Herding Other Dogs

[amurray]

The Brown Merle I'm now temp fostering (viewtopic.php?f=39&t=11587) has the strongest herding instinct of any BC/Aussie I've ever seen. She needs to be on a working farm. She is very gentle, housetrained, knows a few commands, 25 pounds (but will be larger since she was evidently malnourished), good off leash (unless in presence of another dog) and crate trained. She loves to play with other dogs in a confined situation but in open spaces (at the dog park) she tries to herd every dog there. Those that did not like being herded got into some minor level fighting with her. She even got into it with a 65 pound lab she tried to herd.

I have no herding experience. Any suggestions on how to make her stop herding other dogs?

[MollyATL]

Hey Art ~ no advice on stopping a herding dog from herding (other than lots of channelling the behavior, and no dog park for now!). But I wanted to share her, and don't see her on Petfinder anymore?

[amurray]

Sorry! Re-named Lacy.

http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/20999457

[leighsh]

she is a herding dog.my bc five months old has been herding my lab since she was 2 months.he loves it and he is 7years old.we just lost our aussie so he is ok with the herding and every thing else that goes through her little mind.why did you you get a border collie?

[ajones]

Hi, leighsh, and welcome to the boards. Since you're new here, you probably haven't had a chance to review old posts and see how many border collies in need Art has helped over the years!

I think most of us here would agree that Art is doing Lacy a big favor not only by fostering her but by being aware of how annoying and inappropriate this herding behavior can be. Like any responsible foster home, he is trying to make sure that she is as well behaved as possible before being available for adoption.

Unfortunately, I don't have any great advice to offer Art because, I'm embarrassed to confess, I let my drivey dog, Kate, engage in this herding behavior her whole life. Sure, her canine family members learned to tolerate it. But I should not have let her treat them this way--and it definitely did not make her anyone's favorite at the dog park since it was so obnoxious.

I hope other people can offer Art some suggestions, and I wish he and Lacy well as they work on her behavior.

ETA: couldn't resist adding this photo of beautiful Lacy since I'd forgotten what she looked like.

[Seelie Fey]

With our flyball dogs, we don't let the ones who are into herding other dogs play with the others in large open areas. Instead, we try to get them into group fetch or group recalls or something so that they are responding to people, rather than movement.

And I completely agree with no dog parks.

You could see if someone will do something for herding lessons for her, so that she is around people who want a herding dog with instinct. Herding other dogs doesn't always translate into herding stock, so if she is instinct tested, even informally, it might make her more desirable for someone who wants to get into that. Plus, part of herding is learning to call off, which might help the next time she's trying to head off a lab who isn't feeling to tolerant.

You can also try teaching her frisbee tricks and agility, so that she is around other dogs, but working for you.

I don't know if any of that helps or provides anything new. It's all I could think of.

By the way, she is freaking beautiful.

[amurray]

Seelie Fey,

Good suggestions! I am in touch with some herding/agility trainers and owners to investigate an evaluation of Lacy.

Lacy loves to play in a confined area. And as ball crazy as she is distraction or substitution could be an effective remedy. We'll try that.

Lacy exhibited a surprising behavior Sunday at the Ruffus Rescue Adoption Day. Three times a small girl (8 yrs?) approached Lacy and all three times Lacy sat down and waited to be loved on by the little girl.

Also when I walked Lacy in the evenings, as cars passed I would command her to "sit" as I do all my own and foster dogs. Lacy would quickly sit and then immediately go into a relaxed "BC crouch" until the vehicle was well out of sight at which time I would release her and we'd continue our walk. Her previous owners evidently spent some time training her - but not on other dogs.

As Angie mentioned, the goal is to match Lacy with a BC-experienced owner. The importance of that was well demonstrated Saturday when we had a family that said they were BC owners and wanted to see Lacy. We arranged a visit and their "BC" was a sweet, sedate Lab/Pointer mix that was no match for Lacy. At the end of the "Meet 'n Greet" they admitted they were totally unfamiliar with BC's "but we wanted to see what one looked like because we might like to have one." That is just the type of family I wish to avoid because Lacy would be returned to us or a shelter in no time flat.

We have an interested party that is experienced in Aussies and Border Collies and comes with high recs from PRBCR. We'll see how that pans out.

Thanks for your helpful responses.