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Herding Dogs: Progressive
training
by Virgil Holland
Reviewed by Ian Caldicott
This is a well written book from one of the better known herding dog trainers in the U.S. Of all the books I have read (and I think I have read most of them) this one does the best job of discussing how to deal with dogs of different working styles and personalities. The section near the end of the book on approaches to dealing with specific problems is an excellent reference for the beginner and a good resource for more experienced trainers to refer to when they just can't seem to get around a problem.
The overall structure of the book is good. You don't have to absorb the entire book but can refer to different sections as your training progresses. The advice along the way on reading your dog, trust, expectations etc and comments like "don't nitpick" help keep you in touch with what the important issues are in training and remind us that our relationship with the dog is central to progress in training.
On the down side I find myself disagree with the specifics of a number of the training exercises in the book, certainly they are techniques that have a significant following and a large number of practitioners, they just don't work for me or fit in overly well with the approach I am most comfortable with. This disagreement on specifics does however make the book more difficult for me to take entirely to heart.
As someone that has a farm to run I find the step by step approach too restrictive. Certainly when training a dog that is a "weekend warrior" or primarily for trialing I can see advantages to the step by step or progressive approach but on the farm it just doesn't work for me. In practical situations I work on teaching the dog whatever skills are needed for the job at hand, whatever order they may present themselves in.
This is definitely a book I keep accessible on my book shelf and one I think everyone should read but I do find myself struggling with what I see as a bit of a conflict between the overall approach to ones relationship with the dog and the specifics of the training exercises.
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Herding Dogs: Progressive Training
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