Drover Saves The Ducks!

Just had to Share this!

Every evening the dogs and I walk down to the Sheep/Duck pens to feed and put all the sheep and ducks up. (It is a great opportunity to train as we walk along and do chores) Lately, my Kacky Campbells and Mallards have been eating during the day out in the field. Going where they pleased and especially along and in the terraces full of fresh rain water.

I waited til after 6 PM to go down and it was cloudy. We had quite a bit of rain in the last 12 hours and the branch was running pretty good. On our side of the branch there is an old woven wire fence, not very high unless you happen to be on the other side of it, then it is up against the bank of the branch and about waist high on that side. Easy to step down, but difficult to get back up, even for the dogs and only about 3 places that one can cross, it is grown up and thick on the other side and hard to pass through.

As I got near the pens, I realized the Kackys and Mallards were not in sight! Odd! They all ways come right up! So I fed and put the others up and started to look for them thinking “oh no! something had got them”, or” they had found a new home”, or” they were lost!”  My poor ducks! No more duck eggs ! Yeah, Panic was a building fast! I knew I had to find them! It would be dark soon, and they would not make it through the night on the ground with no protection from foxes and such! (During these thoughts I could visualize the “Lost Sign” at the crossroads down at Jackson Creek “Lost 10 Ducks Gone Walk About!” “Reward !  Home made Pound cake with duck eggs!”

About that time BOO found one duck on the branch and her prey drive kicked in! Not Good! Abilene jumped in and offered her help! Really NOT GOOD! Course Montanna was cheering this all on while figuring out how to help! I yelled and promised things if they did not turn the duck loose! Abilene “knew” what I was promising and let go and BOO came to her senses too! The duck lost some feathers and is quite all right. Lucky Duck!
But the ducks were still across that branch! and hiding!  I put all the dogs in the empty duck pen except Drover and he and I went to work.
Now neither of us was pretty working Mainly my fault. But he listened to me for the most part and went slow and had 8 of the ducks across the branch fairly easily. Then the 2 Mallards were difficult, they were hiding in different places! Drover finally got the one across  the branch and the other one  ran up and down the branch looking for that magic hole the rest had found.(Most likely he thought he was fixing to be eat!)

By this time Drover and I were on the pen side of the branch and I just sent him over and said sick em! He did, and then I told him easy, and he was and then that duck made it up the bank and to the pens!

Good Dog!

In hind site if I had allowed Drover to bring the ducks to me instead of helping him find them (he knew where they were! I was the one that didn’t) And waited for him and directed him more calmly he would have been perfectly capable of handling the ducks while I stood at the pens! Moving them where he knew they were suppose to be and he would not have ruffled a feather! I was the problem!  Plus I thought for the first time “Man I wish we had come by and  away to me”  in our herding tool bag! It would have helped so much! I am learning! (I expect the dog all ready knows!)

But even as much as I have used him daily, I can promise without the Cathy Hartley Clinic we worked in on the 19th and 20th it would have been so much harder today. I found myself using things I had learned there! Like trusting the dog and allowing him to do the work without calling him off before he could do the job! Then sending him in to get that last duck by him self and  telling him down, to wait and give the duck time to move across the branch! And he listened to me. Guess we are trusting each other! I had a whole list of things flying through my mind will this work should I do that or? But because of attending and working my dog in the clinic it has made me a better farmer!