Product Description

Herding Dogs: Progressive Training is the only book of its kind to guide the owner toward training the complete herding dog. Whether you are involved in farming or ranching, or simply want to explore your herding dog's heritage, you will find a wealth of information here. For those with competitive goals, Herding Dogs will enhance your knowledge with a philosophy that has the dog's individual breed and personality as the central focus.

Vergil S. Holland teaches the handler to understand the dog's reactions before beginning this progressive training. Whether it is your dog's first exposure to stock or your older dog with a new problem, you, as a handler, will find solutions to each problem and sound advice on each phase of training.

Special chapters on different personalities of the various herding breeds, with training modifications tailored to these differences, make it possible for you and your dog as a team to reach your maximum potential.

Herding commands and terms are thoroughly covered, as are those of basic Obedience for the stock dog. Working various kinds of stock-sheep, cattle and ducks-is covered to meet the needs of every stock dog owner. Detailed diagrams and concept maps throughout the book highlight the individualized training methods for each type of dog and stock.
A Howell Dog Book of Distinction

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51471 in Books
• Published on: 1994-10-13
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

About the Author
Vergil S. Holland is the founder of the Training Center for the Advancement of the Working Stock Dog. He has conducted breed seminars for the American Herding Breed Association and is the winner of numerous stock dog championships.

Customer Reviews

A good beginning and a life long aid to training.
I first read this book when my first Aussie was about three months old. Frankly, I did not get it. I think it is difficult for the average person to learn how to work with a herding dog. Vergil Holland has not only put down all of the steps one might need to become successful at this activity, he has a lot of great advice in the book including very useful exercises and as the subtitle suggests, a progressive training method.

However, the reason I did not get it when I first read the book was that the meaning of much of what he says is dependent on having the actual experience of herding. After many years of training stock dogs, I went back and re-read this book. It was very revealing in that I found myself agreeing with almost everything he said about training. I also found it helpful to get a clear picture of exactly what I wanted to do in a training session to read the portion of the book-- usually fewer than two pages at a time-- that was relevant to what I wanted to acheive in the session. So for me, this has become a valuable hands on training tool.

I still recommend it to beginners and I think it would really help anyone getting ready for their first exposure to stock to have read the preliminary sections on getting started and basic commands. It would help the beginner become familiar with common training techniques and concepts so that a clinic experience would be more valuable than going in without the insights that are offered in this book.

But this is not just a book for beginners. It can be useful at several levels. For the more experienced trainer/handler, the troubleshooting section provides very useful exercises for solving common problems that are likely to be encountered.

I do think the section on herding breeds is a bit simplistic and in the case of Aussies not really accurate. But I think it is only there as a summary of what one might expect from herding breeds and therefore does not take into account the variance of different lines within a breed. I would not recommend the traits listed in this chapter to select your dog. However it does contain some very good advice such as basing your decision in part on the parents' abilities and characteristics.

The diagrams could be improved as was mentioned elsewhere, but they are accurate. The pictures are not very clear and they could be improved to actually demonstrate better the points they are intended to make.

Overall I give this book high marks and recommend it to anyone who is building up a stockdog library. But remember that there is a lot more information in this book than there appears to be at first reading. Go back to it often as your skills develop to really get the full potential of the book which really does offer a progressive training method.

I'm a Total Novice Herder with a Total Novice Dog
I have always had an interest in herding dogs and have owned them and been around them most of my life; however I have never known anyone that had any real knowledge of training for herding, or had a dog that was trained for that matter. This book is fantastic for a total novice. It takes you carefully and "progressively" into the world of herding and explains everything from the very beginning, including the somewhat confusing language that is used to communicate with the dog while the two of you are at work. Thank you Mr. Holland!

Herding Dogs: Progressive Training
Brand new book received in good shipping time.
This book is very informative, easy to understand and clear as to how to apply what is presented.
I believe it will help any level of sheepdog handler.