Urban Sheepdog: A guide to understanding herding breed dogs in pet homes.

by Emily Priestley CTC

With a history dating back 100 years, many herding breed dogs are selectively bred to excel with specific traits and abilities. These dogs have long done work for us, helping to control livestock all around the world. However, in some cases, these dogs have gone from hard-working farm hands to condo dwellers in as little as one generation. While we love border collies and other herders, many breeds are clashing with our lifestyles and are being misunderstood.

Dive into their history, get to know your working dog for who they are and fall in love with all aspects of them. You'll understand them and become a better guardian because of it! A leading expert in herding breeds in pet homes, Emily Priestley, CTC, CDBC, SAPT, will take you on a journey to meet your herding breed and see them for who they are.

In Urban Sheepdog, Emily will help you understand why they do what they do and the common issues in our homes when we live with herding breeds. From genetics to puppy raising, adulthood, breed behaviours and everything in between, Emily will help you get to know your dog again!

Emily Priestley is a multi-certified dog behaviour consultant who has worked with and handled dogs professionally for over a decade. She graduated from The Academy for Dog Trainers and worked for the BC SPCA for nine years. Emily lies with her family on the west coast of Canada with her family, two border collies and an Australian cattle dog.

115 pages, Paperback

Published October 15, 2023

Reviews

[Britta Andres · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved learning about my Border Collie. She did come from a farm into our home so she’s 1 generation away from a working dog

[Christie Bane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really, really excited about this book, but I'm only able to give it three stars. And that is generous; let me tell you why. First of all, the book was $20+ in paperback. I wrote a book and it's for sale on Amazon for $19.99... but my book is 600 pages. This book is just over 100 pages with big font and huge margins. In my opinion, you don't get what you pay for. Just over 100 pages is not nearly enough to delve into even one breed, let alone an entire group of breeds who are similar but also very different one from the other. Second, and this is one of my main gripes with books in general -- there were significant and obvious editing errors. Many of them. I get it; good editing is expensive. But YOU HAVE TO DO IT! Someone who pays over $20 for a slightly-over-100-page book deserves clean copy, not something that I, not a professional editor, get smacked in the face with as soon as I open the book. There are better books out there on herding breeds that go into detail, unlike this book's very shallow treatment of the subject. (Collieology is the one I recommend.) So why three stars? Because the book does explain a lot of behaviors that herding dogs do (albeit at a very shallow level) and because I agree with the training information in here, for the most part.

[Sonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Urban Sheepdog: Understanding Your Herding Breed Dog is an easy to read overview of exactly that. I’ll admit that I’ve read a lot of information on reactivity, herding breeds, and various training techniques so much of this information was already known to me. I appreciate that Emily Priestley’s knowledge of the breeds and think this is a great start for anyone sharing their lives with a herder. That being said, don’t expect training from this guide (not that anything indicates it should replace training) as it’s a guide to understanding what makes your dog them!