Wrigs2009

Hey Denice, thanks for the articles! I'll definitely check them out. The more I read about it the more I agree with the way he handled livestock and worked them with his dogs. My two pups are growing fast and a can't wait for them to be big enough to start working. Thanks again.

Good looking dog! No Idea how big he'll end up getting, its tough when you don't know what the parents look like. I think he'll at least double his weight by the time he is fully grown so 25 lbs definitely seems possible. Here's a link that charts dog growth. http://www.puppychart.com/ What do you do with him for exercise and play? The most important thing I think when raising a dog is that it receives adequate exercise. Everything else seems easier when they are able to use all that energy they have in a positive way.

Thanks for the replies. Bud's stories are great to read and I would have loved to talk to him and pick his brain. I want my dogs to be able to react instinctively when something happens instead of waiting to receive a command from me, and most likely the wrong command. The dog knows what should be done and should do it without thinking. To do this it seems Bud would let the dog work and simply re direct it to do the right thing when the dog was overworking the stock or in the wrong place. He would let the dog think and figure things out on its own while never taking its attention away from the stock. Does this seem correct? Denice and Tea, is that how you would get your dogs started when working livestock? It seems simple enough although I'm sure its not. I have not reached out to anyone in his family as I have not started my dogs on cattle and wont for some time as they are still really young. Also do you find that when you allow a dog to work in this way, think and figure things out on its own, that it becomes a better overall dog and pet?

Hi everyone, I've been reading some of these boards, and there seem to be some very knowledgeable people on here. I have not seen very much on Bud Williams or his method and wanted to see if anyone knew about it or has had any experience with it. I have two border collie puppies that I wanted to train in this way to work cattle instead of for something like trials. Below are a couple of links. First one to an article I found about Bud Williams and the second to his website. http://managingwholes.com/stock-dogs-1.htm http://stockmanship.com/ Thanks in advance.