HOW HARD ARE THEY TO TRAIN… It Depends on the dog and the skills of the trainer. You will need a minimum of 60 days training to get the dog to a skill level that my trainer calls kindergarten. This may be enough, depending on how you use the dog. He should be worked on a regular basis after that.
HOW HARD IS IT TO TRAIN THE TRAINER… Depends on the individual. It will help if you can start with a well-trained dog, and well trained livestock.
PRICE TO EXPECT…Well-bred puppies from well proven and trialed parents start around $600 in my area, but if you are lucky and know someone with good dogs you might find one for less. A started dog in my area brings about $2000. Depending on training and the skills of the dog, the price will go up from there. This year's Stockdogs at the Red Bluff Bull and Gelding sale, brought $2900 to $10,200. My trainer sells dogs there from time to time. He claimed my dog had more training on him when I brought him home than most of the dogs at Red Bluff. He said that is very expensive to sell at that sale, and that he actually would need over $3000 just to come out even on a dog he sells off the ranch for $2000. I paid $1200 for 60 days training on my dog, and that included instructions for myself. My trainer says he will work with me for free in the future if I want to return. It is a four hour drive, so I am not sure if that will happen, but I could sure use it. I was only able to get 8 lessons working with the dog before he came home. I went every other weekend and stayed overnight.
BEST BREED FOR YOUR LOCATION… I don't know, but my trainer says that after 20 years training herding dogs, he no longer accepts anything but border collies.
I would highly recommend against getting a young dog to train, unless you have both experience working with a trained dog, and livestock that are already familiar with being worked by a dog. Buying any young untrained pup is a big gamble. Not all dogs will work. I have an 8 year old female from good working lines, who is fearful of the cattle and has never had an interest in herding anything. She was my daughters pet. Your best bet is to buy a broke or started dog, and then take as many lessons as you can, working with that dog. People will often say, these dogs train themselves, and I guess you could say they do. The problem is you may not like what the dog will train himself to do. Most cattle dogs have a strong urge to chase, harass and herd anything that moves. A dog not properly started by an experienced handler will most likely cause a wreck. The stronger the herding instinct, the more you will need someone with experience to start the dog out right. A well started dog can still be a big disappointment unless you also learn how to handle the dog. Lessons for you are just as important as lessons for the dog. With a young dog your position must be correct or you will be giving the dog the wrong message. Starting a young dog takes agility and the ability to think quickly. You need to see what the dog is thinking before he acts, and you need to respond correctly. This takes a lot of practice. Even the most highly trained dog will fall apart, if the handler does not know what he is doing.
I have had Border Collies for quite a few years. I was able to train some of them to help me herd, but never to retrieve the cattle to me. Those dogs were relatively laid back compared to a really good working dog, so we got along . I am getting old and so were my dogs. I thought it would be nice to have a dog that would really work, instead of one that occasionally helped, but was more often in the way. I had planned to buy a trained dog, but I was at the Lamb Show, and a friend handed me this 4 week old pup, and all common sense went out the window. That new puppy smell is so hard to resist. The pup was an accident, but was out of some really good working parents. I read everything I could find on training the working dog, and watched numerous videos. I realized that my "book learnin" was not going to cut it, so when he was a year old, I decided I was going to take lessons in training him. I showed up at our first lesson and It was obvious this was going to be a case of the "blind leading the blind". My trainer recommended a handler that would put two months on the dog. He started him on sheep and then went to cattle. He worked with me once the dog had a good start. By the time he was ready to come home the dog was working really well. He had a left (Come by) and a right (Way to me). He would "down" anywhere I told him, and move out away from the cattle or in close on command. We looked really good working those trained sheep and cattle at the handlers. The handler had well trained dogs that he used to train those cattle, so when my pup worked them it made him look good. Then a few days ago we came home and reality hit. We were going to put about 25 pair through a gate to change pastures. I figured this would be a good chance for him to test his skills. I called the cattle to the gate and gave the command to go around. I was too close to the cattle when I gave the command, so the dog went in too tight. Before he got half way around, the cattle saw the dog and took off running in a dozen different directions. The dog did not know what to do, so he went after whatever he could catch, and I had no idea what command to give. Our first command at home, and our first wreck. After a few seconds, I calmed down and called the dog off, he came right to me, which would not have happened before. He would have kept on chasing with me running behind yelling and cussing. We let the cows get back together and relax, then started over. We got the cattle gathered and through the gate, but they don't have respect for the dog. It is going to take some time in a more closed in environment before these cattle learn to trust and respect the dog.
