Geometry?

By Joel Levinson

This column, I'm going to discuss the problem of the Beardie who goes ballistic every time they see sheep! You know the problem - You and Bruiser get to the herding facility, and immediately, your well trained Beardie is pulling, tugging, can't wait to get in with the sheep - and then when you do - Bruiser is using the sheep like bowling pins, leaving splits all over the place at 90 MPH.

One suggestion that has worked well for a lot of people is to do what we call packing the pen. What this means is find the smallest pen that you can, and fill it with the most number of sheep possible, leaving only enough room for you and Bruiser. Get yourself a good book. Take Bruiser into the pen. Start with Bruiser on leash. When he is reliable on leash, you can try it off leash. The idea here is for Bruiser to remain calm in a pen full of sheep. Whenever Bruiser tries to "dive in", give him a correction. If you've packed the pen fully, there isn't going to be much room for him to move around, so getting to him shouldn't be a problem. A correction may be something as simple as "No" - or "Don't do that!" helps, so that when you reach a point with him that Bruiser is minding, he'll remember the words.

You want to do this until you and Bruiser reach a point where you and he can stay in the pen, you reading your book, and he calmly lying there, watching his flock, for an extended period of time (approximately half and hour or so). The idea is to make being in with sheep a routine thing, rather than something special.

So, this is my tip for the month - if your Beardie is a Ballistic Bouncing wild man or woman around sheep - trying packing the pen!

Good Luck, and happy herding!

This article originally appeared in "Bagpipes". Reprinted with permission of the author.

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