Our Border Collie puppy, Grace, is 14 weeks old today. I was thinking that you folks might be interested in knowing what I do with a puppy this age to prepare it for life as a working farm dog. So I grabbed some photos of Grace's herding session this morning and figured I'd talk a bit about what it is I'm doing with her at this point.
I let Grace work the ducks once a week, just turning her loose out in their pasture for 15 or 20 minutes and letting her learn on her own how her body movements cause the ducks to move. Initially she wasn't much interested in them, but as the weeks have passed, she has shown more and more interest in controlling their movements. 
I will slowly ease her into more formal herding training as she gets older, but for now I just wander around the pasture and let her figure out how to "balance" the ducks to me (she swings around to the opposite side of the ducks from where I am) -- this is a key component of herding, and is instinctual in herding breeds, as is the desire to bring livestock to their handlers.
This early work is helping her to develop that instinct in a positive manner. If she was to want to start chasing the ducks, I would put an end to the sessions and start formal lessons with her. But for now, she is learning enough on her own (under my watchful eye, of course!), and these experiences will help her to mature in her work earlier than if she didn't have an early exposure to stock.
Ducks are easier to start a little puppy on than sheep, because they tend to move off the puppy easier, which builds the pup's confidence. Sheep need a bit more "umph" to get moving, and can fight a dog if they feel the dog is weak. That's not the sort of experience you want a baby herding dog to get! So even though I've had Grace around sheep to get used to them, her work is restricted to ducks until I see that she's confident enough to move the sheep as easily as she's moving the ducks. With this early work, plus the Puppy Kindergarten class that J is taking her to for socialization and obedience training, I'd say her education is off to a really good start!
3 comments:
Look at that puppy go!!!
Bruin wants to know at what point Grace will pick up one of those birds and deliver it to you hand?
Tessie says "birds? ick" :~)
Cool! great topic !! Look forward to hearing more as she progresses !
What a lucky puppy to get to do what she is meant to do :) My Tumalo is a crazy fetch dog and to keep her from going absolutely insane we have rules about how she gets to play - similar, I suppose to your training with a herder. Tumalo met a cow for the first time a couple weeks ago. It terrified her and made me laugh. What lucky dogs you have :)
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