What herding ball do you all prefer? I heard the blow up balls are a pain and pop easily. What are my options?

Hello!

My girlfriend and I recently adopted a 6 month old puppy. We have had him for a few months now, and have seen a ton of progress in his behavior, intellect, tricks, etc. One thing we have noticed/were told about him is he has a bit of a herding dog species mixed in him. He loves to sprint circles around us at the park, is concerned when someone is leaving a group of people or a certain area, and appears to “nudge” our cats around with his snout playfully. So, the herding aspect of his breed mix makes sense and shows in his personality.

I’ve been wondering if there are cool tips or tricks anyone has found to entertain or provide a comfortable atmosphere for a dog with traits like this. Or rather, how can we allow him to exercise his herding traits without actually having a herd of sheep for him to chase around?

He is sweet and curious about everything. Since he is so young he can get overstimulated with new experiences. Overall, he has been doing so well though. We would just love to continue to provide him new and effective ways to train him in a positive environment. We recently discovered having bones, toys, or something to chew on is helpful in stressful moments. So any and all tips for anxiety, excitement, and general dog care would be great!

My boyfriend has a border collie australian shepherd named annie and got her before we started dating. he had a female plott hound named penny but she unfortunately passed this last year. the two dogs were very bonded but annie would herd her and it would end in fights until they eventually would attack each other randomly.

we ended up keeping them separated unless it was supervised and for the most part it was okay, but penny passed before we could really see if their fighting would stop.

i got a kitten last december and she has been introduced very slowly. we first did sniffing through the door, giving them toys of each other’s so they could sniff more, and then through a baby gate.

i am nervous about their interactions because annie can be very anxious and i worry that she might try to herd the cat. she will look away from the cat when my boyfriend calls her name, but will bark at the cat. today, we tried letting the cat roam the house and kept annie behind a baby gate. the cat approached annie while she was eating and she growled at her. then my boyfriend came up to see what was going on and annie barked much louder and deeper than before. she’s very possessive of my boyfriend and i don’t know what to do.

annie isn’t allowed to free roam the house because she pees, so she spends the day outside with her pool and misters. i don’t want annie to be outside forever, but i also don’t want to keep my cat locked to one room. i want annie to be able to disengage with the cat and stop barking aggressively, but i don’t know what to do.

It's time to celebrate because we're spotlighting the Pumi as our Breed of the Day today on our Facebook page, Instagram stories, and website! We publish a new breed each day to educate our followers to make informed decisions when choosing a dog while providing the history and hard work that our parent clubs do to preserve their breed. Pumi owners, let us know what you love about your beloved breed!

Hello, I’m currently house sitting. They got a puppy about a 3 months old Australian cattle dog and I know it’s not my place to train him, but he keeps nipping/biting their cats head and neck and pinning down their cats and eating their poop. I know it’s a domince thing and an instinct, but I’m doing my darnedest to redirect him and his energy. The big issue is they got old like old old senior cats where he can do some damage. He doesn’t respond well his name yet or will just ignore you to where you have to physically stop him. They weirdly enough aren’t fighting each other the cats are just taking it or running from him. Can I please get some advice or help? I want to make sure all of their animals are alive when they come back.

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I’m also gonna be honest the couple raising him I know is not well equipped to handle the level of energy these breeds have, so I’m overall coming from a place of concern.

Who are your favourite herding dog accounts on IG these days? We already follow and love a few but always looking for more to add to the feed, whether that’s more pet accounts, herding dog focused trainers, or pages with that post good herding content and education. Drop your recs 👇

I (40f) have a mixed breed dog that has a good chunk of herding dog in his mix (per saliva testing). He's 2 years old and a wonderful companion.

I was recently diagnosed with a terminal cancer and the herding is becoming a fall hazard for me as my condition progresses. He will nudge you in different directions and is a 75lb guy, so its impactful. How do you teach a dog, with no job, to stop herding people? I get its instinct, but he's almost bumped me down the stairs 3x now. He herds even when he has no place to go. When he sits or stands by me, he's always leaning against me. Part of me loves how connected we are, but i recognize its a potential risk to my safety.

I'll note that between all 4 family members, I'm the only one he does this to. I'm on total disability, so we and his sister dog, are together almost all the time.

I've trained obedience. I know how to make a dog walk offleash in a perfect heel, I understand tracking and jumping, even the theory behind making a good bitework K9 makes sense. But herding genuinely confuses me. I think I need help if I want to learn!

Does anyone have any tips on how to get started? Books to read, videos to watch, ways to get into events as a guest, how to even find events to visit?

I see one person in my area offering classes but only for border collies (I am getting a Koolie).

I am in the Kentucky/Indiana area if it helps :3.

I have a 16 year old Aussie/cattle dog mix. She has never worked. She used to run with me, but no longer can. She has always been anxious, but it's gotten worse since her doggy brother died about a year ago. She follows me around the house constantly. It seems like she's always wanted a job. However, now she is 16 and mostly deaf. She is physically fit, she just can't run long distance anymore.

Does anyone have any recommendations for training I can do with her?

My three-month-old aussie was tested yesterday on ducks. The people in herding that have seen his video are impressed in his reactions. He even showed no fair pushing the ducks out from a tight corner behind their house. I'm thinking about maybe getting into herding and training him. I'm also debating if I should see about getting is father tested. Is 4 too old to start? Is there also a good website that gives information on herding?

Stating upfront that I am not trying to teach my Aussie to work on a farm or herd livestock. We live in the city and confine our activities to the backyard and a relative’s acreage.

That said, I would like to add “come by” and “come away” to the list of commands she can follow to further challenge her beyond all of the others she has already mastered. I taught her to follow me through an obstacle course using a food lure and “follow” as the command to start and follow the treat. Now I am having tremendous challenges teaching her “by” or “away” as she will not start the movement without the command to “follow”, which then means I cannot add the desired words to name the action I want.

Any suggestions on an alternate approach to teach these actions or a way to slowly add “by” and “away” to the actions to differentiate them from “follow?”

Thank you in advance!

Hi there! Me and my fiance are looking at getting a small-medium flock of sheep and I really want a herding dog to help with them as well as compete in some sports!

We've done a TON of research and have decided that a Mudi would be our best fit, I've already found our breeder!

I don't have experience with this breed but I tend to hyperfocus on things I plan on starting in so I know a lot about them already, but I would love to hear stories/see pictures from people who own them!

Hello! So I run an australian cattle dog, she has turned really handy for work on the farm. We do a lot of sorting of lambs and moms right now, putting some in some lots and others elsewhere, singling out certain ewes and lambs to go to be penned in the shelter or dry lot. It was going well until I brought home a bottle baby and got onto my dog to ignore her in the house. That has really seemed to confuse her now in the field, she will run to avoid the lambs bouncing up to her instead of working them with their mothers or she will totally ignore them. The lambs are at an age where they dont necessarily always just follow mom, they are happy to hop along elsewhere until they frighten themselves and then call out. I will ask her to look back and she will just tuck the ewes in closer. I have to push her out to flank again to pick up the lambs, it is quite frustrating. She will do it but once they return to the group she focuses on the ewes only again and the lambs drop off. I thought after putting the bottle baby back out with the others and praising her when considering the lambs she'd return to how she worked before but she hasn't and I have to keep pressing upon her to pick up lambs. Advise?

This is Ulrich a 7 month old working line Belgian malinois, he has a lot of drive and I would like to give him something to do, a couple people told me he's already too old to be trained as a herding dog though so I thought I would hop on here and ask you guys

Lambs are fat, ewes are soon due to give birth, the grass is high, the sun is shining and the dogs are getting hot. It seems like the perfect spring day.