
Excessive barking, intense staring, circling around? Lunging towards cars, bikes and other moving things and not wanting to stop doing these behaviors? Loads of energy and difficulties to relax? Intelligent and learning new things fast? A herding breed dog can be the best companion you will ever have, but also behave in ways we humans find disruptive. The typical behaviors for herding breeds were very useful when working on the farm but may cause challenges in urban environments. An urge to stop a moving car might even cost a dog’s life. Deal with herding dog’s problems with Saara!
The origin of the breeds lies in the purposeful reinforcing of different aspects of the hunting behavior chain through generations for various purposes where dogs were useful to humans. Herding breeds such as border collies, corgis and heelers have been bred for intense working on herding sheep and other cattle for centuries. Nowadays very few of them actually work on farms, but the genetic behavior models may still be very strong. Fortunately, we have dog-friendly ways to help these amazing breeds to cope with their impulses and redirect them.
This course is suitable for all herding breeds of different ages. If you have a young puppy, it is the best time to teach these skills strong. When you have an adult dog with a history of executing herding behaviors, you need to be prepared for working a long time since the herding behaviors tend to get stronger just by executing or even only starting to do them.
By training these subjects you will help your dog to feel more relaxed, choose behaviors that are more suitable for the context and prevent over-arousal, possibly dangerous situations from happening. The daily living with your dog will not be so stressful anymore -for both of you. Consent and reward based training and feeling more secure with your dog increases the quality of dog-human relationship.
Week 1: Understanding the origin of herding breeds, Enrichment
Week 2: Impulse control and flexibility, Wellbeing
Week 3: Alternative behaviors 1, management
Week 4: Redirecting herding tendencies, Increasing calmness
Week 5: Alternative behaviors 2, the importance of being clear
Week 6: Desensitizing to movement
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