Having a blast working sheep

What could be more fun than working sheep with your border collie? Easy answer… Doing it with your friends and their border collies. At Namaste Farm, we have a small group of enthusiastic friends that meets every Sunday morning to train our dogs. We have a wonderful time, in spite of weather conditions right now, which call for a very early start. We have four regular handlers and a lot of dogs, with others joining us occasionally.

The foks you see in the pictures - Alicia, Kelly, Tory, and me - are a tight group that enjoys traveling to herding trials together, sharing AirBnBs, going to dinner together, and anything else that has to do with border collies and working sheep. We currently each have a puppy from Alicia’s Nora, so we all have a chance to compete against each other with those dogs. Our other dogs are at all levels of competition, something I will talk about more in blogs to come.

Our Sunday mornings are special times. Our dogs all get along well, which is a hallmark of a good working dog behavior. At a trial most dogs are off leash, but behave themselves, so that’s one thing we practice. Herding dogs literally live to work. Work is the reward. They will go all day, if we let them. It’s a trait not all border collies have, so finding a good working dog is special. Finding friends to work sheep with is even more special.

If you are interested in learning to herd, Namaste Farm does have very limited opportunities for training on our sheep available at our Sunday working sessions under a trainer’s supervision. We also occasionally host outside trainers for lessons. Watch the blog for more information on upcoming events.