We took Buffy to a Herding Instinct Test today and she passed! 
She actually caught on very quickly to what the instructor wanted her to do, which was keep the sheep between her and the handler.
There were four Shelties in our group of maybe 20 or so dogs total. It was cool to see each dog realize there were sheep in the pen and figure out what to do with the sheep. It's like they suddenly switch on to what they are supposed to do.
It's a pretty short video because she is young and this is her first time so the idea is to keep any herding experiences short and positive. But she figured out how to go around the flock and at one point a few sheep break off and she brings them back.
(The instructor's commentary: One of the other handlers there has a Sheltie out of Buffy's breeder who didn't want to work with sheep at all when tested, so they were pleasantly surprised that Buffy did.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_JsiV288z0
She actually caught on very quickly to what the instructor wanted her to do, which was keep the sheep between her and the handler.There were four Shelties in our group of maybe 20 or so dogs total. It was cool to see each dog realize there were sheep in the pen and figure out what to do with the sheep. It's like they suddenly switch on to what they are supposed to do.
It's a pretty short video because she is young and this is her first time so the idea is to keep any herding experiences short and positive. But she figured out how to go around the flock and at one point a few sheep break off and she brings them back.
(The instructor's commentary: One of the other handlers there has a Sheltie out of Buffy's breeder who didn't want to work with sheep at all when tested, so they were pleasantly surprised that Buffy did.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_JsiV288z0
I thought that was cool too.
