Featured tutorials – Preparing yourself and your dog
Many handlers seem to find the early “puppy” months very stressful; they’re anxious to raise the dog in a way that will spark and preserve the all-important working instinct, but worry about balancing that with the entirely natural desire to have a well behaved family playmate and companion. Sheepdog Selection and Preparation should answer these […]
Featured Tutorial: The Training Area
(Not to be confused with “The Training Ring“) IS YOUR TRAINING GROUND A HELP, OR A HINDERANCE? Your training area can make or break the early training sessions. It might seem like hard work, but taking the time to round off the corners and clear some obstacles will make it easier for your dog to […]
NEW tutorial – Flock Work
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 […]
Featured tutorial – Eve at the Pen
Many of our online tutorials include actual training sessions with a trainee dog. No training happens in isolation so, as well as the main topic of the tutorial, any training session can highlight other aspects of the dog’s work – good or not so good. A typical example is Eve at the Pen. At this […]
Featured tutorial – Get off the Fence!
When confronted with a dog, one of the few ways sheep have to defend themselves is to crowd together onto a fence, or in a corner. From this position they can turn to face the dog, and even just a few sheep can look very intimidating from the dog’s point of view! As a result, […]
Featured tutorial – Inside Flanks (Circling the Sheep on Command)
Teaching inside flanks (circling on command) Once your dog’s driving competently, teaching inside flanks (circling on command) is the next step. Make no mistake, good inside flanks can be the difference between having an average dog, and a great dog! In the two-part tutorial, Inside Flanks (Circle on Command), we see Wyn learning to overcome […]
Featured tutorials – assess your dog’s progress
There are plenty of ups and downs when you’re training a sheepdog, so take the time to assess your dog’s progress realistically. If you feel progress has slowed (or stopped) then you probably just need to take a step back and give your dog some easier tasks for a while. On the other hand, if […]
Featured tutorials – Putting a stop (or wait, or lie down) to it
Stopping the Dog – Parts One, Two & Three take a detailed look at the problems surrounding the stop (or wait, or lie down, or whatever command you choose). They explain why your dog doesn’t want to stop, and what you can do to make it more likely that the dog will obey your stop […]
.png)