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Herding
The modern German Shepherd dog was developed from various herding breeds used in Germany. Although the GSD went on to become a versatile working dog, the roots of the herding dog have always been a key part of the breed. We first went herding when Atlas was a little over a year old. He took to the sheep immediately and earned the first leg of his HCT from AHBA and we decided to purse lessons with him.
Atlas took lessons for a few years, and while he has strong herding drive, he is a tough dog to train. The nuances of moving stock and developing a stock sense, not to mention just getting used to being around sheep, have been a challenge for us as handlers. We opted not to pursue herding as a competitive sport, but instead to go out from time to time and let the dogs have some fun.
Mira was first introduced to ducks when she was a baby and she's been on sheep a couple of times. Vegas was also on sheep as a young dog and again when she was older. Nadia was introduced to sheep before she came to us, but we have not yet had the opportunity to see her on stock. Most recently, we gave Anubis a chance to meet sheep and he showed incredible potential.
As time allows, we plan to continue to expose the dogs to stock and let them express their natural instincts.
See more pictures of our dogs herding!
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