Our guide to finding a sheepdog trainer. But have you considered the possibility that (with a little help) the best trainer of all might be you?
Where to find a sheepdog trainer
There’s no recognised route to becoming a certified sheepdog trainer. It’s entirely possible for a well-meaning enthusiast to offer themselves as an instructor. Even so, sheepdog trainers in the UK are few and far between. The International Sheepdog Society no longer provides a list of trainers so finding a sheepdog trainer is likely to be difficult, other than by a personal recommendation.
But let us assume you’ve found a sheepdog trainer who’s willing and available to help you with your dog. What should you ask or look for? Tempting though it may be to not look this “gift horse” in the mouth, it’s important that you put your time, energy, and hard-earned cash into training that will be of most benefit to you and your dog.
Have you found the right trainer?
Check out first what sort of experience they’ve had, and roughly how many dogs they’ve trained. We wouldn’t insist they’re successful sheepdog triallers – a successful trialler will undoubtedly be a good handler but won’t necessarily be able to teach. Trainers need to work with a variety of dogs and explain, patiently and possibly frequently, what they do and why.
Moderate success with just one, possibly naturally talented and easy going, dog cannot qualify a trainer to teach others. Some handlers and shepherds always choose the same type of dog for themselves, and train that type with great success. But can their skill be transferred?
As we say time and again, every dog is an individual, and every dog/handler combination is unique!
The risk of training with someone of limited experience is that, in the event of your dog not working well right from the start, you may be told that they will never be any good. This isn’t fair on either of you, and alarm bells should certainly ring if the judgement is followed by: “But I’ve got a dog in the yard that would suit you down to the ground”. (See our short tutorial “My Dog’s No Good” for our view on this.)
It’s not helpful, is it? Though a trainer could be feeling it’s easy to train the dog – but teaching the handler will be a different matter!
What should you expect?
A good sheepdog trainer should explain their methods clearly, and be able to prove those methods by demonstration.
Anyone who’s attended a group training session will have seen as many different problems as there were dogs. Sheepdogs vary widely in their response to stock – from the indifferent to the indefensible – so a trainer should be calm, and even-tempered. They also need to be adaptable, and a sense of humour is essential.
To get the best out of an unfamiliar dog, guide its handler to make progress with it, yet always protecting the sheep from unnecessary stress, is skilled work and demands a versatility that can only come from practice, and practical experience.
You might find yourself in the fortunate position of having more than one available trainer. If you don’t have a personal recommendation to guide you, try them all. Listen to what each of them is telling you and observe how they handle your dog. Note their results, and then go away and compare what you’ve seen. If you feel that one of these trainers had an approach that made sense to you, using techniques you feel you could use yourself, then choose that trainer. Trying to work with several trainers, possibly with widely differing advice or approaches, will only result in confusion. Choose one trainer, or neither you nor your dog is likely to make any progress.
But do you really NEED a sheepdog trainer?
Rather than searching around, finding a sheepdog trainer (who may or may not be suitable) have you considered training the dog yourself?
With or without a sheepdog trainer, it’s perfectly possible for YOU to train YOUR dog. You’ll find the support, encouragement, explanations and demonstrations you need in the Working Sheepdog Website online tutorials. Training your dog needn’t be time consuming – you can fit it into your daily routine. We’ll share with you our recommended order for training but you work at your own pace, from setting up your training ground to shedding and outruns.
Prefer to have someone to watch over you? No problem! Send short videos of your dog’s work and we’ll help you identify and resolve an issue. You’re not alone.
Something isn’t clear? Just ask! Whether by email or through the comments box on every tutorial, we’re here to answer your questions. It’s our aim to guide you through the training process, every step of the way.
Let us take the mystery out of sheepdog training. Make a start with our Training Articles, check out our FAQ. Forget travelling time and stress, or high training fees, and reach for the Working Sheepdog Website online tutorials.
CLEAR, AFFORDABLE SHEEP AND CATTLE DOG TRAINING INSTRUCTION
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For a very small monthly (or annual) subscription, watch many hours of expertly presented sheepdog training lessons. Not just theory – we show you what should happen, and what to do when things go wrong. Signup now. It’s easy to cancel payments at any time and you can continue to watch for the period you paid for.
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