English Shepherd as Poultry Guardian

[centrarchid]

I revisited the ES site. You folks may not realize when you are giving the cold shoulder.

Breeder research will involve site visit well before pup selection begins. I need to see parents and older siblings doing their bit. Flowery web pages have not been reliable predictors of dog characteristics.

Laurens, Iowa is too far. Some breeders I have been trying to contact may no longer be in business. A couple I have reached produce pups in a farm like setting, but adults do not actually do much. The same breeders do stress working dogs when they give their spiel.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Is that people don't answer? Or are they rude? Cause if it's the first one, sometimes in bigger groups posts get lost. But I'm not on the group so can't say for sure.

I just joined a bunch though, request only accepted on 2 so far

 

[centrarchid]

You are ignored once you join. Discussions appear closed and between people that know each other, possibly through trade of dogs.

I may have found a source in Russellville, Missouri. Gentleman expecting pups in a week. He is close enough repeat visits possible. I think he uses his dogs with sheep so he may be able to provide pointers on how to prep young dogs for that.

 

[aart]

Discussions appear closed and between people that know each other

Much like some threads here Typical forum dynamics.

 

[centrarchid]

Yes, that pattern is very evident here as well, but you have many others that are not so closed. Most are not closed off here.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Yeah, the nature of most forums sadly, especially larger ones. I think maybe if you started just posting and talking more they might be more friendly? I think it's just hard to keep track of every member, especially in larger groups, so they likely just interact with people who post a lot and/or who they know. I don't think it's necessarily intentional.

That said, I joined this one called The English Shepherd Society and I find it is very active and very friendly so far.

What I did too was type in "english shepherd" in the Facebook search, went to the groups setting (so it wasn't showing pages or people or whatever) and just joined like every one I saw haha there aren't too many so it's not too overwhelming. Only ones I didn't join were specific breeders pages.

Anyway, I find English Shepherd Society to be very friendly.

 

[TheGoldenGirlz]

I found this thread a few hours ago and just sat down to read every single post. Hearing the dynamic of these dogs change is amazing, I’d love to have a similar group of dogs if I ever acquire land

 

[centrarchid]

I did a check within my old emails. Club was the English Shepherd Club. Joined in 2015 and pulled out in 2016.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Ah okay so was it a email group then? I find those to be slightly different or more standoffish than Facebook groups

 

[BlueShadow]

Breeder research will involve site visit well before pup selection begins. I need to see parents and older siblings doing their bit. Flowery web pages have not been reliable predictors of dog characteristics.

Excellent idea. Phone and email conversations are how we ended up with "Worthless Dog." (Not his real name, but he gets called that often enough). Fortunately, he is a good family dog and a good pet, so he does well enough here. We never had too many jobs for him to do, but he shows absolutely NO interest in helping even with those little jobs. I am told his parents do some herding, but he certainly did not pick up on that characteristic.