I call this instinct the “PUSH”

There is another part of the herding instinct that a smaller percentage of dogs will have. These dogs will not only show a desire to push directly on or into the flock of the sheep; they will be genetically programmed to hold themselves out of the flock and use only enough pressure to keep sheep in place or to move them carefully to another place. Such dogs, if they are also bold and powerful in their occasional direct approaches to the sheep, are worth their weight in gold.

I call this instinct the “KEEP BACK”

Admittedly, we stockowners who use German Shepherds more often have to deal with “push” than with “keep back,” at least in the beginning. But in the pushiest dogs, if they are bred from herding parents, the “keep back” instinct will be activated in the early lessons. Let me digress just long enough to say that I am not talking here of very wide spaces between livestock and dog. A dog with “keep back” instinct can work very close to a flock that is familiar with large, upright-working stockdogs. It will patrol (move back and forth) outside the flock’s boundary -- visible or invisible -- containing the flock inside a “safety zone” that the dog will not violate.

When stock try to leave this safety zone, the dog will usually stop the sheep with a grip to the fleece on the neck, ribs or upper thigh. This is why the sheep must be conditioned to working with a dog that has such instincts before being put in a large field with the sheep. Sheep that panic and run when they are “disciplined” by the dog will injure themselves, and cause other kinds of damage. Those are the instinctive herding moves in a talented German Shepherd stockdog. We can channel those drives to develop a powerful, versatile, independent partner in livestock management or we can actually turn off a lot of the drives and train the dog to obey commands from the handler. In that case, the dog is still very competent in enclosed surroundings where you can keep it under the control of the handler. I would not want to take such a dog out on a country road with traffic and a large flock of hungry sheep.

Nevertheless, there is nothing wrong with a dog that will be a trial dog in arena trials learning to herd on command. Most dogs can still enjoy the experience of performing something like their ancestral tasks.

But let us say that we have identified a dog that at least shows the “push” instinct at a hobby-dog test. Let us admit the other normal rule, that is to say, the sheep object to this large, upright, pushy dog and do not cooperate with it.

Now if you wish to continue training, you need to condition the sheep to the presence of a large dog such as our GSD. Settle them on some feed in a small about 20'x20' pen or the corner of a field where they feel comfortable. Put your shepherd on a long thick soft rope or lead, about 7 or 8 feet long and very thick and soft to save your hands. Walk the dog quietly as close as the sheep will tolerate without leaving the country. The first day it may not be very close; that is why a small pen works best.

If the shepherd dog is very pushy, then it must be acclimated to being close to the sheep without charging them. It must be taught to stand outside the pen or just inside the pen without charging the sheep. Then after the sheep and dog learn to tolerate the mere presence of each other, you can begin to walk the dog around the perimeter of the pen holding the rope and not letting the dog charge in toward the sheep. The dog learns to stay out of the flock and the sheep learn that the dog will not hurt them.

Continue until the sheep will eat normally, not noticing the dog and the dog will walk along all sides of the sheep flock without charging in toward them while just dragging the rope, demonstrating that the dog is developing his “keep back” powers. This may take 12 or 15 lessons. In any case, the dog will not be reliable out in the open if it is not reliable in a small area. Correctly timed and appropriate corrections will help the process along. If the dog starts to rush in on the sheep, give a correction that matches the attempt to rush in. If it is a very aggressive charge, the correction must be strong, without being injurious. A jerk on the rope so hard that the dog lies down if it is an obedience trained dog; a shake of the ruff; an alpha wolf roll-over if the dog needs it to get its attention are all appropriate measures and are practiced by stockmen. A few other practices I do not recommend. Hitting the dog is seldom effective.

But shakes of the ruff, pinches of the muzzle, roll overs, and growls and snarls are all pack leader type of corrections and work very well.

As the dog grows its sense of “keep back,” and exercises more judgment in its work, drop the rope and simply be there to keep it out of trouble. Assist the dog in staying outside the "safety zone" of the sheep. The first thing a herding dog has to learn is that it has no business inside the flock, splitting, pushing and chasing.

After a few lessons and the two species respect each other, place a second spot of feed outside the usual spot. When a sheep drifts outside the assigned spot to eat the "illegal" feed, let the dog put the sheep back to its usual spot, using appropriate force, up to and including a grip on the wool of the sheep if necessary. Bumps are even better than grips. Barking is to be discouraged at every stage of work. Barking is for chasing away intruders, not for working the sheep. Barking at the flock shows an elevated sense of excitement and the dog needs to stop and calm down so that it can concentrate.

Again after a few lessons in a confined area, move the same kind of lessons to a larger area, letting the dog drag a cord, and continuing to insist that the dog stay out of the flock unless the sheep are somewhere that you do not want them. Then you have the basis for allowing the dog to gather the sheep to you from a pen because it knows to stay on the perimeter, and to hold itself off the flock whenever and wherever it finds a group of sheep. Do not be surprised when the dog’s “push” instinct activates when it finds that it has moved the stock outside the pen; almost every starting dog in the world will put the sheep right back in the pen ! But with practice, the dog will learn that there is even more fun in working outside the small pen. Use the long cord which the dog will continue to drag throughout its basic training.

On training the gather off a graze (or a "spot") out in the open field, you simply find more open and wider "grazes" to spot the sheep and keep the dog out of them until it understands that it must stay wide of the flock. Use the cord and corrections to keep the dog out of the flock. Do not run between the dog and the flock. The dog must learn the discipline of working on the edge of the flock's safety zone without a human keeping him off with a stick or something else.

After a while like this, say around 50 or 60 hours of training, you will have a dog that knows how to take sheep out of a pen, how to hold them in a spot in the open, and how to gather them calmly to you without chasing them in toward you. Because the dog will understand the principle of containment rather than mere chasing.

For now remember 3 cardinal rules of stockdog training:

1. No dog has any business inside the flock.
   2.No sheep has any business outside the flock.
   3.Only when a dog is reliable in the basics can it be handed more responsibility.