I started herding a bit less than a year after I got Beag as a puppy. I had already tried obedience and agility to work with her and to make sure we had a relationship I could use to make sure I could control her under all circumstances. Building a bond where we could trust each other.
I had a border collie before Beag, but I had never even thought about herding with him. I so fell in love herding while learning with Beag, that after Beag showed her Addison’s I knew I would eventually get a dog I could herd with.
I haven’t had any real behavior issues with Beag or Scot, but I know plenty of people that do have those issues. And I would recommend herding, agility or any activity that goes to the breeding of whatever dog they have. So a Lab (retrievers) should retrieve or dock dive, a beagle (scent hound) should learn to hunt scents and a greyhound or whippet (sitehounds) should learn to chase lures. Dogs, other than toy breeds, were originally breed for a specific purpose or task. You will never see your dog more alive than when it gets to put generations of genetic heritage into use.
Here is a blog post from my instructor and Scot’s breeder, Terry Parrish on “A New Reason for Herding.”
Herding, for people like me, is not to get work done on a ranch or farm. It’s a sport and fun activity to participate in with our pets. For people that are real serious about the sport, the dogs are not pets, they are tools. This doesn’t mean the dogs are not loved or well taken care of, but that there is a distance between handler and dog.
Herding or agility or any other activity that you work on with your dog builds trust and teamwork between you and them, reducing problems and engenders understanding. Always a good thing.
