Sheep Worrying

Our make Akita is a great, sociable lad, will play with dogs any size, he has proven easy to train, a dream on/off the lead, his general predatory drive is pretty low, e.g he might see a rabbit in the distance, his ears will perk up, but wouldn't bother to run all the way over the other side of the field to chase it. He's good with cats, never chased, just wags at them (I think he may have lived with one before). But we have one major problem.

He turns into a wolf (! - really) when confronted with a field of sheep, even to the point of frothing at the mouth. Then when they start to run, I just prey to god the lead won't snap else he really would chase till he caught one I feel .

I'm lucky that I know where the sheep are kept in the fields around us, I know prety much the rough time they get rotated and where, so I always check they haven't been put in the next field before he gets let off his lead just in case etc..

But, when we go anywhere new, even if we're in deepest darkest woods, or when we're in Scotland walking in the middle of nowhere, or on a beach ("there might be sheep just over the little hill behind us!") I keep him on his extendable the entire time, I've become so paranoid that he might get a sniff of them before we see them and just RUN! And i'm 99.9% sure he wouldn't stop when called, he just gets SO het up, nothing else in life gets him like this?!

We're going to Scotland again soon for a week and expect to be walking on paths crossing countless fields of sheep as we do everytime, also on one of our regular walks at the minute there's sheep in the field where the footpath runs down the side of the field. Although I will go a different path if there is one, I purposefully don't avoid them either.

I don't think he'll ever learn not to chase them, it seems inherent in him. I would never have the confidence to test it out anyway and let him off the lead in a field of sheep!

How do I train him to walk nicely in a field of sheep?! I don't know if I'm doing it right.

He IS slowly showing improvement, sometimes - but he still needs to be kept on a very short lead, on the offside, I try to get his focus off the sheep, he won't be tempted by treats - even liver cake, sardine cake, cheese, chicken - all the highest reward treats I can think of, he even tries to barge, and I block him with my leg, and just carry on walking.

I use my voice to 'ah ah!' at him when he tries to stop and stare them out and I praise him when he walks forward not looking at them, but am I just confusing him?

I don't stop, make him sit or anything, should I? desenitise him a bit maybe?



Also, silly question? - but it is possible he's chased and caught one (he's a rescue, we've had him since he was about 3) and has 'the taste of blood' - or is that saying a myth?

Has he ever been off lead around sheep to your knowledge? Only ask because my boy is like this with most large animals, he goes crazy and is v. aggressive. But it's all fear because he's on the lead. He'll try to attack a horse/cow/goat etc while on the lead but let him off and he's no problem. Not suggesting you do this around sheep because the landowner could shoot him for sheep worrying, just alerting you to the possibility it could be fear.

Thanks for your reply. No, he's never been offlead around sheep whilst we've had him...

He's been offlead around horses (well - near us, we walk down a path with paddocks fenced off either side) same with cows... he's had a wander round agricultural shows on lead and didn't seem to fear any of the animals or react like he does the way he does with sheep - we didn't go by the sheeps pens!

Well if it were true there must be a hell of a lot of dogs with the taste for blood..think of all the raw fed dogs in the world who regularly eat raw meat and blood..they aren't all desperate to eat sheep..Its a total myth

I would suggest keeping him on a lead anywhere you think there may be sheep..and using a back up lead at the same time..(farmers won't hesitate to shoot and won't wait for you to catch him)

My BSD is excellent around horses, donkeys, joggers etc because I was able to desensitise her to them and also use a fav. trained toy to be a mega reward she always wanted to earn. But when we went to the lake district, she was very excited by sheep! She is also quite excited. although controllable, about foals (we walk on the New Forest at times, so she does come across lots of free ranging animals).

I agree you need to keep tight hold of your boy for his sake. I expect he's just got a strong instinct in him - however if he did live in the country before, maybe he did chase sheep.

Perhaps consider a harness/collar with double ended lead a extra help for control?

Wys
x

Oh yeah, duh!

Oh believe me, he will always be on a lead, he is - excessively, just in case. It's the 'farmer with a gun' image that makes me so paranoid. But if I could just get him walking nicely on a lead through such fields, I'd be a lot happier

Wys, that is a great idea about the harness and double ended lead - I've got both as just started him wearing a harness, didn't even think as I usually just pick up the extendable automatically (and always worry the springs might explode as 1 did in the past-luckily not in a field of sheep that time!).

We've had him 3 years, and he has desensitised a bit to them, he's a little better than he used to be, but I need another 30 years at this rate to get him calmly walking through a field of sheep and we haven't got that long!

We have the same problem as you cows he is ok ish with and with horses he is fab, I take him to the stables with me, just hook him up and he just watches the world go by, no issues at all he really enjoys himself, he even liked licking one of the foals on the nose when it came to say hello! I just have to be on poo watch - he wont leave that .

He would chase sheep though, deer, birds and rabbits he has such a high preydrive. He now only gets off in one secure field that is flat so we can see everything.

Hope you have more success than we have! lol

We had a chap with a GSD who does a lot of walking on moorland etc and was concerned about his dog’s reaction to sheep (and all credit to him). He came up to us and spent time with the dog in and around a field of sheep. The GSD very soon became accustomed to the sheep and any potential problem seemed to disappear. Possibly you could do something similar.

you beat me to it!

keep a bag of treats with you and treat every time you see sheep. keep a good distance at first and gradually get nearer treating all the time.its never too late.

my 2 dont bother with any animals as they have been socialised since puppyhood.
today we came across 2 sheep out of the field (how they got out is a mystery ) my 2 were told to heal off lead and both looked but not a reaction from either
i was soooo pleased, especially with Bonnie being a collie

Whilst I think that it's a good idea to try desensitising your dog to sheep, I just wanted to add a word of caution so that you can be realistic about your chances of success.

You don't know your dog's history & it is quite possible that he's chased sheep in the past (& it's a huge instinctive behaviour that's very difficult for him to control, regardless of training!). I don't think it matters whether he's caught a sheep before, the very act of chasing prey will have been so hugely self-rewarding that he will be highly motivated to do it again. The chances are that the attraction of sheep is that they run away very fast, so that provides the thrill of the chase ~ rather like the adrenalin rush that extreme sports addicts so enjoy!

So even if you successfully manage to desensitise him to sheep in a particular context, e.g. at a local farm, with sheep in one particular place, possibly grouped together so they can't panic & run, this is no guarantee that he would be able to ignore sheep in another context, e.g. on the Scottish moors where the sheep have all the freedom they want. I suspect that you would still want to kep him on the lead ~ although it may make him more easy to distract from the sheep so he may be less inclined to pull.

But realistically, you may find that you'll never be in a position to let him loose near sheep.

I appreciate how you feel though, with holidays planned. One of the criteria I use when choosing a holiday is that there are plenty of country walks away from livestock!