Adding a border collie

[crtreedude]

We have located a border collie in Costa Rica which was abandoned. About four years old. I have reserved 2 puppies of an Austrian sheep dog as well but the border collie at the very least will be with the shepherd.

Going to be an interesting experiment to see if I can train it. My dogs are always very well behaved and well trained and I enjoy doing it. (very affectionate with me as well!). I am looking forward to this frankly.

Our flock is now up to 60, with 6 lambs. All are very fat. We have been buying lots of sheep, often poorly cared for. This has resulted in some loss, but not much. We have lost one ewe and butchered two rams due to bad habits, the meat was very tasty when allowed to age 5 days!

So far, the experiment is going well. We estimate that we need no less than 100 sheep for the experimental farm, and in total 600 when we roll out to the rest of the plantations.

I did some research and it seems at least with border collies, you can train them to new tricks, but the plan is not for them to be a guard dog, but a helper.

Oh, and one of the shepherd's daughters who wants to be a vet is having a grand ole time with the lambs!

[Ross]

BC's are not guard dogs, mine has a sissy-ish kinda werf for a bark and either scammpers up all cute like to say hellp or kicks up 3 feet of dust in full retreat! She might challenge a coyote but that would end baddly. They're a nice luxury for 100 sheep like mine (who is a handy pet) but with 600 ewes a couple of good herding dogs would be very useful.

[crtreedude]

Originally Posted by Ross

BC's are not guard dogs, mine has a sissy-ish kinda werf for a bark and either scammpers up all cute like to say hellp or kicks up 3 feet of dust in full retreat! She might challenge a coyote but that would end baddly. They're a nice luxury for 100 sheep like mine (who is a handy pet) but with 600 ewes a couple of good herding dogs would be very useful.

Not really needed as guard dogs since the sheep are never without a shepherd, and they shepherd is never without a machete and pump BB gun. Sometimes a slingshot.

The coyotes won't even come close if there is a person nearby. Even though they are in the area, I have never seen one. Dogs are more of an issue, we had one lamb injured by a dog, I am sure the dog wanted to do more but with a shepherd running at you with a machete, it tends to distract you.

The size of each flock won't generally be more than 200. So one or two per location will probably work just fine.

I sort of wish I could use Cocker Spaniels like Silky. He is a terror on other dogs, no fear, strong voice and all other dogs no matter the size fear him. Of course, generally dogs run small here.

He is very interested in the sheep, because he is well trained, he won't attack them, but he does sit on a hill when I am working watching them, licking his chops from time to time!

[crtreedude]

Bingo was picked up yesterday. Only three years old. Definitely no wuss! I didn't know he hated to be crated, I will admit to being a bit startled. Those who rescued him didn't tell me that when they first got him, he spent 4 weeks at the vet, I assume crated! He didn't hurt me, but he sure made it clear he wasn't going in the crate! :lol:

A bit of a rough day for him in the back of the Isuzu trooper for six hours and then arriving at dark to be handed to the shepherd but he did as well as good be expected. Given he may have never even SEEN the countryside, he was very calm. Today, just about has happy as could be and very interested in the sheep. He will be slowly worked with for a while to give him time to adjust.

Very pretty dog, very intelligent and seems to be good natured. Seems to be learning fast too basic stuff like, stop barking.

[haypoint]

BC are smart dogs. You will be surprised at the number of words they learn. A favorite is "Bye bye", for going in the truck and "in the house". An announcement to the family, " I'm goin' to town." was enough to get her right out by the truck. Had to resort to spelling things to keep her from catching on.

When she was just a pup, the horses were in the pasture, near the house monkeying with the fence. I let the dog out and yelled, "Sick 'em" and she chased the horses away from the fence. Seemed to instinctively know what that meant.

I borrowed a BC training tape from a neighbor. Voice commands like, "away to me" and "Come by" for clockwise and counter clockwise circling of the flock. "Stay" is important, too. A couple times a day, for a few days and she had it down.

I didn't have enough livestock to keep her busy, so I eventually got quite good at throwing the Frisbee.

