This past weekend we took out 7 month old Border/Lab mix out for instinct testing. When we were initially looking for a dog i wanted a purebred Border Collie because I specifically wanted to train it in herding (not sure why, just seems like a lot of fun) but the rescue we went to had a litter of 6 pups that were found stray with their BC mother (whose herding instinct was ridiculously strong). So we picked out a little pup that appeared to be a lab mix from the litter and I held on to the hope that she would want to herd too.
Well after seeing her 'play with' (read: mercilessly herd) other dogs at the park, we figured it was time to take her for instinct testing and start the process.
Well she surely has the BC personality in here. She was very respectful of the boundaries the handler set - for the most part - and she was intent on chasing those sheep until she reached the point of exhaustion. I'm definitely a proud papa!
We have a few things to work on before we start actually training her to herd, as she is still in the puppy ADHD phase where she doesn't like to listen to commands when there is something FAR more interesting to do, such as eat fresh lamb chops. So we're going to work on that stuff for another 2-3 months and take her back out. She is only 7 months old, so she has plenty of time to get things right and there is no reason to rush it...other than I'm super impatient
Any other herders out there?
EDIT: Here are some pics from the herding adventure! Having some trouble with the video encoding, so that's taking some time.
Cooling off:
Me and the pup:
Well after seeing her 'play with' (read: mercilessly herd) other dogs at the park, we figured it was time to take her for instinct testing and start the process.
Well she surely has the BC personality in here. She was very respectful of the boundaries the handler set - for the most part - and she was intent on chasing those sheep until she reached the point of exhaustion. I'm definitely a proud papa!
We have a few things to work on before we start actually training her to herd, as she is still in the puppy ADHD phase where she doesn't like to listen to commands when there is something FAR more interesting to do, such as eat fresh lamb chops. So we're going to work on that stuff for another 2-3 months and take her back out. She is only 7 months old, so she has plenty of time to get things right and there is no reason to rush it...other than I'm super impatient
Any other herders out there?
EDIT: Here are some pics from the herding adventure! Having some trouble with the video encoding, so that's taking some time.
Cooling off:
Me and the pup: