Category: Sheepdog training tips and advice
Teach your dog to herd stock with help from our sheepdog training tips and advice category
Read our collection of entertaining and useful blog posts. They will give you a better insight into herding and cattle dog training. For example, if you’re wondering whether to work on flanks, stopping your dog, or the dog’s working distance from sheep or cattle, we think an exercise we call “Backwards is the Way Forwards” will be a great help! It teaches them all at once! To do it properly though, you must have basic control of the dog around stock.
Our sheepdog training tips and advice blogs will inspire the creative sheepdog trainer that’s within you. Teach your dog to herd stock!
Molly earns her “wings”
Despite having little training our Kelpie, Molly, reaches basic Sheepdog Status! Training a Kelpie still feels experimental for us, but we’re learning together – and enjoying it. Sheepdog training sessions have been few and far between here recently. This is because we’ve been busy updating the sheepdog training tutorials as well as working on the website. But after a really good session with Scylla today,… Read more.
Wow! Kelpie Molly gets our ‘Man of the Match’ Award!
Trainee Kelpie sheepdog Molly is making progress If you’ve read our Kelpie vs Collie blog, you’ll know that we’ve had our ups and downs with Kelpies over the years. I’ve personally been on the receiving end of some bitter comments from enthusiasts for what I wrote about Kelpies. That’s a pity. The people who directed their vitriol and untrue accusations in my direction clearly hadn’t… Read more.
Border Collie Sheepdogs Come in Assorted Colours!
We love coloured dogs and we’ve trained a few A post about so-called mis-marked puppies sparked a lot of response, mostly on Facebook and Twitter/X. One of the questions we were asked was whether we train merle or red and white dogs. Yes, we’ve trained quite a number over the years, but (and this may not go down too well in some quarters) we honestly… Read more.
Carew Shows How to Pen Sheep!
Carew shows how to pen some reluctant sheep Penning should be calm, but firm We came across this short clip, and thought we’d share it with you. Notice that the task is much more difficult because Carew’s pushing the sheep into the pen on her own. Penning sheep is far easier for the dog if the handler stands closer to the pen (or even inside… Read more.
Top tips for easier cattle and sheep dog training
Tips to make it much easier to train your dog to work cattle or sheep Our latest “Top Tips” training video for cattle and sheep dog trainers is available for our signed up (free) members to watch – SIGNUP NOW Go to the tutorials library page to see all the videos currently available. We all know that teaching a keen dog to work livestock in… Read more.
Bronwen Rises to Kay’s Challenge
Not to be outdone by Kay’s improved performance yesterday, Bronwen took charge of today’s gather and was outstanding Until now I’ve left the bulk of sheep gathering to Kay because Bronwen had a habit of cutting in and bringing only part of the flock at a time. She’d go back for more if commanded, but it was a tedious business, so I usually chose the… Read more.
Big Improvement in Kay’s Confidence
Does a sheepdog need to be confident? Without it, Kay would struggle to cope with stubborn sheep. We had another early start this morning with two lots of sheep to gather at Dean Farm. We’re “enjoying” a heatwave in the UK at the moment. So I was more than happy to get up at 5am today because I wanted to get the sheep in and… Read more.
Bronwen Excels in the Sorting Pen
“All my own work” – Bronwen proved highly efficient working in the pens at Dean Farm this morning We arrived at the farm at 6.30am, and Bronwen and Kay set to work gathering the ewes and lambs from a large field. The two dogs work very well together. Kay works efficiently on whistle commands, and Bronwen’s not yet been trained to the whistle; she ignores… Read more.
Gain Control of an Aggressive Sheepdog
Can you train a sheepdog who’s aggressive to sheep? Our three-part video series covers the basic training of Max, a dog who was determined to attack sheep at every opportunity. We should stress that we considered Max’s problem as largely a lack of confidence and self-control, rather than straightforward aggression. Max was never a risk to people or other dogs – he was, in fact,… Read more.