Recently, a shepherd in Idaho, USA, was so angry that he vomited blood! Even Southern Idaho officials issued a press release telling people not to take away those sheepdogs!
It turns out that more and more tourists are coming to Idaho for hiking or camping due to the beautiful scenery, but some people are not familiar with sheepdogs and think that these sheepdogs "hanging out" outside are lost pet dogs, so they take the dogs away and send them to shelters!
Although the sheepdogs are not around their owners, they are working to protect the sheep from predators such as coyotes. To the sheep, the sheepdog protects them like a knight. It costs local shepherds thousands of dollars to train a sheepdog, but these "good Samaritans" take them away and send them to shelters.
Rancher Corey Peavey said in an interview that a sheepdog should not be suddenly taken away from the working environment, as this will put it under great pressure. Even though it may look like the collies are lost, they know how to get home!
A shepherd's sheepdog was taken away and sent to a shelter in the Wood River Valley. He had to spend several hours going to the shelter and explaining the situation to the shelter before he could take the dog home.
Whether it is a shepherd dog or a guard dog from a nearby ranch, there is usually a dog tag around the neck with the owner's phone number written on it. But I don’t know why many people don’t contact them and instead take their dogs to the shelter! The overflow of good intentions from tourists makes the shepherds very distressed! The shepherd dog was also confused. I was obviously working, why were you taking me away?
A real shepherd dog is completely different from a pet dog!
Although many shepherd dogs have begun to enter ordinary families, such as border collies, Australian shepherds, Scottish shepherds, etc., dogs do not have to have shepherds in their names to become shepherds. If you don’t believe it, you threw your dog into the sheep pen, and then you found that it just kept yelling and running around the sheep. A real shepherd dog does not need to get close to the sheep at all, but warns the sheep with his eyes and runs around the outside of the sheep to make the sheep obedient. Unlike pet dogs who are required to be social and friendly, sheepdogs are allowed to have a strong prey drive in order to manage their flocks and protect them from wild animals. Taking a sheepdog away from the sheep is not only harmful to the sheep, but also to the sheepdog! After resting, it was full of energy and wanted to herd sheep, but it could only stay in a small cubicle in the shelter. It was in great pain!
Just like a well-trained police dog, after retirement, priority will be given to the handler for adoption, and finally it will be open to the general public for adoption. Working dogs exercise a lot and are highly excited, so they need a certain amount of work to release their energy. Forcing working dogs to be kept as pets will not meet their work needs and will cause hardship to both owners and dogs.
As a pet, "shepherd dogs" are more or less capable of herding sheep. For example, when they go out, they always look to see if the family is together, or they keep running around their owners/children, all of which treat people as sheep. Although pet shepherd dogs don’t herd sheep immediately, they will be happy if they are given enough exercise and go out as exercise!