Like a Tug Toy

On Sunday I went and picked up a new dog.  Charlie is his name.  Charlie is a 10 month old unregistered Border Collie.  Based on his coat (curly) he looks like he probably has some Gonnet's Moss or Elvin Kopp breeding in him somewhere.  I've discovered he really doesn't know anything.  Not his name.  Not to come, sit or stay.  He had what I'm pretty sure was his first off leash walk on Monday.  He got lost.  After that he was much more inclined to stick with the pack.  He's friendly with people and he's friendly with dogs.  He is also not afraid of much.  He does however have some of those neurotic Border Collie traits - you know the one's a dog develops when they've not had the stimulation they need.

The biggest thing Charlie and I will be working on are manners.  He has none.  He has no travel manners.  He has no around people manners.  He is entering doggy bootcamp.  He needs to listen and learn to try and catch him up.  This is important because he's Blaine's dog.  He needs to have a firm understand of who is the top dog or parent in the relationship.  

 I put him on sheep today.  It would be his second time seeing stock.  (The first would have been when I tried him to ensure he had instinct prior to purchasing him.)  I was happy that he didn't bark.  I was happy to see him kind of be excited and want to chase the sheep around.  All normal development.  My goal was to get him circling both directions and stopping.  That's it.  Short and sweet.

What really happened is one of the sheep broke from the flock.  He went after it in mad pursuit.  The sheep turned and faced him up, started to make bunting motions at him.  He kind of bounced a couple times and then launched himself at the nose.  He then tugged and tugged.  He used this sheep like a tug toy.  Rushing in, I had Tessa push the flock of sheep towards the lone sheep to try to encourage it to join it's buddies.  Tossing my cane, I got Charlie to release the sheep.  The blooming sheep did not take off towards the flock but in the opposite direction.  Charlie launched himself at the sheep, the sheep giving up went down.  Running, I had to physically pry Charlie's mouth off the bloody (quite literally) sheep.  This is a first for me.  I've never had a pup try to chow down on mutton.  Pulling Charlie away from the sheep.  Who remained down (eeek), I had Tessa push it's flock up close.  Calling Tess off I stood off to watch.  The sheep got back up on it's feet and other than a bloody nose seemed to be okay. (Phew!)

Baaaaaaddddd Charlie!  Ate my nose!

How such an innocent and happy little dog could be such a shit disturber?  He really was very happy go lucky about the whole process.  He has no respect for body pressure or people.  This is also something we'll be working on.  I did manage to get him to successfully circle both ways.  He's very, very tight but went around the little flock I had out.  He needs more exposure and I need to work him with someone more experienced to ensure everything is safe.  I'll be calling Ken for some advice.