Is $50 too much to ask?

A couple of weeks ago I had an email from someone hoping that I could help him with a couple of problems he had with his young Heading dog. He really liked the dog and it showed a lot of promise and had beautiful style, so much so that he saw the potential to trial it if the issues could be solved. He contacted me wondering if I could help as everyone he had spoken to said get rid of it.

“She just has two little faults - when I cast her out round a mob sometimes she will cast right to the head and bring them back to me with great balance but other times she will run directly at the mob and push them into a corner and hold them there, and no matter what I say she won’t let them out.

“I have trained her on small mobs of around 8 sheep and she didn’t do it on them but when starting on bigger mobs of 200+ sheep she started doing it and now when I take her back to the smaller mobs she occasionally does it on them too.

“Her other fault is she is starting to turn tail on the mobs when a sheep stands her up. She will eye very well then walk up, and if a ewe stands her up or changes direction, she will turn her back out away from them.

“The older fella’s in my dog club down here seem to think its unfixable and told me to sell her but I think she has a massive future and I was just wondering if you have any tips or techniques of stopping this?”

I don’t see either of these as a problem and with the correct training they can be a thing of the past. With the casting around the mob she needs more work on her ‘sides’ and there are a couple of exercises done in the sheep-yards that will simplify to her, what he (the owner) requires.

The turning tail, if caught soon enough, can be easily solved when working on a small number of sheep, however if a big mob is pushing down on her she may do it again, and so too will a lot of dogs that don’t normally do it; dogs don’t run backwards so it is either move somewhere else or get trampled.

Turning tail is a confidence issue. A lot of Heading dogs have it and it is surprisingly easy to teach them to hold their ground, confidently walk forward and turn the offending animal.

So what happened? I sent a quick email back to the young chap saying that I was happy to help, but as this is my way of income I would have to charge for my time. 

I gave him bank details and postal address and told him that for $50 I would send him some relevant articles I had written, and also talk with him on the phone for about half an hour.

I never heard from him again. He is not the first person to do this, and he won’t be the last. To me, $50 was a very small price to pay for two problems solved. Would you contact a plumber, doctor or lawyer with problems and expect them to spend an hour or so sending you information, and consulting with them free of charge?

• Anna Holland is teaching people dog training. For more information www.annaholland.co.nz  or tel (06)388 1318 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.