Hunter and I went for our first herding lesson here on Long Island yesterday (January 24, 2004). It was brutally cold, windy and snowing when we got to the arena, with skies that were overcast and dismal. Hunter - with his long, thick coat - was perfectly happy but the instructor Kathy and I were absolutely frozen by the time the lesson was over.

The first lesson Kathy works with the dog and tests them for instinct. She was really nice and explained everything in detail as she was doing it with Hunter. He grabbed a few mouthfuls of wool, but Kathy has a long stick with a soda bottle taped to the end of it that she uses to bonk the dog on the nose when they get to 'enthusiastic'. In the beginning she wants the dog to follow the sheep close enough to get them moving, but not so close that the sheep split off into smaller groups and run in all different directions. For the first few minutes, Hunter had a ball trying to get the sheep to run all over the place so he could chase after them, but after being threatened with the bottle a few times he started to keep to a safe distance and follow instead of trying to grab them.

Kathy kept saying what a nice dog Hunter was and that she thought Hunter would do well at herding. She was impressed with his obedience and how well he focused and listened to me, as well as the fact that (after the initial introduction) he wasn't wasting huge amounts of energy chasing the sheep in circles all over the enclosure. She said that an experienced dog will be much more conservative in it's movements and not run all over the place when it's not necessary. That's right up Hunter's alley because he's not a high energy dog to begin with. He kept focused on the sheep and never lost interest throughout the whole lesson, but he moved them at a slow trot and even a walk sometimes, rather than running pell-mell through the middle of the group. :-)

During the winter they only do weekend lessons once or twice a month, so I don't know how many we'll be able to get to. But I'm going to try and squeeze in week-day lessons on lunch breaks and do as much training as we can.  If  anyone else in the Long Island area is interested in coming to check it her website is: http://www.montagebelgians.com/herding.html  If you're interested in coming to watch, send me an e-mail and I'll let you know the next time we're going. I'd LOVE to see more Shilohs getting involved in herding here on Long Island!