10/31/2026
Dirty little herder thoughts...
While most people would look at this and just think it's a cute little video...
And well...
It still is...
But...
Most people would miss what's happening here.
These are the moments that lead to, "it came out of nowhere"
9 times out of 10 it's never out of no where...
And even this little moment is exaggerated more because I knowingly let her slide deeper into the behavior.
We did this a few times in reality because it helps me and her build more control around these sequences...
With that being said...
I know I have enough range of control with her to catch a thread of her brain if I have to...
Otherwise doing this is setting her, myself, and the chickens up for failure.
Even with a dog that has been really good with chickens before now has new birds with two odd balls in the bunch that draw far more interest.
I can't say for sure what she would do when she got there...
And honestly I'd rather not find out the hard way.
I'm ok with herding, she used to really enjoy moving birds around up north but there is some nugget interest there too...
Both my dogs have a few animals under their belt...
I don't pretend they are anything less than what they are.
The point of this post is because I get calls that their dog has forced an expiration on another animal at times...
And I often tell those people these same bits of information...
It can absolutely be managed and worked with but...
We have to be aware of when we need to.
I ultimately let Mae trace a bird but the moment she went to tip into too much I dropped her down a gear.
You may hear me say "they make bad choices very fast"
We either have to be faster...
Which is ridiculously difficult...
I had to increase my speed when we first got Mae...
Just so we could have a conversation to allow me to ask her to slow down...
This is where we may also have a conversation as to whether a dog is too much for a particular handler.
The more true working lines I meet personally the more I fall in love which is another problem for another time...
But...
In the pet dog sector we still have dogs that are close to this category and they get compressed down and the energy spills out somewhere we don't want it.
There are many variables but the ultimate take away is to trust the animal to be who they show us they are...
Most people think our dogs wouldn't hurt a fly...
In most cases thinking that way based off of couch cuddle time sets us and our dogs up for failure.
