great but my question is what was in the Double D cup? Since I moved from Maine I miss DD everyday.


----------



## Ace_88 (Jun 21, 2006)

good looking dogs


----------



## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

LOVE this!! We're taking herding lessons but Stosh is still on a lead- I can let him drag it most of the time but he's not reliable enough to go without. We're learning how to work the border along a fence line nd then we're in a pen with the sheep and move them around the outside of the pen. Not too bad for 2 mos of training, just twice a week. I so hope that one day he'll look as good as Kessy!


----------



## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

Good luck with Stosh...it is very challenging and can be frustrating at times when the progress seems so slow but it is really rewarding!

Our poor trainer works nights and then comes to the farm to work the sheep for half the day. So...he always has a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee with him! LOL

I didn't breed Kessy - I got her as a pup in Germany. Here is her breeder's site, sorry it's in German!!
Zwinger vom Waldwinkel - Zuchtstätte Deutscher Schäferhunde
There is a link to Kessy's pedigree in my sig...she was bred for Schh and not herding, but I have always been interested in herding (I trained in the same style with my first GSD almost 10 years ago for a while) and started training the year after she got her Schh1. I need to finish her Schh titles, but with the cost and time required it's tough to do both at the same time. 
I don't want to jinx anything by posting too much about it, but am hoping for a litter from Kessy soon...hopefully in a few weeks I will have some news...I am so excited (and nervous!!).


----------



## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

It has been rewarding so far-- seems he makes more progress than I do some weeks. Having started in obedience, it's been a challenge to transition away from that type of training-- no treats, having him obey at a distance and not look at me, stuff like that. If I knew that herding was going to be so addictive, I would have started out differently. I hope Kessy turns out to be pregnant! How exciting!


----------



## BlackthornGSD (Feb 25, 2010)

phgsd said:


> I didn't breed Kessy - I got her as a pup in Germany. Here is her breeder's site, sorry it's in German!!
> Zwinger vom Waldwinkel - Zuchtstätte Deutscher Schäferhunde
> There is a link to Kessy's pedigree in my sig...she was bred for Schh and not herding, but I have always been interested in herding (I trained in the same style with my first GSD almost 10 years ago for a while) and started training the year after she got her Schh1. I need to finish her Schh titles, but with the cost and time required it's tough to do both at the same time.
> I don't want to jinx anything by posting too much about it, but am hoping for a litter from Kessy soon...hopefully in a few weeks I will have some news...I am so excited (and nervous!!).


Who are you hoping to breed her to?


----------



## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

She was bred about 12 days ago so now it's just a waiting game...and it's killing me! LOL 
Here is a link to his pedigree:
SG Arko vom Gallier - German shepherd dog

And a better pic I took of him while he was here - the one on the PDB isn't too flattering...he really is gorgeous and his temperament is fantastic.


----------



## BlackthornGSD (Feb 25, 2010)

He's very handsome! Is he resident to the NE area?


----------



## spiritsmom (Mar 1, 2003)

Wow I love seeing herding dogs actually herding, I think it is amazing to see those natural instincts. Great video!


----------



## psdontario (Feb 2, 2011)

Thank you for sharing, nice to see a dog doing some real work and having the intelligence and ability to manage all of that and the physical endurance (and working structure) to make it look almost effortless.
Very nice.


----------



## ozshepherd (Mar 26, 2011)

So excuse my ignorance but are you actually moving the sheep...they appear to be not going anywhere?? (I couldn't watch the video as my connection is slow at the moment).
I am very interested in learning about how shepherds work sheep. We have Kelpies here in Australia and ours will work mobs of 600-1000 sheep at a time meaning they will go out into a paddock and move the sheep around in a big mob...what do shepherds do exactly when it comes to sheep? Are there any good websites about herding the German Shepherd way??


----------



## jkscandi50 (Nov 17, 2010)

Great to see the herding - Kessy sure is beautiful - loved the video!


----------



## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

Christine - Yes, Arko is in NJ, sort of near the Trenton area. 

And no - in the video/pics we are not moving the sheep, she is "tending" them in the graze. I was not able to get video of her moving them today...but hopefully will be able to in the next week or two. She does a really nice job moving them...our trainer says he could move the flock through Manhattan with her!! LOL So right now it's just my handling skills that hold us back, but I am getting better! I tend to panic and worry she will get out of control, so I have to "trust my dog." 

