How old before you can tell if pup is a worker?

Bernice101

We found a pup - about the size of a large cat - which someone had dumped. She is a good looking short haired collie. The funny thing is we have been thinking about getting a female to breed as our dog is getting old and we want pups out of him. But we want a good working female.

This lady barks at goats and is very friendly. Unfortunitely to us this doesnt seem like the behaviour of a good dog, she doesnt carry herself well or engage as we would expect of a worker. Or, is it too early to tell?

We inherited our current dog when he was 3 yrs from an unfortunitely deciesed neighbour, thus we've never had to pick out a pup for working. With adults you can tell by the way a dog carries itself if it is any good. Is this not also true with pups?

We will of course be finding her a good home if she isnt up to scratch, so I dont want to get to attached if she isnt a keeper!

yellow50HX

Bernice101 wrote: »

We found a pup - about the size of a large cat - which someone had dumped. She is a good looking short haired collie. The funny thing is we have been thinking about getting a female to breed as our dog is getting old and we want pups out of him. But we want a good working female.

This lady barks at goats and is very friendly. Unfortunitely to us this doesnt seem like the behaviour of a good dog, she doesnt carry herself well or engage as we would expect of a worker. Or, is it too early to tell?

We inherited our current dog when he was 3 yrs from an unfortunitely deciesed neighbour, thus we've never had to pick out a pup for working. With adults you can tell by the way a dog carries itself if it is any good. Is this not also true with pups?

We will of course be finding her a good home if she isnt up to scratch, so I dont want to get to attached if she isnt a keeper!

has she binded with the old dog yet? also what age is it. What we notice with any pup we had is do it watch what the adults do and if so will it try to copy. try bringing it along with the big dog to get her used to the cows and see if she'll try to copy the old dog. we have a young bitch, her dad is a our collie and her mum the neighbours lab. she is a lab on teh out side but most defeintly a collie on the inside. Has no fear and will bring in the cows on her own now, still needs a bit of training but will be a good cattle dog.

6480

the dog i have now just started to follow us around the yard and began to work herself , she brings the cows in herself and put the last row of cows up into the milking parlour , i would be lost loading cattle without her

reilig

Our experience of a sheep or cattle dog is that you should never have to train it to herd cattle or sheep - this should come naturally to the dog. You train the dog to controls. ie. Sit, come behind, go around, go through etc. If a dog isn't interested in following the sheep or cattle by 8 to 12 months of age then you can't train it to be interested and it won't make a working dog.

Just our own experience. Only on our second working dog but this is what we have found with both dogs over the last 25 years

Bernice101

This lady is about 8 weeks old, it would be tooearly to have her out near animals. I’mhoping its too early to tell if she is any good. Yes I totally agree a good dog will trainitself.

Its funny, she was “left” at a house – a mostlyunoccupied holiday home - in a 1km long private avenue off the road which is ona farm that we rent. I had said to a fewpeople that we are looking for a breeding female, i think she must have beengifted to us!

Eoghan Barra

reilig wrote: »

Our experience of a sheep or cattle dog is that you should never have to train it to herd cattle or sheep - this should come naturally to the dog. You train the dog to controls. ie. Sit, come behind, go around, go through etc. If a dog isn't interested in following the sheep or cattle by 8 to 12 months of age then you can't train it to be interested and it won't make a working dog.

Just our own experience. Only on our second working dog but this is what we have found with both dogs over the last 25 years

This is v. interesting, reilig - surely the dog has to at least be trained to understand shouted commands, for e.g. if it's rounding up sheep on a hill?

yellow50HX

Eoghan Barra wrote: »

This is v. interesting, reilig - surely the dog has to at least be trained to understand shouted commands, for e.g. if it's rounding up sheep on a hill?

Nope they'll look to do it naturally, what they need is guidance, when to go, when to stop, where to go that kinda thing. 8 weeks is a bit young for them to start working but you should look to get them to bond with to older dog. Over the next few weeks she'll want to follow him and try to copy him, that's how yo'll know for sure.