Rippa and her first intro

So Rippa was exposed formally to sheep when she was about four months old, which is pretty young. The point was actually to get video of another puppy I was looking to place for someone, but we put her on the sheep there anyway. Here is the video:



Now, I have been working dogs on stock for about seven years on and off. Sometimes really consistently, others not. I can tell you this - I broke my first dog, Rippa's mother, who used to be really cute and natural, but I taught her to work against me instead of with me (more on this later), and we don't want to do that to Rippa. What you're looking at is the handling of someone who has no idea what to do to start a tiny puppy on sheep. I was just trying to get her to show some interest and see what else she would do.

With that said, at this point, even if my handling needs plenty of work, I can *see* things now, and I was pretty happy about Miss Rippa. Ecstatic. This video was shot on my birthday and it was one of the best presents I could have asked for, that feeling I had all day.

I like how she was looking at them, even if it wasn't "boing!" because she's a baby, and "boing!" is pretty dangerous at this stage. You can see her getting braver and braver and then . . . bam! I like how her first instinct with them is to go up to them to a point - a little natural caution there, but also awareness of sheepy space.

When I finally split the sheep to get her really going, she immediately picks a group and runs between them and the fence (a brave thing for a puppy to do - imagine you're that size doing that) and runs out wide around them to bring them back. Natural fetch, and nice space. I will explain terms later.

I like how she turns away from the sheep squarely, rather than into them, giving them space and her control. You can see her moving them and thinking about what happens when she does what - she splits two off and  then goes to fix them. She holds them on the fence - she thinks, she learns. And she's only four months old!

And when she gets them all split up and tries to fix it and can't, she chills.

Yup, I was really happy with this puppy. But then we "put her up" for a while to grow up and have fun non-livestock-type adventures.