Here is a link with some good info about tending...
Herding Style is Not a Fashion Statement


"Sheep tending as practiced by the German Shepherd Dog is a product of the medieval German estate system. German Shepherd Dogs were working as living fences in the open fields of Central Europe as early as the 1400’s. By the sixteenth century, the working style and character of the breed had been settled. In the seventeenth century, the dog was already competing in sheep-tending trials. The tending work as performed by the German Shepherd Dog involved taking a very large flock of sheep, numbering in the hundreds even then, from the sheepfold, along the village road, alongside planted crops, and onto an unfenced meadow which was lying fallow for the season. The tending dog’s job is literally to keep the sheep in line until they reach their grazing area; then the dog must allow the sheep to spread out and graze. But should any sheep try to leave that area to steal bites of the neighboring turnips or beets, the dog should instantly put the sheep back on the legal grazing area.

The German Shepherd Dog developed the habit of trotting up and down the furrows between the plots of fallow ground -- the grazes -- and the planted crops. He became the living fence that warded the hungry sheep off the valuable crops.

Then when when grazing is over, the dog must pull the sheep from the plot and line them up behind the herdsman, keep them off the crops, out of the traffic, put them across bridges safely, and allow them to move in a safe and orderly manner all the way to the sheepfold. This style of work is the way herding is done in Germany today. That is why the SV breed performance test in herding for German Shepherds -- the HGH trial -- is a course that demonstrates the tending skill."


----------



## wolfstraum (May 2, 2003)

Arko is a ****** Mohnwiese son - and Kessy a Vox v d Kine daughter from Waldwinkel's female lines - so a breeding on Tom and with Waldwinkel - a generation removed from Vito Waldwinkel - but combo of same lines! Alot of the reason Arko was a good choice!!! The photos Meghan took of him were far far superior to those on his stud page!!! My ****** dogs have wonderful temperaments and settle well in the house - no dog aggression or inappropriate aggression at all....I had the opportunity to meet Kessy last year finally and think this is going to be a wonderful pairing! She is very pretty in person too!

Fingers crossed as well!!!! Have referred a few people to this litter!


Lee


----------



## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

Thank you Lee!! All your help and guidance over the years has really been invaluable!


----------



## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

nice combination !!! nice to see hard working dogs that settle !!!
good luck 
Carmen


----------



## 4TheDawgies (Apr 2, 2011)

NO FAIR!! you have HGH training by you. I have wanted to do that so bad! that looks like so much fun! I had my puppy evaluated for herding and he took to it so quickly. I wish we had someone who trained for tending around here! 

thank you for sharing those pictures and video! I really enjoyed them.


----------



## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

You sound like me-- the biggest thing holding Stosh back is me! At first I wasn't firm enough with my commands. Now I get frustrated too quickly so he does too but he doesn't know why. So far he's been on a lead but on Monday we're going to have the sheep in a pen and me, Stosh and the trainer on the outside of the pen and we'll take the lead off so he can see what it's like to move them around without being able to make contact with them. And we'll see how well he listens to me! The trainer warned me that it's an addictive sport


----------



## tierra nuestra (Sep 8, 2010)

phgsd said:


> We had our herding lesson today, and I came a little early and stayed a little late to get some pics of the other people's dogs for them. I have been putting together a site for our HGH club and it needs more pictures of our dogs! I thought I'd share a few...
> 
> First is Ellie...
> 
> ...


This is great!will love to see her drive in the future.And yes,it's not the most glamorous job or the most thilling after 6 hours of driving,tending gathering and the dust behind a large quantity of sheep droving but wouldn't have it any other way.
how long does your trainer take you out for?


----------



## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

I have some new video from today...it is uploading now, my internet is slow so I probably won't be able to post it til tonight! 
I was thinking of making a thread just about Kessy's progress...I don't know if there would be any interest in that, but I have a bunch of videos from the time she started til now and I could sort of explain what's going on in each and how she's progressed. If anyone is interested I can do that over the next day or so.

Usually sessions are an hour to an hour and a half, sometimes a bit longer but usually no shorter. Our trainer will usually leave us alone and do chores around the farm during the session since we are capable of handling ourselves in the graze. Today the session was 3 hours, he had a lot of chores to do! LOL


----------



## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

I'd love to see those videos!! It's so hard to train when I don't know what I'm doing either. I've watched a lot of videos but I usually find a dog's first time with sheep or experts- nothing like a progression like you're talking about. It would be a big help and really interesting to watch


----------



## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

Okay I'd be happy to do it...I need to dig up the video of her instinct test, I think that is the only one that's missing. Might as well start from the beginning!


----------



## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

Okay - here is the new thread 
http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...aining-progress-videos-start.html#post2090184


----------

