Cattle dog with ALOT of eye…?
Hi, my male intact cattle dog is a reg pure bred, and is a working stock dog. He works everything from ducks to cows/buffalo and always adjusts how he works depending on the stock (baby/mom pairs or nasty males etc). True to cattle dogs (heelers), when he needs to he goes in for a bite. However, he uses a lot of eye and has ALOT of power he has only had to bite twice and that was with a bull who had learned to run dogs. He tries to stare down his stock and never breaks eye contact and if they dont back down or turn he does a nose nip (never blood) and a quick heel nip if needed. When i start doing formal trials and not just local ones, will i be docked points for a generaly loose eyed breed to use alot of eye? He does “clap” but but not as much as a border collie. He also, moves his stock very gently, not fretting them.
http://members.cox.net/gsdvominsel/eye.htm
my cattle dog has Roving eye, Anti Eye and strong depending on the stock and what needs to be moved.
If your dog is working properly and not gripping the livestock, you will not be docked points for this. There’s nothing wrong with having eye, even if the breed doesn’t call for it. BCs can have a lot of eye or a little eye, depending on the dog and the lines.
Gripping is what you’ll get excused for. An appropriate bite when a ewe is challenging the dog is usually permitted, as long as it was deemed necessary by the judge in order to get the stock moving if they were being stubborn. No one likes a challenging lead sheep, as this can cause major issues that the dog will have to fix. Sometimes that results in a bite and excusal, but if the dog was right and teaches that sheep a lesson then I would be fine with that.
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