reading the talent of a pup

[Guest veranthn]

Hi Amanda:

 

I recently took in a 5 month old bc as a foster. His mannerisms and play style (crouching and stalking, pulling his tail way under his belly, heading my other dogs whenever they try to move away from me, etc.) make me think he might be interested in herding. Do dogs of his age show herding instinct? Is there anything to be gained or lost by exposing him to sheep at this age? What is the best age at which to start a pup?

 

Thanks,

 

Nate

[Guest Amanda]

No problem to expose young dogs to sheep, even at five months old. Make sure they are not in danger and that usually means fairly doggy sheep in a space wide enough they won't get slammed against a fence or wall. No pup really has either the speed or the stamina to take training before eight months old and that's early on. But trying them from time to time, to see how they like sheep is fine.

[Guest piennl]

When we have a litter of pups I always get them to our most dogged sheep when they're about 8 weeks old . You can tell a lot by just watching them with the sheep in the corner. It's our way of picking the best pups to keep, it hasn't failed us yet!

[Guest Heather]

I just want to remind everyone (since we have some new members) that the "ask an expert" forum is restricted to answers from our current expert. (In other words, forum members can post questions here, but only the expert should attempt to answer them.) It's great if you have thoughts on helping and comments to make, but for this forum only you might want to consider writing your ideas to the original poster privately. The regular training forum, of course, is far game for anyone to post anything at all. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.