In developing modern dog breeds, humans have sculpted canines into physical specimens perfectly suited for a wide variety of tasks. Some dogs, like the Border Collie, were bred to herd livestock such as sheep and cattle. SoCal hHerding in Palmdale believes that giving these kinds of herding dogs a safe place to act out their nature is the key to curbing bad behavior.

Herding involves teaching dogs who instinctually want to bite sheep or cows not to do so. SoCal Herding owner Ted Ondrak explained which type of dogs want to herd and what drives them.

“There’s roughly 25 or 30 different breed that are considered herding dogs. The most common breeds that we see are Border Collies, Australian shepherds, Australian cattle dogs or German shepherds. [We’re] seeing a lot of Belgian Malinois lately and Rottweilers,” Ondrak said. “Dogs are listed as predators. Their natural instinct is to want to go get something that’s considered a prey animal.”

SoCal Herding teaches dogs to channel their instincts correctly to herd and not harm other animals, but not all dogs are cut out for herd training.

“The first thing we have to do is the instinct test. We have to make sure that they want to go to the sheep in a sustained interest in order for us to train them. If we let them loose and they don’t want to go to the sheep on their own, [there’s] nothing you can do to train them. My favorite thing in herding to do is that instinct test, because if the dog turns on every time they see sheep, they’ll go right to work. I’m telling you, it’s magic,” Ondrak explained.

Trainers also make dogs aware of other animas’ “bubble” or comfort zone and how to approach other animals without spooking them. Alex put her dog, Ranger, in herding lessons because he was easily scared.

“He was very reactive to everything. He was scared of every noise. I started bringing him here when he was about a year and a half, almost two years old. And he’s really just blossomed since that. He took to sheep immediately, which I had no idea was going to happen... But he’s now in a space where he can meet someone new and it’s not uncomfortable for him or for the other person, which to me, that’s the only thing that I could ask for, was to have him be happy, really, and comfortable,” she said.

“When I see an animal come in here who has serious issues with just being alive and being out in public... We’ll see dogs that have issues like that come to us and over a period of time start to change and start to become more social and start to be able to go out and be closer to people. When you let an animal do what you specifically bred it to do, it only makes sense that you’re probably going to have a happier or maybe more well-adjusted animal,” Ondrak concluded.

Go to SoCalHerding.com to see the latest class schedule and learn more about their classes.

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