My Dog(s)

You will notice in the header picture a different looking cow dog. Most folks think that the only good stock dog is a Border Collie. Well I have not met to many of them I did not like. Having bred, raised, trained and worked BC's for many years, I just could not get the consistency I wanted in my breeding program. Also I encountered that aged old problem of getting only 1/2 to 3/4's of a day of work from them. I know that I will get lots of discussion on this and so be it.

In my BC breeding days, the most consistent question I would get from "working" folks was: Will your dogs work all day? I could not answer that question in the affirmative and that always struck me. I had good breeding stock and some as tough as nails, but the working all day in mountainous terrain, heavy bush, was always a problem.

I was introduced to a new breed, the "New Zealand Heading Dog", or some times called the "New Zealand Collie". The dog works with a heads up style and is a really great thinking dog. But more on that in a later post. What I have learned about stock handling and herding I attribute a lot to my dogs. This has also changed the way that I now approach training the working stock dog.

I will get into some thoughts on training in general in my next pot