I'm going to throw this thing wide open. :D As a beginner thinking about possibly adding a trained sheep-herding dog to my hair-sheep farm (I also have goats), what breeds/cross-breeds of dogs do you recommend?
_I_ think immediately of border collies, or mixes with, say, Australian Shepherds. (There are other types of sheep dogs that I am aware of but they just don't appeal to me personally and/or I think they are physically unsuitable to the climate where I live--please, if you have one of these dogs, please chime in, but don't take it personally! :) However, I see that there are several on the list that have other ones I would not normally have thought of, which include, if memory serves, Great Pyrenees, Alsatians, and particularly mixes of these two. And, of course, there are some that are herding dogs but not technically for sheep, like Australian Cattle Dogs (these are called "Heelers" in Hillbillyland where I live, and I have a Heeler/Chow/Heinz57 rotten &*&!!! stray living with me right now that does all right with chickens & goats but NOT with the sheep!!!). I think someone told me Corgis are cattle herders, which really shocked me until I learned they are heel-biters; I would think that would work with sheep but NOT with cattle?!? At any rate, educate me. And how does one get them trained? (Carol? I think you had the coolest story. How do you get these dogs fully trained when you can't train them yourself?) If this goes too far off-topic, please feel free to email me off-list. Thanks, Valorie Machin [EMAIL PROTECTED] Bolivar, MO (SW, near Springfied)
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