[Slev]

Sorry, but IMO, if you're going to be working with 60-600 head of sheep, and you, your Shepherd or your dog, none of the 3 of you really know anything about herding with a dog, you're going to be putting the dog through a lot of worry. Since your dog is not a pup, you can get started with training as soon as he settles in. If it were me, I'd be loading up on training books, DVD's and sign up for "The Working Border Collie" even find a mentor in your area? All of that said, you simply can't hire a better hired hand than a well trained Border Collie... good luck...!

[crtreedude]

Originally Posted by Slev

Sorry, but IMO, if you're going to be working with 60-600 head of sheep, and you, your Shepherd or your dog, none of the 3 of you really know anything about herding with a dog, you're going to be putting the dog through a lot of worry. Since your dog is not a pup, you can get started with training as soon as he settles in. If it were me, I'd be loading up on training books, DVD's and sign up for "The Working Border Collie" even find a mentor in your area? All of that said, you simply can't hire a better hired hand than a well trained Border Collie... good luck...!

I should have made this clear, it is very common to herd cows, even sheep, in this area. Besides, his main job is to warn if a coyote or other dog is in the area - and he already has that down. Also, when they start heading back, he is already helping - just with the "stare".

There are some trained dogs in the area as well, Australian Sheep dogs. We have been doing our research!

He is just getting used to us all now, and going with the shepherd to the field. Everyone who works with the sheep grew up working with livestock, so we aren't exactly totally clueless.

[Slev]

well that's great them. (Did you see that picture a while back of a Chinese guy herding his sheep through town with a life-sized poster of a wolf with snarling teeth? -pretty funny) -so, if I should just happen to be down in Costa Rica, can I drop by and check out your sheep farm????

[fishhead]

I adopted a 70 lb border collie from BC rescue. He was the smartest dog I've ever seen but 100% obsessed with sitting in the truck. I got him to chase birds away from my commercial fish ponds but he spent most of his time in the truck or sitting next to the door of it. He was a gentleman in all respects and except for the truck stuff obeyed better than any dog I've ever had.

I had no idea there were coyotes in Costa Rica. I'm probably coming down in January for a week. I've heard lots of good things about that country and I'm keeping my eyes open for fish farm possibilities.

[crtreedude]

Originally Posted by Slev

well that's great them. (Did you see that picture a while back of a Chinese guy herding his sheep through town with a life-sized poster of a wolf with snarling teeth? -pretty funny) -so, if I should just happen to be down in Costa Rica, can I drop by and check out your sheep farm????

sure, by all means. We also have tree plantations - nearly 800 acres of them. We have visitors all the time.

[crtreedude]

Originally Posted by fishhead

I adopted a 70 lb border collie from BC rescue. He was the smartest dog I've ever seen but 100% obsessed with sitting in the truck. I got him to chase birds away from my commercial fish ponds but he spent most of his time in the truck or sitting next to the door of it. He was a gentleman in all respects and except for the truck stuff obeyed better than any dog I've ever had.

I had no idea there were coyotes in Costa Rica. I'm probably coming down in January for a week. I've heard lots of good things about that country and I'm keeping my eyes open for fish farm possibilities.

Lots of fish farming down here, often small scale but large too. Mainly Tilapia, but also some catfish.

[fishhead]

Too bad about the tiliapia. They are VERY good at colonizing should they escape the farm. Hopefully they are using the mostly unisex fingerlings.

Is anyone looking at local fish species?

I graduated from the Auburn aquaculture program. I never agreed with the university pushing tilapia around the planet.

[crtreedude]

Not much is being done with local fish, outside of guapote. They however have pretty high demands in protein and don't grow very fast compared to tilapia.

Langostinos is a good "fish" and is local. Think an oversized crawfish.

[fishhead]

Langostinos would probably do well with a chicken/fish combination or once large enough to avoid predation could be used in a duck/fish combination.

We did a duck/fish project and our fish kept pace with those fish raised on commercial pellets up to a certain size.

Almost every fish in the world begins life feeding on plankton and duck or chicken / fish combinations work really well to produce plankton. If you could find a planktivore fish you could do duck or chicken / fish combinations without having to buy fish food. Plus many planktivores grow pretty fast. That's a good way to recapture wasted nutrients too.

[crtreedude]

My solution to the food for fish and langostinos is dead sheep and the remains of butchered sheep. Since we have catfish in the ponds, there is no such thing as too vile of meat!