Raising a dog around livestock, step by step
Interactive lesson: from an 8-week pup to a dog you can trust — how a dog learns, the pup's arrival, commands, stock, poultry, the boundary and handling.
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The whole lesson as text
1. How a dog learns
A dog links a consequence to what it was doing at that moment.
- Reward at once — A word, a touch or a small piece of food at the moment the dog does well, within 1–2 seconds at most.
- A touch instead of a treat — A guardian often doesn't care for treats, but values a calm word and a touch on the chest.
- Interrupt in the moment — A sharp voice or sound as the dog starts the bad behaviour, then redirect it to the good one. The same word for the same thing, from you and from the children.
- Short and often — Five minutes two or three times a day teaches more than an hour on Sunday.
Why: If you reward or interrupt it within 1–2 seconds of the behaviour, it learns. If you punish it when you get home and find a dead hen, it only learns that your arrival is dangerous.
- Beating and shouting don't teach a dog not to chase sheep. They teach it to avoid you, not to come when called and to defend itself. A frightened dog bites more easily.
- A reward doesn't have to be food. If you use food, take it from the daily ration so the dog doesn't put on weight.
2. The pup's arrival
From 8 to 16 weeks a pup learns faster than it ever will again.
- Straight in with the stock — A guardian pup arrives at 8–10 weeks and spends its first night in the shed or the fold, not in the house.
- Puppy pen in the shed — A fenced corner of 2–3 m² (20–30 sq ft) with a kennel, straw and water, where adult animals can't trample or butt it.
- Calm animals beside the pup — For the first weeks put a few calm, older ewes or goats with the pup. Not a ram, a billy goat or a ewe with a newborn lamb.
- Into the flock gradually — Through the mesh the pup sees and smells the stock. In 1–3 weeks it is let in among the flock under supervision, and then for longer and longer.
Why: This is when it gets to know stock, people, noises and handling. What the pup hasn't met by roughly 14–16 weeks it accepts less easily later.
- Before the vaccination course is complete (roughly up to 16 weeks), don't take the pup to shows, the park or anywhere other people's dogs go: parvovirus and distemper kill puppies.
- Contact with people short and calm: checking, touching, the collar. No all-day cuddling and play in the yard.
3. Basic commands · Locked
When you buy the Raising a dog around livestock module, you get a PDF to download and print and permanent access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.
4. Getting used to stock · Locked
When you buy the Raising a dog around livestock module, you get a PDF to download and print and permanent access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.
5. Poultry and the boundary · Locked
When you buy the Raising a dog around livestock module, you get a PDF to download and print and permanent access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.
6. Handling and the vet · Locked
When you buy the Raising a dog around livestock module, you get a PDF to download and print and permanent access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.