Giving Up

[Guest Bart]

my 2.5 year old BC who was the most promising dog I had has become so unreliable and erratic that I am thinking of stopping his sheep time all together. The problem is HE WANTS to work, even after an hour of training and moving the sheep around the pasture, where I had to help him or correct him most of the time he doesn't want to quit - when he sees me head for the gate he takes off like a rocket to get in there with me. I am pretty frusturated and have tried everything - some days he works beautifully and others like today I wanted to give up completely.

I have tried all the suggestions - even going back to square one and working in a small arena. He will overrun, cross over, look back at me for direction - nothing seems to help because if I move closer to him he will do it correctly.

He knows his flanks but will often take the wrong one even if I am standing nearby.

I would not say that he is being hard headed in his attitude - I could at least understand and work with his challenging me outright - he just seems to want to play out there and is not serious.

[Guest Bart]

I would like to revise my question. Do you know of anyone who had a bc with similar problems that matured out of them.

It actually doesn't matter since I have decided he has all the training he is going to get: either he herds on my terms then he doesn't get to herd at all.

He has plenty of other activities he enjoys just as much as herding.

[Guest Amanda]

I do not know of any one with similar problems who has matured out of them. One of the problems is that he has “plenty of other activities he enjoys just as much as herding.” If you want him to do sheep work, don’t let him do the other stuff.