Claygates Sheepdogs

🔥coming in hot🔥

🔥coming in hot🔥 Teaching this beautiful boy to do some nice and steady turns and follows.

🌺one of my favourite success stories🌺 Peg has come such a long way from the day I first met her, super proud of the journey she’s been on!

😜proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks😜 Eric had to retire from agility and his owner wanted to find another activity to keep him mentally and physically active! To say this was his first ever sheepdog lesson, he did so well!

💦making a splash!💦 Here is the lovely Flynn having his 3rd lesson with us. As a trainer I try my hardest to train each individual dog to their own needs and home environment. Flynn is a big, handsome dog and the sheep really feel his wolf like presence as soon as they set eyes on each other. His job will be to help care for flighty sheep on a conservation grazing project… so not at all an easy task. with this knowledge in mind we’ve been working on keeping him off his sheep and getting the stop and steady at distance, resulting in keeping the training sessions calm and under control.

💎Steadiness around livestock training💎

💎steadiness around livestock💎 What a treat to be joined by the lovely Margo and her owner this morning, what a fantastic example of her breed. Thank you for making a special trip down from Yorkshire to come and train with us.

🐕A young Beardies first introduction to sheep with me This morning, very keen and natural with a little bit of noise - I look forward to following her training journey🐕

Super proud of the training journey myself and Hollie have been on together. From the pup that wouldn’t speak, to the teenager who wouldn’t be steady 😅 at 3 years old we’ve finally found that middle balance!! I very nearly didn’t take her out demoing for the public this weekend because she’s done no work whatsoever over for the last two months whilst I’ve been lambing! But she was part of our show team and Speaking to her sheep from a distance whilst sat in a wait is what I asked of her and she didn’t let me down 😊💛

🚨⚡️As many of you are aware I split my time between training dogs and shepherding. Therfor in the months of March and April I will be taking a break from the dog training to commit myself to the lambing season of two different flocks of ewes. With this in mind towards the end of February I will be having a clear out of my training sheep. These very quiet five in the video below will be looking for new accommodation, perfect for young dogs! I also have a group of soays I am breaking to a dog at the moment, They will be better suited to more experienced dogs as they are fiery little sheep. All that is available will be worth current market value for their breeds. If anyone is interested ping me a message 🚨⚡️ Ft, Gwen the huntaway X Collie learning the basics at just over a year old.

👏🏻🙌🏻 Pure natural talent at seven months of age! very little instruction from us.. just allowing him to gain a feel for his sheep 🙌🏻👏🏻

✨👏🏻 it’s my absolute privilege to work with such a variety of working breeds. In these last few weeks along side the border collie I’ve worked with a healer, a kelpie, Beardies, huntaways and even a Belgian shepherd! I am also very much looking forward to hosting a local search and rescue club later this month for steadiness training around livestock. Here’s a few snapshots from today’s lessons👏🏻✨

♥️😈another first for me today, working with a Lancashire healer. 9 month old meg lives on a small holding and has discovered her pray drive. Her owner described her as a slippery little Eel who can squeeze through any fencing/gates 🤭 we’ve been working on stops and re call today on my sheep. Isn’t she a cutie, but don’t be fooled she has a naughty side to her 😈♥️

✨🤩 Obedience training today for this handsome duo. The brothers came to me as reactive pet dogs. We worked out the triggers and have done lots of hard Work since particularly with the younger dog who was very nervous. It’s so lovely to now see them both so relaxed in my environment. This exercise I’ve filmed was just asking the brothers to sit and wait quietly whilst I worked a different dog on the sheep 🤩✨

💎 I can’t resist leaving you with one last video.. Max the Huntaway having his second look at sheep with me. In his first session I got him circling his sheep in both directions and a stand. Today we have been working on turning his noise on and off. Isn’t he a beauty 💎

🤩Absolutely gorgeous young kelpie puppy learning his sides and balance🤩

🦴 Proud is an understatement 🦴 4 months ago I bumped into Bob and his owner on a dog walk, he admired my dogs and we started chatting. He had just taken on Bob from a well known local rescue, at two and a half years old this was bobs first ever home and experience of a normal life. Bob is incredibly fragile and anxious, his triggers are noise and movement. I suggested to his owner that I could help to give him some mental stimulation. Fast forward to today after just a handful of sessions this is the first time out the round pen and in the field. I had a real challenge in the beginning to get Bob to respect me as the alpha, working for me not against me. this was a real issue because bob was very determined to grip the sheep in the early stages of training. As you can see from today’s film he is still very distracted by his surroundings. However I also see a dog who is enjoying himself, he is respectful of both me and my sheep, and quietly under the basic levels of control around my sheep. This is massive progress for Bob and long May it continue 🤍

🤩Another fantastic training day in Loddon!! We had border collies, kelpies and Beardies in attendance.. great to see ☺️ here are a few of today’s highlights! As always thank you to our hosts for the use of venue and sheep, see you again in the new year for the next training day in Loddon 🤩

👏🏻 class on grass 👏🏻

🌟Helping a dog like this and watching her blossom is 100% what I’m all about as a trainer🌟 Peggy came to me as a very complex border collie in an active pet home environment. Luckily for her she has exceptional owners who have tried just about everything within their power to help her through her troubles. The first time I met peg just a few sessions ago I instantly weighed her up. Because peg is extremely clever she very quickly learnt that she could get away with certain types of bad behaviour. The first time I met peg she introduced me to her teeth, so I introduced her to mine. She was very clearly in shock that someone for once didn’t back away scared from her and from that moment on we haven’t looked back. Our journey has been very much on pegs terms and to begin with she showed a lot of avoidance towards the sheep, although she showed glimpses of promise so we persevered. Today was our fourth training session together and it’s safe To say she’s had her lightbulb moment. In today’s session we completed away, come bye, lie down, wait, re call, balance and follow. Pegs owner tells me she’s been a different dog since introducing her to sheep and she feel it’s improved their relationship. What more can you ask for than that! I couldn’t Be more proud of Peggy ☺️

✨🍀I just want to say good luck to Charlotte and her lovely young dog moss🍀✨ They travelled to come and stay locally allowing 3 days of intensive training with us. Thank you for trusting me as a trainer and for being such a brilliant person to work with, it certainly makes my job a lot easier when the handler is so willing to learn and take on board what they need to do to help their dog. I was asked to help with three things. The re call away from sheep, moss didn’t ever want to quit. Her general manner and un steady approach with her sheep. And lastly a little fence and penning work as at home moss enjoys a game of holding them on the fence line and Charlotte didn’t know how to break this habit. Watching these two improve so much in such a short amount of time really was a joy for me to witness. Well done team And good luck with your future journey together.

🦆🦌 yesterday afternoon at the same venue in Lincolnshire, we then achieved some fantastic steadiness around livestock training with a local gun dog club. This is definitely something we will look to open up to more people for future training days 🦆🦌