In September I took my two girls to an American Kennel Club Herding Instinct Test held by Southern California Collie Club. Betsy was 18 months old and her cousin Layla was almost three. They passed the two required AKC Instinct evaluations and were awarded the title certificate “Instinct Tested.” I proudly sent in their info to COLLIES ONLINE to have their accomplishments recorded in a Performance Title announcement. And then it happened!! Karen Jorden (Queen of COL) started asking me questions about this title and then asked if I would write an article explaining “what exactly is a Herding Instinct Test” for the Performance Issue of Collies Online.
First off, as I told Karen, I do not know much of anything about training dogs for AKC herding titles. I have never owned a Collie with an AKC herding title. But I have owned and loved 17 Collies and 13 of them have passed their “Herding Instinct Evaluations”. She was not daunted by my transparency and asked me to write about our experience. So here we are:
Why is Herding Instinct important? The Collie Club of America has a web site that tells a person everything they should know about Collies. On the very first page, in the first paragraph entitled “Collie Origins” is this very first sentence: “The Collie was used extensively as a herding dog and hailed from the highlands of Scotland and Northern England.” For me this means that it is a good thing, an important heritage, that our Collies of today, 150 years later should be able to herd. Let’s take them to a herding instinct test and find out.
What is a Herding Instinct? The dictionary says instinct means: a way of behaving, thinking, or feeling that is not learned: a natural desire or tendency that makes one act want to act in a particular way. (Example: cats possess a natural hunting instinct.”) Herding dogs will express their herding drive with whatever is available, including other pets, and kids. This hardwired innate (present at birth) instinct is triggered by movement.
Why is this innate instinctive behavior important? Natural herding ability is one of the many things that makes a Collie a Collie (just like water retrieving makes a Golden Retriever a Golden Retriever). Many breeders want to make sure their dogs have kept this herding instinct even though most are no longer kept as herding dogs by ranchers.
The day came and my friend, Gayle Kaye, who is the breeder of all of them, and I have entered our four young girls in an AKC Herding Instinct test to see what they can do. We wanted a true test of their instinct. We did NOT take them to a lesson, we did NOT take them to a place they could see or interact with livestock. We just put them in the van and took them. Of course, they were all brushed up and looked gorgeous because that was important to us. But, it was not important to anyone else, not to the sheep, not to the judges or to the spectators. We were taking them to a test to see if they instinctively knew what to do with sheep, like their ancestors from 1880.
My tri girl, Betsy, was the first one (entry of 30 dogs, 12 collies and other herding breeds) to be tested. I was a bit nervous about Betsy being the first one tested, but I have done this with many other collies. We walked over to the livestock arena. Betsy was looking around, smelling all the good ranch smells. She was put on a long line and it was handed to the judge. I was asked if she had a solid recall, and I said that she did. The judge always wants to know ahead of time if the dog is going to be a willing partner with a human. (They don’t want any livestock injured, they don’t want dog injuries and they don’t want crazy, fractious dogs. I watched all 30 dogs that day, and I did not see one badly behaved dog. I saw dogs that wouldn’t or couldn’t herd but not one with bad behavior.)
Betsy entered the arena with the judge and saw her three sheep standing together on the far wall looking sort of bored. The judge got the sheep to move a bit and told Betsy to go get her sheep. She moved slowly toward them. Almost immediately Betsy ran towards the sheep and started to move them in a circular fashion around the arena. When one separated itself from the other two, she automatically stopped on a dime and ran after that straggler and herded it back to the others. My heart sang seeing my Betsy doing this simple herding behavior. For the test she had to follow a few cues from the judge, moving them one way and then turning them and moving them back the other way. Betsy had no problem following directions from this woman with a shepherd’s crook, that she did not even know. And then before I was ready to stop watching, it was over, and the judge said, “She is a lovely girl and she passed”.
This AKC Herding Instinct Test requires that each dog pass an instinct assessment under two different judges. At this test all of the dogs had the option of being entered to perform in two tests. Betsy was going to go to a different arena and do the same test with a different judge. Our other three girls took the same two instinct tests and all passed.
After about two hours, the first group of dogs, which included my Betsy and my Layla, had been tested, and they were ready for that group to be tested by the second judge. Betsy was excited to go into the arena. She now knew what this was all about. The judge asked me to come in and demonstrate Betsy’s recall. Betsy is very biddable (another fabulous Collie trait) and I was asked to step out of the arena, and Betsy’s long line was removed. The judge told her to move her sheep off the wall, and she ran over to them and moved them, first one way and then other way, at the judge’s direction. Then it was over. The judge said she was lovely, but she is partial to Belgian Tervurens, and gave her a pat for being a good girl.
People have asked about the livestock. The three sheep were changed out frequently, and only had two tests in a row. The time limit was 20 minutes, but many of the dogs, who knew instinctively what to do right away, like Betsy, were only in the area with the sheep for maybe 10 minutes.
Below is Betsy’s evaluation form. This is the exact same form that the Collie Club of America uses for their evaluation for their Herding Instinct Certification, or HIC. There is no difference in the tests. The AKC requires two qualifying scores to get the “IT” title certificate, and CCA requires one qualifying score to get an HIC. Recently there has been some discussion as to whether AKC is making this a title or a certificate, in true AKC fashion, it is well? You decide. There is an AKC booklet, entitled AKC Herding Regulations which has 100 pages of everything a person would want to know about herding under the AKC regulations.
I just like to remember that Collies were originally and primarily a herding dog and I love it that our girls proved they have what it takes! It was a very satisfying day for our four collies. I have attached photos of Betsy and Layla. Unfortunately, the show photographer left before all dogs were tested and our other two girls Alexa and Rachel did not have their photos taken.
On this day we were blessed to be the partners of these wonderful herding girls.
Half-sisters through their mom:
Betsy - CH Chelsea Evening Star, IT CGC (18 months old) :: Breeder/Owners: Tom and Jeannette Poling and Gayle Kaye
Alexa - Chelsea You Are My Sunshine, IT (8 months old) :: Breeder/Owners: Gayle Kaye and Tom and Jeannette Poling
And littermates: almost 3 years old
Layla - Chelsea Cover Cover Girl, TD, IT CGC :: Owners: Tom and Jeannette Poling and Breeder Gayle Kaye
Rachel - CH Chelsea California Chic, IT :: Breeder/Owner: Gayle Kaye
Cover photo "Betsy," CH Chelsea Evening Star, IT CGC courtesy Susan Goldman Photography
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