PICTURES OF OUR ROTTWEILERS HERDING
Saturday, March 24, 2007 - This was our first
introduction to herding. We joined the Augusta German Shepherd Dog
Club for their annual herding instinct test held at Carol Anne Bailey
Tholkes and Jon Tholkes' Red
Creek Farm in Townsville, SC. Many thanks to Jon & Carol
for their patience with us, and to Jon Tholkes for taking Max and
Luna in for their instinct test.
Most people don't think of a rottweiler as a herding breed, but
many make excellent herding dogs. The rottweilers instinct to herd
goes back hundreds of years ago to the Roman drover dogs, from which
the breed descended. It is amazing watching this instinct come alive
in a dog that hasn't herded livestock for hundreds of years.
Max was a natural at it, and quickly shifted from chasing to working
the sheep with Jon. His second time in the pen, it was clear even
to a novice like me that this dog loved what he was doing, and has
a natural born talent for it. Luna took a bit longer to get going,
at first being more interested in sniffing and rolling around in
the smell of sheep, but once she got the idea that it was "okay"
to she did show that she also had some herding instinct in her.
CLICK ON PICTURES TO SEE A LARGER IMAGE
Max meets sheep |
Max |
Max |
Max |
Woo Hoo! |
Max |
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Luna |
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