Herding questions.

Kimbers

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#1
I'm interested on doing herding with my ACD mix. Won't be for a little bit because I'd like her to have a bit more experience with moving critters and taking directions from me before I set her on livestock. (We just go over to a group of prairie dogs and practice drop, sit, wait, and break. She's too busy staring at them to do anything else.)
First of all, is what I mentioned we do above good practice for herding or should we lay off it?
Second, anyone know of herding instructors in Colorado? Or a place I can look for one? I've had no luck...
And third, anything I should know about any aspect of herding? As you can probably tell, this is my first time doing this.

Our obedience trainer said this would be a good activity for her. This was when Kailey was six months old, but she couldn't give me any focus when other dogs were moving because she'd crouch down and stalk them. She was fine when they weren't moving, though. Made getting her CGC a bit interesting... :p
 

AgilityPup

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#2
Other more experienced herding people might chime in, but I think that depending on who you go to, you might find that herding will help her get a little more control around stimulating things. I'd start off by trying to find someone to go work with on herding (I am no help, as I'm in Canada) and then talk to them about your questions.
 

Kimbers

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#3
New question, then.
What questions should I ask a herding trainer? (Once I find one, which seems like it'll take a while...) I know several of the videos I've seen on YouTube of dogs "herding" don't look quite right to me, and I want to make sure the person I go to knows what s/he's doing.
 

crazedACD

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#5
OBSERVE BEFORE YOU ATTEND A SESSION. For the trainer's sake ;) because the one that I observed...if I had seen her whack MY dog with a rake...it would have been shoved up her you know what. The trainer I was observing walked up the long line, and remained standing on it while she whacked at the dog multiple times when he wouldn't down. I tried to really remain objective, I'm not all clickers and rainbows, but this woman was just too much for me. And she's very well known around here, has many students and does clinics and whatnot.

I found no other trainers that would work with a cattle dog (they are too rough on sheep?) and had one possibility but I learned that Romeo wasn't seeing too well, and don't want to put him in a dangerous situation.
 

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