Herding dogs on a livestock operation

When we first got Border Collies I had some great mentors to lean on for advice and was able to learn a lot from watching videos on Youtube. You have to be honest with yourself about time availability and your ability to work with a dog in a positive and constructive manner. If you do not have a lot of experience herding livestock yourself then it will likely be difficult to teach a dog.

It all depends on your farm and management style. We did not have herding dogs for many years, but as we began to move the sheep more and expand our flock it became clear that a herding dog would be an invaluable asset. I will say that especially for older or less mobile shepherds a dog can allow one person to continue farming much more easily.

I do not pretend to be an expert on training dogs. There are people who make a living training dogs and or teaching people who to train dogs. Yet, I have traveled a good bit and have seen working dogs in several countries and across the USA. My general advice is that you need to enjoy working with the dog. They are going to make mistakes, and if you are too harsh then they will began to draw away from work. Correction/scolding is okay, but you need to make sure they are rewarded for good behavior and have a positive association with working. Short frequent duration training is better than long hours on the weekend. Another key point is No means no. If you issue a command be prepared to enforce it even if that means stopping the exercise and repeating it for 5 minutes until the dog understands. Nothing is more frustrating than watching a handler yell at a dog to stop a behavior or recall and the dog ignore that with impunity.

We have had no issues with the two working dog types. They get along well and leave each other to do their respective jobs. We have not brought in any mature dogs; I think this is more likely when a problem would arise. All our dogs have been introduced as puppies and grew up on the farm.

This will largely depend on the size of your flock/herd and the topography and distance which you will be herding livestock. We had just one dog for a couple years and found that often this was not sufficient. Many farms we visited in Ireland had several dogs. We are currently running three dogs and this seems to be a good number for us.

Certainly we are biased in this answer as we are not in the business of selling registered dogs. However, I have seen and worked with many non-registered dogs, and I see no benefit in paying the extra money for the dog for farm use. If you are showing, breeding, etc. then the registration might make sense. But why pay $2000-$5000 for something that wont bring added benefit. Much more important than papers is seeing the parents of the dog and making sure they are being used and that they have personalities that are going to fit your expectations for the pup.