How hard is it to train a heeler?

[mncowboy]

How does one train a blue heeler to herd cattle?
Is it something that's borderline instinctual for the breed or does it take years to train one?

 

[Ky hills]

It's instinctual, but takes training to refine.
I am not in anyway a trainer, yet our Heeler has picked up on her own and does a pretty decent job to not be trained. I've often said she is less hard headed when it comes to working than she is any other time.

 

[faster horses]

They have a natural instinct for sure. Get them disciplined before you start them on cattle. They need to mind. We have had several through the years, all females, and they have been really good dogs. My husband could call them off a deer or a rabbit. They were really tuned into him and he didn't get their attention through fear. He taught them early to mind him. But he's like a dog whisperer, I don't know how he did it but he did. He loves dogs and they love him. Every dog we have had has been HIS dog, never mine.

Good luck with yours. I can tell you males are more hardheaded.

 

[Silver]

If they have instinct you just need to be consistent. I will never train a competition dog, but do okay with the basics. Dogs are like kids, you decide how many times you will tell them to do something before they actually do it. If you wait until the tenth time you tell him to come before you get results then 10 times becomes the norm. If you have to end up yelling to get the response you want you will always have to yell. It gets a lot simpler once you realize that.

 

[Stonewall Joe]

How does one train a blue heeler to herd cattle?
Is it something that's borderline instinctual for the breed or does it take years to train one?

main thing is to get a down and and out on them, getting a heeler to go to cattle is easy, they all want to but mostly will just chase. The one I've had have also been mainly heel dogs so they drive better than gather but if you spend some time they will do both, they're generally not as easy as a border collie

 

[Allenw]

Most heelers around here are barely smart enough to ride on the back of the truck and not fall off.

 

[Hereford2]

My experience is, if they don't get basic obedience training, they turn into livestock killer's. Only 1 out of 6 that I've been around wasn't a livestock or other animal killer. I didn't own them, but I was around them.

 

[Ky hills]

Most heelers around here are barely smart enough to ride on the back of the truck and not fall off.

We have to spell out some words, around our Heeler, or it puts her into action if she hears certain words. She learns routines too. I've had Heelers that weren't, but I'd put this one on par with a Border Collie as far as intelligence, though she is a bit more stubborn, even argumentative, and not as agile and coordinated. At about half grown she was walking around a swimming pool and stumbled right in.
She is very good with cattle, tough when she needs to be and also easy with young calves. She's not good around chickens though.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

This last 4 months or so is the first time in over 40 years there hasn't been a Heeler on my porch. I'm self employed for 40 years so I've always taken my pups to work for at least 8-10 months.
Learning the basics is the most important, sit-stay, come, down. The ones I've had (all females) have had different dispositions, the ones that obeyed were awesome. They are sensitive too, can't be too harsh on 'em when their pups and learning.

 

[Travlr]

This last 4 months or so is the first time in over 40 years there hasn't been a Heeler on my porch. I'm self employed for 40 years so I've always taken my pups to work for at least 8-10 months.
Learning the basics is the most important, sit-stay, come, down. The ones I've had (all females) have had different dispositions, the ones that obeyed were awesome. They are sensitive too, can't be too harsh on 'em when their pups and learning.

I've been paid to train, though not to work livestock. Just obedience. My dogs have always been well trained and considering how easy it is to train I often wonder at the people that don't.

Of the females I've had I would have preferred males. I had an exceptional Aussie female, my last dog, but I like males much better. They can be disciplined and don't hold a grudge like females. I've never had a male that didn't outperform a female when the going gets tough. Once a male knows he's forgiven he just moves on to the next task with enthusiasm. Females tend to be tentative and reluctant if they are aware they could make a mistake. About the only way a female is better than a male is that they tend to think before acting so they are less likely to get hurt. Of course there are hard dogs and soft dogs anyways, so there is some crossover. I like a hard dog better than a soft.