Trialing with letters awarded- SCREAMS of hobby herding.
If you can't see them doing substantial real farm work too I would pass. and I would pass unless I saw them working untrained stock as well as trained stock.
Again look for a breeder doing a higher level of real work than you anticipating needing in your dog.
Again- don't be looking as hard at the pup as you are looking at its working relatives.
Older dog is not a problem- just spend a month making it hang with you as much as possible.
Heres an article I wrote that is going to be fixed up and published in the Stockdog Journal
It will be followed by another article with several people expanding on the "how" and "why" following it.
Growing up to be a Stockdog
The most important thing you can to is to pen or crate the pup when not supervised-
Do not let your new pup /young dog have total freedom- it should be bonded to you for most of the good things in life. Spend time with your pup exposing it to new situations away from stock. Spend time teaching it manners, to think and reason and to respond to pressure. In most instances persistence in the beginning will pay off more than quick use of force. But at some point we may have to draw a line and insist on the pup doing what we know it already knows how to do or to quit a particular behavior or choice.
We can be our dog's best friend but we always have to be in control and the dog has to know and respect that.
Don't overwhelm your pup. Try and just introduce one or two new things at a time- then let them sleep on it and try them again. Do not ask for the pups to do something that they are not mature enough (mentally or physically to do). When that's consistent I add another new lesson.
And Try and teach opposites close to each other
- Don't get on the couch / get on the couch now that I tell you to you can.
- Heel quietly behind me / now go run around freely.
- Don't bark/ bark (actually helps with chronic barkers)
- Come / stay
- Play wild / be relaxed
Avoid rigid obedience training for now; we don't want the dog so focused on pleasing us that it doesn't respond to stock right for looking at us for all the answers. I want to limit the pups options of answers so that it finds the right one pretty quick- but I want the dog to use its mind not my "rigid training" to come up with the answers.
Avoid chase/pull games and wild silliness games unless you understand control/pressure and are applying it at the same time. If you must play have structured games like:
-Sit before meals and don't touch the food till given permission
-Sit somewhere and wait patiently till given permission to move
-Jump up on things and sit there quietly till given permission to move
-Get in and out of crate or cage or truck on command and then on command from a distance.
- Make them sit in the crate with the door open or on the truck until told to come out/off.
-Play with a toy and teach the dog to leave it (quit playing) on command
-Throw a ball and make the dog wait to go get it
Most of training a working dog is balancing opposites-- fast /slow, quiet/enthusiastic, stay out/come in, bite/don't bite, push/don't push. Anything you can do to get your pup to react to different inputs and switch gears will help you latter.
Most people don't need to have a leash on their little pups to begin with, if they have a safe place that allows for some freedom.
Teach the pup that the best place in the world is with you. At some point most pups will start to get independent and you will need to do more to enforce the idea of staying with you.
Don't leave the pup (or dog for that matter) out for long if you are only keeping half an eye on it that just asking for bad habits or trouble to develop/happen.
Teach the pup vocal and physical cues of your moods-- deep growly noises means I am unhappy and quit what you are doing. High yippee noises make them feel good. Teach the pup about physical cues making them give to pressure and learn avoidance. Let it know there are rules and punishments are uncomfortable, but they can trust that the discomfort will stop as soon as they figure out how to make it stop. Be very aware of limiting the pups options so it can figure out quick what it needs to do to stop the discomfort. Then back it up with happy stuff to reinforce the lesson and understanding.
When reprimanding the pup be on guard for it to need more reprimanding but don't hover just waiting for it- if you are hovering you are just asking the dog to do something different at the very moment its doing what you want. Example- you finally get the dog to lie down, stand up straight and ignore the dog while watching it out of the corner of your eye casually. If you bore your eyes into it daring it to make you mad again its going to get the idea something is still wrong and look for the answer to make it right and will more than likely get back up- and this time its your fault and punishing the dog for doing it is incorrect.
If you see the pup developing stranger issues and you want a friendly dog- make sure that you have the pup spend fun time around strangers. If you want your dog to be protective limit its exposure to strangers. If someone comes over put the pup up- it will begin to associate visitors with something being wrong. No guarantees either way, some dogs are just going to be who they are no matter what we do.
Do expose your dog to increasingly stressful situations. Traveling, meeting strangers under control, meeting other dogs and being respectful of them. Walking in mud, and on slippery floors, hearing loud noises and not reacting, being around horses and leaving them alone, being around kids running around and not reacting. If they are going to be worked around electric fences let them learn what they are.
Do not let your dog develop ANY obsessive behaviors- every time they do something that you think is cute ask yourself if you would still think its cute if a 40+lb dog was doing it non- stop and cared for doing nothing else. Stop it right now. Examples are chasing shadows, vacuum cleaners, kids, flowing water, bugs birds ect. . Silliness is not something to be tolerated unless you can stop it on command. Jumping on you and mouthing your hands should be considered silliness.
The most important obsessive danger is to keep your pup from watching stock obsessively.
It should not be running fences, barking or lunging to get at stock
Either control the dog or keep it away from seeing stock.
Teach the pup manners- the more manners you teach them the better. Sit, load, stay, a loose heel, recall and patience exercises are all good. A lie down is critical; a dog that will not freely lie down is a dog that is not respecting you.
Teach your pup to go thru gates and doors correctly. They should wait while you open and go thru then follow behind you as you turn to close the door and wait at your heels for you to turn again- and again follow the turn to stay behind you.
Pups should not be allowed to cross in front of you- it will be handy latter when you go to stock and it keeps you from tripping over your dog.
Chains (crates and pens) are for sitting quiet and relaxed. Anything else needs to be stopped.
Be on guard for the pup/dog anticipating commands; make them wait for the actual command. For example: Waiting while you open the kennel door fully then going in when you tell them to load.
Teach a pup to give to pressure. A simple example of giving to pressure would be that the pup gets on the wrong side of a tree while leashed- I just keep pressure on it so it stays snugged up to the tree till it thinks of coming back around. The pup was in total control of the release of pressure. Next time it feels pressure it will be thinking of ways to release the pressure.
Another first exposure to pressure is to chain it and let it learn that it can't get away. When it quits pulling the chain quits pulling. Do not use a rope, once a dog chews thru and gets loose it will chew thru everything you tie it with (it will even try chains). When it quits fighting the chain let it off. After the pup is broke to a chain, do not allow barking while on the chain.
Do not be afraid to let your dog work thru confusion and stress, that's the whole point of most things we do with a pup.
After three failed tries with an agitated dog that is trying, rethink the situation and either limit its choices more, change your tactics, or change the senerio somehow. But do not give up. A pup that's not trying (sulked up and definitely not agitated) out persist it and give it more reasons to look for a solution. Again be ready to limit options and change tactics.
There is no set in stone answers to dealing with or training your pup- they are all different and so are we. One constant is that nagging is bad- do what you have to do to get what you want, and then be done with it. Nagging is much more abusive than a one time severe Negative reinforcement that they knew why it happened.
(I used to raise and train Labs quite a bit, but Aussies are totally new to me.) What exactly am I looking for or wanting to see a 7+ month old pup doing when he's put out with cows?
