GSD as a herding dog is not dead! - Page 1

Little background: DH brough home 5 little ducklings about 6 weeks ago to try and "cheer" me up. Yeah, ok. So we've been letting these lean mean pooping machines out the past couple of days to play in the water and get them accustomed to the great outdoors but have been bringing them in at night. Today they discovered the mud under my shed. There is a good 1.5' crawl space under there. Tonight, little duckies decided they did not WANT to come in, they were playing in the mud and having a grand ole time. I had sent my 10 yr old out to round them up and he came crashing through the door about 30 min. later, out of breath. He could not catch the little buggers. Ok, so which dog do I take out that won't eat them. Syd has shown some herding instinct with our cats (yeah, giggle if you must) herding them around the house. She had a blast crawling around in the mud, trying to figure out what the heck mom is carrying on about. After another 30 min of back and fourth, she figured out to smack them toward me with her nose ha ha. Once the light bulb clicked on, all ducks were out in under 5 min. Poor Syd was all grins until the bath. That was a MESS wow. I'll upload some pics of the muddy herding dog in a bit. I'm freaking pooped.

Melissa

Melba...never a dull moment ay?
He he....
.herding cats.....thats funny..........LOL....I can't wait to see the pictures.

 

Herding cats is lots of fun to watch.  My 2 pups, Max and Cirberus, actually work together to herd our cats.  

Hi Melba, can't wait to see your pictures, what a sight, clever Syd, hope ducklings Ok,  just thought I would share this photo of our Burshune Rikkor herding some of our baby calves, this is total instinct, he has never been trained, but sure knows what to do, not sure what he he would do with herding cats though, can't wait to see your pictures.

It's good you got all the ducklings in without becoming a dog snack. :)
Ducks are easy to move in a group. Just get a long tarp or sheet, and with one person on each end, starting behind the duckies, walk up on them and move them in the direction you want them to go. Lot less stressful for them and they learn real quick, especially if they have some food to happily chow down on when they get in the enclosure.

Joanro, it would have been no problem to move them except for being under my building in the nasty muck. I was not going under there LOL!! No, Syd would never hurt a baby animal. She will mouth them just the same as the cats or a puppy, but she will not bite down. Squirrels are different :) Ducks are safe... There was a point in our escapade last night where Syd was resting with the ducks under there lol (she could not stand up, just crawl herd in the mud). She is very much a nose poker... will poke them with her snout to encourage them to move :) I'm working on muddy dog photos... it was too dark to take them while she was working.

Not bad for an "old lady". She'll be 8 tomorrow and still acts like a 2 yr old :)

Melissa

Ooh...oops. I admit I missed the part where they were under the crawl space. That's the problem with scanning instead of reading thoroughly. I apologize ;-) . it's always a revelation when a problem presents, that requires one our beloved GSDs to resolve.