Herding Skills for City Dogs
Many herding breed dogs are living lives far from rural areas. These dogs need an outlet for their desire to control livestock. They will find a way to express that need, often in ways that we find annoying or downright dangerous.
How can we meet these dogs’ needs when taking them to livestock is not an option?
In this presentation, we explore several games that allow these dogs to use their instincts in productive, fun ways. By tapping into their herding instinct, while we build their self-control, we can give them mental and physical exercise that truly meets their needs.
Prey drive is strong in these dogs. Let’s harness it to channel their energy constructively while deepening our mutual bond.
I talk about urban herders. Those dogs with strong herding instinct living in urban, suburban, and rural areas with no access to livestock.
Barb Buchmayer | Urban herding for city dogs
I had been captivated by the art of herding for 30 years but it wasn’t until a dozen years ago that I began to study the science of dog training. My mission has been to develop a method to train herding using positive reinforcement.
After decades of traditional herding, my introduction to positive training began in 2007. I have learned from several prominent dog trainers including Bob Bailey, Susan Garrett, and Kay Laurence.
In 2011, Sally Adam from South Africa contacted me for help with training her Border Collie puppy to herd using positive reinforcement. We worked together for several years, while 9000 miles apart, until Sally and her dog Renn became an amazing team. Renn worked sheep on their small acreage and went on to become the South African Sheepdog Association’s National Reserve Junior Champion in 2016. Amazingly, Sally had neither handled nor trained a herding dog previous to working with me.
When I got my youngest dog, Sir, I began keeping a training journal that I have used as the basis for my books on positive herding. These books lay out the successful step-by-step approach that I pioneered to train herding using positive reinforcement. My books, Positive Herding 101 and Positive Herding 201, are available from most retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Clean Run, and Dogwise.
Barbara Buchmayer started out raising a puppy for Guiding Eyes for the Blind while being a full-time dairy farmer. She learned traditional herding and later developed a positive method to train herding which she published in her books Positive Herding 101 and Positive Herding 201.
Exercises from her first books evolved into games to enhance the lives of dogs and puppies, which were published in the form of Enrichment Games for High-Energy Dogs which won the Maxwell Medal from the Dog Writers Association of America.
Barbara and her husband still farm part-time and share their lives with two lively border collies, Qwest and Sir.18th August 2024