Training

"We want to make peacemakers, not soldiers!" (Tanya Wheeler, Herding teacher CA)

We see every single dog as an individual and also each team as unique. The type of herding breed  is secondary. There is a German saying for teaching kids that says: "... jedes Kind dort abholen wo es steht". Translated it means to pick somebody (the dog) up at his or hers current state of development. We don´t expect things from a dog it is not ready for. Our philosophy of training is to build a dog up… like building up a wall, brick by brick. Most important is a solid foundation. If problems pop up in the advanced training, mostly the reasons are revealed by holes in your foundation. When you miss bricks in your wall, your wall may break down. Our goal is to build up a confident herding dog that is able to lead stock and solve problems as independent as possible.

We use techniques like "pressure and release", "instinct work" and "leaded lessons" combined with building up a sound communication and a solid relationship  between dog and handler based on "body language".

We stick to the following principles of learning and teaching:

1. teach (show, let it happen, name it first when the dog shows the right action)

2. ask for it

3. make it happen

"Don´t mistake activity for achievement - practice in the right way."

(John Wooden, college basketball coach)

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If you think about introducing your dog to herding I recommend you to first come and watch our training. Talk to people who are already into it. You are very welcome to do so in all of our trainings. Just contact me before. 

Please don´t come to test your dog just for fun. We have a responsibility for our stock and for them it´s not a fun game to play around with only newcomer dogs all time. It´s also not nice for your dog because you may wake up some instinct  that was not visible before. For example: herding instinct is a section of the hunting instinct. If you don´t keep on training your dog, you may end up with a dog that is now hunting wild animals without control from your site. So please think about before testing your dog on stock, if a regularly training fits in your daily life when you don´t have lifestock by your own where you can keep on training.

When you have decided to start herding lessons with your dog, in the first training we will test your dog ourselves in order to feel, see and analyze the natural ability of your dog. Afterwards we plan together what your dog needs in his further training and we help you assume the responsibility for your own training. 

With our training methods there is no limiting age for starting your puppy. 

We mainly offer group training twice a month on Sunday. By watching different people and their dogs at different levels during training you can speed up learning for yourself. 

We train on sheep and ducks all year long. During summer we also offer geese. Different training locations and different kinds of stock makes it possible to find the ideal training requirements for every single dog. We offer several small pens, a sorting area, a round pen, a square pen, a duck arena, a sheep and cattle arena (size for ASCA trials) and big fields for training. 

We are a §11 (Deutsches Tierschutzgesetz) certified Trainings location.

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Please bring weatherproofed clothes and footwear to the training.

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If you need help on your farm to adapt our training to your daily use please contact Mattias. He can come along and help you with your own stock. Requiret is parallel the foundation training at our place.

Feel welcome to contact us.