Here in Colorado, we’re lucky to host the National Western Stock Show each January. Sunday was the final day of this year’s 2-week event, so we popped down to watch some stock dogs work. A friend was competing with her dog, and I’d never seen a herding competition. All I have to say is HO-LY COW!
Knowing what I know now about training dogs, herding looks really, really hard.
The first time I saw agility, I thought, “I could do that.” But, after watching herding, me thinks NOT.
I would love for Lilly to do a herding instinct test with someone I trust, but I cannot imagine the training after that. The whistles. The verbal cues. The challenge of working 3 ornery sheep you don’t know. Plus, from what I’ve heard much of the training is not in the positive vein, and Lilly would not take well to that.
I’ve seen her try to herd other dogs, my nieces, and even bugs crawling across the floor. I’ve seen her sass cattle through the fence and get them to lay down, so she could “guard” them. But, true herding WORK, is a whole other thing.
It was amazing to watch, but it was also hard on my nerves. There were SO many times the dogs were SO close to getting the sheep around the barrel or through the chute, then whoop! the sheep were off somewhere else.
Clearly, the dogs LOVED the work, even when things went to pot, so that was fun to watch their happy faces. But, MAN, I think as a sport and training challenge it would completely stress me out.
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