Can anything be done if your collie doesn’t want to work?
The short answer is “Yes!” and understanding the possible reasons why the dog won’t work is a huge help to finding the cure.
It’s very disappointing to find that your collie doesn’t want to work sheep or cattle, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to change its mind. As with most aspects of training dogs to work stock, if you understand what’s happening and why, there’s a much better chance of putting things right.
Our “Starting a Non-Starter” tutorial looks at how the hunting instinct gives us a working dog, and how that very instinct may be the reason why some dogs would rather not get involved.
On the other hand, by simulating a hunting situation we can trigger the instinct and, once that’s done, you’re on your way to a useful sheepdog. Simple, isn’t it?

Starting a Non-Starter will not only help you get your non-starter started, it will also help you avoid the situation arising in the first place. Once you’re aware of how collies learn you’ll see how, despite your best intentions, what they learn isn’t always what you thought you were teaching.
Collies take things literally, and that’s both an advantage and disadvantage when it comes to training, so watch this tutorial if you have a new puppy, and want to prepare it for sheep work.
If your young dog doesn’t want to work, the two-part “Starting a Non-Starter” is THE place to start. Look for it in the Confidence category. Follow this by watching “Starting a Reluctant Dog“, where we see Maisie overcoming her initial inhibitions to begin to work fluently around the sheep.
If you prefer (or need) to watch on DVD you’ll find “Starting a Non-Starter” on Volume 4 of our DVD tutorial collections, where you’ll also find tutorials about stopping the dog, more help with a dog who grips, further instalments in our comparison series “Bronwen and Scylla” and much more.
ONLINE SHEEP AND CATTLE DOG TRAINING TUTORIALS
Clear, inexpensive, sheep and cattle dog training instruction
Over 70 clearly explained, easy to follow sheep and cattle dog training videos for first time sheepdog trainers, farmers, and shepherds. Watch the preview here!
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