The beardie's herding capacity is appreciated by beardie owners in England and Austria too..
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In the introduction of the working standard, the original beardie's job is described in general terms, and one easily gets the impression that it's only useful with large herds on large areas. Obviously this is not so, the trained beardie can work with the same calm and confidence as any other herding breed. It IS, however, because of its' working style, well suited for cattle or large herds of sheep.
The ensuing section mentions, as in passing, that the beardie is quite capable to think for itself. Anyone having tried to motivate a beardie to do something it didn't want to do understands exactly what this means. It simply means that the beardie sometimes will not obey the handler if it perceives the situation as requiring a different action than what the handler suggests... This trait is a constant source of frustration (for both dog and handler...), but most of the time the dog is absolutely right. What's NOT mentioned is that some dogs, who are perceived by their owners as soft, even a little wimpy, turn into rock hard, stubborn tough guys in the pen! As with all successful dog training - when herding with a beardie, the basis is a well established leadership. And leadership status is not something one orders from a beardie - he will give it to you if you qualify. But by all means - the fact that beardie thinks it knows best, is NOT an excuse for blatant disobedience...
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Expect the untrained beardie to circle fast and close, barking impatiently at the stock if the handler doesn't move out of the way fast enough. Pushing him out will settle his head and quickly get him into training mode. The beardie is very sensitive to voice and threats but will seldom respond well to them. A quiet low voice and a light, reasonably aerodynamic crook or a 3 ft. split bamboo cane will prevent him from treating himself much better than yelling. Getting the beardie to approach the stock at a proper pace, with a proper cast should be the main focus of the first year's training.
As far as the working style of the beardie is concerned, the standard describes an upright, active dog who uses bounce, pinches, bark and pure body tackles to move the stock. Obviously this isn't the case when you're moving ten young, nervous ewes along a road from one pasture to the other. There the trained beardie works upright, but at a good distance, calmly and quietly, alert on possible breaks. Far from all beardies use bark all the time, but most of them force bark when needed.
It may seem hard to believe when one first begins, that the dog actually one day will be calm and useful, but a herding dog isn't ready after a weekend clinic - it takes years of regular training and that's not unique to the Bearded Collie. The untrained, but lit up beardie is often hot and overexcited, with intensive barking as a result. A lot of the initial training is logically designed to teach the dog (and handler) to relax around sheep. Herding training is actually 95% training of the handler. The dog already 'knows' most of what it needs - success is a question of channeling the innate capacity of the dog.