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Talking Sheepdogs
by Derek Scrimgeour
Reviewed by Ian Caldicott
Everytime a new book on sheepdog training comes out I wonder if this one is going to offer something original, some techniques that have not been covered before. Usually I find that they are generally very similar, a new wrinkle here and there, a better way of explaining something but nothing really different or new. "Talking Sheepdogs" is different, one could say (to borrow a comment by Roy Goutte on the back cover) "revolutionary".
The book is extremely well written and clear with the best diagrams I have ever seen. Reading it is entertaining, enlightening and thought provoking all at once, the first time through I recommend reading it like you would a good novel, in a comfy chair with a drink in one hand and time to read the whole thing. Then you will want to go back and re-read sections of it over and over.
If nothing else I think every serious sheepdog trainer will want to at least try some of the techniques and philosophy the book offers, for some I think it could change their entire outlook on training dogs. While I am not sure that the approach will necessarily work for all dogs, particularly dogs without the intense herding drive and desire to please seen in todays Border Collies, the basic philosophy will at the very least impact the way you interpret your dogs actions.
This book put into words things that I had been thinking myself and took them well beyond where I had gone with them. I have experimented with a lot of the techniques and have liked the results a lot. Problems I have been having with some of my older dogs seem to be getting much better and I expect to be using a lot of Derek's approach with my nest dog. For the first time in a long time this book has changed the way I do some things in my training program and I am very happy with the results.
For the first time I now have an answer to the question "what book do you recommend?" I will say "Get a copy of Talking Sheepdogs by Derek Scringeour".
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