As some of you might remember, I kind of fell into owning an Australian Shepherd. I'm working her with marker training and taking her for walks; however, on a different thread Lynn mentioned "are you giving her any herding outlet?"
I'm not doing anything specifically for her herding instinct. In fact, I doubt I could see her herding instinct in action and name it. I've never owned a shepherd. The only other working dog I've owned was a lab-mix.
Lynn mentioned the eGGe, but I see it's out of stock here on LB and elsewhere as well. I see a couple of other sites that sell them; but I don't trust them enough to give them my CC# and hope they won't just place me on back order.
What other toys/games do you recommend specifically for her herding instincts? Also, how do I even recognize when she's herding? Any good books you recommend on the subject? I don't think I want to get into actual herding, I'd just like to understand my dog better and cater to her needs.
I found this site: http://www.boomerball.com/ has a video of "Sam" herding one of their balls that looks to be about 20" diameter. Looks like great stuff. I'm still in the early stages of teaching Suzzie to retrieve though. It seems like a pretty big challenge to train her to herd/fetch this large, heavy ball.
Right now I've got a pretty fair "sit" and a pretty good "down". She's getting better about doing these under distraction. I'm working on the recall/come, but that's not something you teach in a day! I've also just started on the "take it" command where she picks something up in her mouth. My Pat Miller book tells me this is the first step towards retrieve. When I start to think about big things like herding and retrieving, I just go back to my book and work on the baby steps there!
I'm just looking for something that might come "natural" to Suzzie to work her brain more.
Parkman, OH is pretty much on the farthest side of OH from me at about 4 hours away. I'm down in Cincinnati. Parkman is pretty close to Cleveland. If you guys know someone closer who could gently introduce Suzzie and I to herding, that'd be cool.
Hey Doug, first suggestion would be to find someone to evaluate your dog's potential. I'll check into who is in you area and get back with you.
As far as games I would suggest that you just have good solid obedience on the dog. Your going to see a whole new level of drive with sheep.
If you use reward based training and marker training it would help. Traditional herding can mean a lot of correction on the dog and good obedience could avoid a lot of that.
I've only been herding for a short time and I'm using (again) no physical corrections in our work. Don't know if anyone else has done this in herding but I like the challenge. :-)
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toys/games for herding instinct
Suzzie, the Australian Shepherd
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