Starting the Non-Starter
If your collie doesn’t want to work, is there anything you can do to spark its interest? The short answer is “Yes!” Understanding the possible reasons why the dog won’t work is the start to finding the cure. Most non-starters can become useful working dogs. It’s disappointing to find that your carefully selected border collie… Read more…
Tutorial series – Bronwen and Scylla
A tutorial series where we train litter sisters, clearly demonstrating the differences in young dogs. Even if you breed your own replacements you can’t be entirely sure what you’ll get! It’s partly why training young dogs is so fascinating. How can litter sisters be so different? You might expect that litter sisters would be very… Read more…
The training area
Improve your sheepdog training area. Find out how a little preparation can have a BIG impact on teaching your dog to work sheep or other livestock. Two factors to keep in mind when you train a sheepdog are: keep the action close to you, and round-off any corners or spaces where the sheep might seek… Read more…
Close work with your dog
A useful sheepdog needs to be confident when it’s working sheep in yards and buildings. A huge outrun might be a sheepdog’s most impressive skill, but any working dog is likely to spend more time on yard work – penning, pushing, holding and loading sheep – than it is gathering them. The outrun will save… Read more…
Looking at the Point of Balance
Is the point of balance always in the same place? You’ll often hear that the dog MUST stop at 12 o’clock, on the “point of balance”. The theory is that if you imagine the handler is standing at 6 o’clock on a clock face, the dog should be directly opposite the handler – at 12… Read more…
Featured tutorials – gripping the sheep
Gripping the sheep isn’t necessary for a confident working sheepdog, and can be counter-productive by upsetting the sheep and causing extra stress. Training a dog that grips can feel like a thankless task; it might seem that you take three steps forward in your training session only to start the next session two steps further… Read more…
Flock Work tutorial
Is your dog ready to handle a flock of sheep? Once your dog can control a small number of sheep reasonably well in the training field, it’s natural to start thinking about working a flock of sheep. After all, that’s what the dog’s for, isn’t it! To us humans, flock work seems like a natural… Read more…
Working off balance – Sending the dog the ‘wrong way’
Our “Sending the dog the wrong way” tutorial introduces a great exercise for widening the dog’s flanks and outrun. Just as when we teach shedding we ask the dog to ignore a basic lesson (NOT to run through the sheep) this time we want the dog to work off balance. We’re asking the dog to… Read more…
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Sheepdog training tutorial news
Keep up with the latest sheepdog training tutorial news.
It includes new releases and featured tutorial videos for training your farm or cattle dog. The featured sheepdog training tutorials are a useful reminder about video highlights and other training items covered in each video. Each lesson is listed on the Tutorials Library page in the order we recommend you watch them, but look at the Tutorial News lower down this page. There, you will find ideas, and ways to solve problems which occur along the way.
The videos are also relevant for training dogs to work cattle. For safety reasons though, we suggest you start your dog with sheep first. When the dog’s responding well to commands on sheep, move on to training on cattle.
Scroll down for sheepdog training tutorial news