Herding Training | Dalriakennel

Tierney and her border collie working 20 sheep at Kingston Sheepdog trial

Black and white border collie working sheep in field with flowers

USBCHA Working

Border Collies

I specialize in working border collies trained for USBCHA Trials. I can help with training, handling, judging, sales, brokering, and clinics.

Tri colored Rough Collie working sheep in field

All-breed Herding Training

I work with all herding breeds, not just border collies. Herding training is a great way to have a better relationship with your dog.

Regular lessons are $40 per 30 min.

Instinct Testing

Come see if your dog has the herding instinct to work sheep. $40 for 30 min.

Developing a well trained working sheepdog is an art form, one I have been devoted to since 2003. My first few years were with a German Shepherd and Belgian Malinois, and in 2008 I got my first Border collie which with I went onto be the 2010 Nursery Rookie of the Year with. Since those first few dogs I have trained many competitive Open dogs from start to finish and have built a strong reputation of starting young dogs for a solid foundation to set them up for success. I have competed at every major trial in the US and Canada, and lived in Ireland competing against some of the top handlers in the UK.

I have worked soft dogs who need to build confidence to the complete opposite type hard strong dogs, of all breeds. All dogs start with a basic instinct test to see what level of interest they have in sheep, sometimes they start out very unsure or disinterested but other dogs can come in like a crazed tornado! Our only goal that first lesson is to get them going around the sheep in both directions, learn to respect the handler and the sheep, then maybe a stop if the dog is keen enough on stock.

Herding training is slow as we have to mold behavior and be consistent with regular lessons to keep the dogs work moving forward, so please consider this when planning on wanting to get into herding with your dog. Once a week for a keen dog that is ready to train on will need weekly lessons at minimum to keep training moving forward.

Puppies mature at different rates but I do like to expose pups once a month starting around 4-6 months old and then when they reach a more mature age we can start the pup on sheep once a week or more depending on the individual dog, around 10-12 + months old. There is no rush to pups, they should not be pushed too fast, but some brief sheep exposure with no training pressure to start is the best plan.

All of my students have different goals and we work as a team to reach those goals, some want to compete with their dog, some want to train a farm dog, and others just want to enjoy working sheep with their pet. Any of those goals are perfectly acceptable as in the end there is nothing better than the relationship between handler and working dog!