Lindsaloo

Look at her go!

I found another trainer and thought I'd throw his name out there in case any of you know anything about him... Terry Workman. His farm is in Bennet, NE which is just outside of Lincoln. He owns and specializes in border collies so that's one step up right?

Ann Witte in Springfield is who I went to, the other trainer I was talking about is Bruce Nelson in Greenwood. I haven't contacted Bruce yet, but according to this website I found Ann on Bruce says, "All breeds, specializing in Aussies, BC's, Kelpies". I will most definitely be going to see Kathy Knox if she's in CB! That's awesome, thank you so much for the information! It's been so hard for me to find anyone around here to help me and Ziggy get the training we need.

Ok, just heard back from his breeder. Apparently his dad is a croucher and mom semi crouches.

Thank you all so much for your help. I must admit, I'm a little overwhelmed. I have been trying to learn all that I can about herding so that I could give Ziggy the best of chances at being awesome. I never had any official herding training, just kind of winged it with my previous dogs. And to top it off, I've never worked sheep, just cattle. Anyway, please bear with me as I try to comprehend everything. The sheep were actually pretty still, although the one kept stomping her foot at Ziggy which ticked him off a little and led to some rather manly barks. I looked into other trainers in our area, and the closest one I could find was about an hour away. So I don't know if that's a possibility or not. I live about 2 hours north of KC in Omaha. I'll see if I can make it down there for that, it sounds like it would be a great place to learn and goodness knows I need to do some of that. Lol! Would we need to bring Ziggy? I don't know how those things work, is there a website with more info maybe? Ziggy is 10 months and I don't know what style his parents exhibit, but I emailed the breeder this morning so hopefully I'll find out soon.

We went out to do Ziggy's herding instinct test this morning and immediately he showed strong interest in the sheep, but the whole time he was in the pen he remained in an upright position. He might've lowered his head a little, but he remained upright for the most part. The trainer said that he herds like her beardies and that he'll most likely always herd like that. So my question is, basically is this true and is there anyway to encourage him to go lower while herding. When we play at home he is constantly crouched down and stares at the ball so hard I think he might stare a hole all the way through. I've searched everywhere I could find for information, but thought maybe you guys would have some first hand experience with this issue. Also, what are the advantages and disadvantages of both styles on sheep and cattle? I plan on trialing him if all things proceed well enough. Thanks a ton!

I had been feeding TOTW up until a couple weeks ago when I bought a new bag at Tractor Supply here. Ziggy has been on this exact formula for the past 8 months or so, but with this last bag he developed diarrhea and vomiting. After that we decided to go from supplementing with raw to making that his complete diet.

That is so exciting! I can't wait to start with Ziggy in July!

I really like Canidae as well. I've had great success with it and it's relatively affordable. Their grain free varieties are some of the more pricey, but my dogs have all done extremely well on Canidae as a whole.