BorderlineCollieaholic Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 I have a 3 1/2 month old smooth coat Border Collie puppy that I've had for two weeks. I got him from a man who breeds Border Collies to herd cattle and both his parents are good herders. I know you shouldn't start training a Border Collie for herding until its much older, but when should a puppy start showing instincts towards herding? I have goats, horses and chickens and Bandit(puppy) doesn't show any interest in them. Even when they run away, he doesn't pay attention to them. He doesn't seem to have any eye either, towards animals, toys, whatever. The breeder told me that you can tell early on what kind of a herder your dog will be...is it still to early to tell if Bandit will get his instincts in? At what age can you tell if a puppy has instincts to herd? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenajo Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 Some pups are early, some aren't. There is no reflection of later quality if they are early or late. After the flush of happiness when our first pups turned on years ago...most of us I daresay are now glad for them to wait a few months. Because after they discover the joy of making stock do things, they are foever trying to get to do just that LOL Even when they are far to small and young to be trained or useful. I would caution you though, that continous access to stock is a way to get a young pup hurt, or at least discourage disinterest because it's always there. Your pup should be put up out of site of stock when you aren't with him for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTrain Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 My youngest dog Dave showed a very keen interest in going to stock at about six months old although he was completely out of control. I did nothing to encourage his insticts for some time after that. I removed him from access to stock and did not go back again until about 14 months. He is training and will be for some time but we did a considerable amount of basic training before letting him see stock again. Only now do I feel he is strong and quick enough and under control enough to work with stock and even at that I will only allow him to train. But that is just me, I like to take the dogs along very slowly. I don't need him to work stock, I have other dogs and since he is also training for goose control being under control is extremely important to me and him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osioda Posted January 3, 2009 Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 Different pups turn on at different ages. I have had them turn on at the age of 6 and 7 weeks old and I have seen some that never turn on. My recommendation is that when you go feed that you take the pup with you, and not force him around the livestock but let him always stay on the safe side of fence and just let him observe, and I am guessing that with in a month or so you will start to see a light kick on in him. I never force my pups, around stock I just let them accompany me when I am feeding and doing chores. One thing I do is if I have any that is just born, I always take the pups around and let them start getting use to new borns. That helps them start building there confidence up and also gets them use to newborns if it be lambs goats, pigs calves. Also if you need them to help turning on a lot of the time if they can watch an be with an older dog. That will help also. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debbie Meier Posted January 3, 2009 Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 Three out of 5 of our pups turned on at 12 weeks, the fouth around 15 and the 5th is still thinking about it at the age of 8 months. One of the first three shows less intensity at the age of 8 months then he did at 12 weeks, will he strengthen back up as he matures, only time will tell. I don't work them or take them out with me to chore, maybe once a month or so I will let them get a little positive stock exposure doing this until they get to a time in their lives where they will be able to handle training. The most mature of the 5 has the concept of his directions and walk up commands but is not ready for correction so we will hold out on him a little longer for any serious work, I'll give him a fun refresher a couple of times this winter and maybe come summer he will be ready for more, maybe not. His sire was not ready to handle real training until he was almost 1 1/2 years old. Trying to push a pup to show you something when they are not ready is a good way to ruin a good pup. I would suggest making sure your pup is trained well to walk on a leash and has some basic manners and obedience before worrying about stock. Let him develop his desire to handle stock in his own time. Amelia Smith is has a blog that would be good for you to check into, does someone have her blog info. Deb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nancy in AZ Posted January 4, 2009 Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 Would you mind describing in detail what it looked like the first time they turned on? I'd be interested to know. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debbie Meier Posted January 4, 2009 Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 Would you mind describing in detail what it looked like the first time they turned on? I'd be interested to know. Thanks! I can only speak for the ones I have here, when I introduced them it was on quiet broke lambs that had been worked but never chased, they would move off and yield but not try to run away from a dog and I had them in an 100x75 foot oval pen. I walked into the pen with the pup and just wondered around, at one point the sheep moved which caught the attention of the pup, the pup would then lock in like a little heat seeking missile, first toward the sheep then flanking around them hunting a balance point, when they found balance they stopped and held the sheep up at that location. If you bumped them off the balance point they would flank around hunting another balance point and lock up there holding the sheep in place, sometimes on the fence, sometimes out in the middle of the pen sometimes against me. Their whole game was to get the sheep to stop moving, which is what there daddy did at their age. I used Jake with them a little to move the sheep so that they could get used to the sheep moving, there was a little excitement then. I have some pictures on our website of their first introductions. Here is the link, there is a photo gallery that you can scroll through by clicking on the left and right arrow either side of the thumbnails above the large picture. If you click on a thumbnail it will enlarge in the window below, I'm not sure but there may be 15 shots or so.http://waynescustomleather.com/riley_and_jake_pups_08.htm I think you can see in the pictures that my sheep were pretty laid back, but not dead. I think that if I had introduced these pups in a big field with light sheep it would have gotten pretty wild. They are the type that will go to gripping if they think they are going to get beat by the sheep or excited and can get wrapped up in the chase, so we don't go there. Deb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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