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Working Sheep Dogs: A Practical Guide to Breeding, Training and Handling
Working Sheep Dogs examines and illuminates every aspect of the high-quality working dog. It provides a detailed discussion of the principles behind the training of working dogs, and reveals little-known methods for training and handling sheep dogs in the most effortless manner.
The text is divided into six major sections covering the instincts of the working dog, breeding, principles of training, methods of training, handling livestock and sheep dog trials. Photographs and line drawings help to illustrate best techniques when training dogs, such as how to teach dogs to cast, muster and drive.
This book contains the first comprehensive breakdown and analysis of the instincts of the working dog, and discusses the various principles and methods of their breeding.
The text is divided into six major sections covering the instincts of the working dog, breeding, principles of training, methods of training, handling livestock and sheep dog trials. Photographs and line drawings help to illustrate best techniques when training dogs, such as how to teach dogs to cast, muster and drive.
This book contains the first comprehensive breakdown and analysis of the instincts of the working dog, and discusses the various principles and methods of their breeding.
280 pages, Paperback
First published April 26, 2007
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April 28, 2020
If there’s anything you’ve ever wanted to know about how a sheepdog works, this is the book for you. Tully’s explanations of everything a dog uses to herd, from eye, to bark, to width of the cast, were extremely well written, accompanied by simple diagrams to show what makes the best of the best.
This is no sheepdog trial handbook, this book covers working dogs outside of the trial atmosphere; working on farms in Australia as they have for generations.
Tully covers everything you would need to know to begin your own journey to get a working sheepdog, from how important the pairing is, to picking up the pup, to starting on sheep. He speaks extensively on his experience with his own dogs, their best qualities and their faults, and what he personally looks for in a dog.
Now normally, I would more or less avoid training books like this. On the whole they tend to cover training philosophies that I don’t believe in, or that are entirely unfounded and not scientifically backed. I was pleasantly surprised to find Tully making a note in his brief training section that the applications of force, rewards, and punishments are entirely up to the handler, though he has found punishment leads nowhere but frustration and less force is always preferred. This is a far cry from ‘dog trainers’ who believe that they can achieve an arbitrary status of ‘alpha’ and an obedient dog through the use of fear and punishment on the basis they are ‘speaking like a dog’. It is well known that this method causes nothing but pain and frustration for both parties.
I also enjoyed the lack of breed specifics. Normally books like this centre around one breed and never mention others. Whilst Tully mainly works Border Collies, he makes sure that the information he is providing can be applicable to any breed. If you were a newcomer to your chosen breed or to sheepdog handling in general, I would pair this excellent book with more breed specific titles, to allow you to best understand how your specific breed works when applied to stock. However I will always recommend consulting a wide variety of books when educating yourself. There is no one stop shop when it comes to any field, but certainly not dog training.
All in all this is an excellently comprehensive guide to raising, training, and handling sheepdog. Though at times a tad information heavy, on the most part it was easy reading, though people who have never worked with livestock might find themselves in the midst of an intense learning curve. The many, many diagrams were extremely helpful and used exceptionally well to help illustrate the points given to you in the text. The multiple photos of sheepdogs and puppies was an added boon, I think we would all benefit from seeing an 8 week old Border Collie pup in the middle of our educational texts regardless of topic.
This is no sheepdog trial handbook, this book covers working dogs outside of the trial atmosphere; working on farms in Australia as they have for generations.
Tully covers everything you would need to know to begin your own journey to get a working sheepdog, from how important the pairing is, to picking up the pup, to starting on sheep. He speaks extensively on his experience with his own dogs, their best qualities and their faults, and what he personally looks for in a dog.
Now normally, I would more or less avoid training books like this. On the whole they tend to cover training philosophies that I don’t believe in, or that are entirely unfounded and not scientifically backed. I was pleasantly surprised to find Tully making a note in his brief training section that the applications of force, rewards, and punishments are entirely up to the handler, though he has found punishment leads nowhere but frustration and less force is always preferred. This is a far cry from ‘dog trainers’ who believe that they can achieve an arbitrary status of ‘alpha’ and an obedient dog through the use of fear and punishment on the basis they are ‘speaking like a dog’. It is well known that this method causes nothing but pain and frustration for both parties.
I also enjoyed the lack of breed specifics. Normally books like this centre around one breed and never mention others. Whilst Tully mainly works Border Collies, he makes sure that the information he is providing can be applicable to any breed. If you were a newcomer to your chosen breed or to sheepdog handling in general, I would pair this excellent book with more breed specific titles, to allow you to best understand how your specific breed works when applied to stock. However I will always recommend consulting a wide variety of books when educating yourself. There is no one stop shop when it comes to any field, but certainly not dog training.
All in all this is an excellently comprehensive guide to raising, training, and handling sheepdog. Though at times a tad information heavy, on the most part it was easy reading, though people who have never worked with livestock might find themselves in the midst of an intense learning curve. The many, many diagrams were extremely helpful and used exceptionally well to help illustrate the points given to you in the text. The multiple photos of sheepdogs and puppies was an added boon, I think we would all benefit from seeing an 8 week old Border Collie pup in the middle of our educational texts regardless of topic.
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