The genetic roots of the German shepherd breed today go directly back to the blood of the working shepherd dogs in the fields of Germany. The generic shepherd dog of 100 years ago itself evolved over the centuries out of hunting, protecting, driving and herding dogs, in that order. The energy, temperament and working character of the shepherd dog was so highly regarded by the founder of the breed, von Stephanitz, that 25 years after organizing the SV in 1899 he wrote: “The dogs that are bred by our shepherds are indeed a fountain of rejuvenation for our race, from which it must satisfy its needs again and again in order to remain vigorous. “(From The German Shepherd Dog In World and Picture, by v. Stephanitz: p.383; Germany:1925.) Over the decades the German shepherd dog has earned well-deserved recognition as the most versatile working dog in the world. Today, however, its sheep herding roots have been eclipsed by its successes in many other areas of performance.

In my opinion, there is a great deal that can be learned about the German shepherd dog by understanding its roots and by observing it work under the guidance of a skilled shepherd in the field performing the tasks it was originally bred to do – namely controlling, containing, watching over and protecting the flocks on the road and in the pasture. My observations in the field have convinced me that watching a selectively bred and properly educated German shepherd dog herding sheep is to watch the full repertoire of selected instinctual behavior in the German shepherd dog channeled to be expressed without the effect of, or distortions imposed by, compulsion training.

I have heard the comment many times that HGH dogs are “soft”. In my mind that is one of the more uninformed remarks I have ever heard. No dog that is able to control a flock of 200 to 1,000 or more sheep is a “shop” dog. One must be very careful to make the distinction between softness and handler sensitivity. The German shepherd herding dog is most likely to show handler sensitivity because it is selectively bred to have a strong pack drive- a strong willingness to please the shepherd as leader. If training methods are used that ignore and, thereby, abuse the power of that drive, what you will end up with is a dog that will be useless for any kind of independent work, be it herding or protection work-chalked off as a “soft” dog when in reality the training method most likely destroyed the dog’s self-confidence to work on its own.

Contents
1. Background
2. Puppy Testing
3. Raising the Young Dog
4. Education of Nikko-First Year
5. Education of Nikko-Second Year
6. Education of Nikko-The Grip
7. Education of Nikko-Graduation
8. Reflections

1. Background

Each year for the past 10 years, I have spent some time with Manfred Heyne in the field Germany while he tended his sheep with his German shepherd dogs. Manfred Heyne has been a Master shepherd for over 40 years and has won the Bundesleistungshuten(the German National sheep trial) 14 times since its inception in 1954. he takes exceptional pride in his line of German shepherd dogs which he has been breeding for more than 50 years solely for their sheep herding ability or, as he prefers to call it, their instinct. I have watched him work his experienced dogs, all Bundelesistungshuten champions, and watched him develop several young dogs from the beginning of their education in the field. I owe Manfred Hyene an immeasurable debt of gratitude for all he has taught me about the German Shepherd herding style. But mostly I am indebted to him for having given me a glimpse of what I now consider the “art of sheep herding” and the education of the herding dog”. I would like to share as much as I can of what I have learned from Manfred Hyene.

The German shepherd herding dog was originally bred to control large flocks of 200 to 1,000 or more sheep. This task not only requires appropriate instincts, but it also requires courage and sound nerves, for example, Manfred Heyne loves to tell the story about how a friend of his brought SchH III dog to him to show how any trained schutzhund dog could control sheep. Manfred told his friend to place his dog in front of the barn door to prevent the sheep from going in. Manfred proceeded to lead his flock out of the field and back towards the barn. As thr large flock approached, the dog got up, ran into the barn and jumped out an open window in the back to escape.

That story is in marked contrast to the following story that Manfred also loves to tell which illustrates the degree of courage and sound nerves expected of the shepherd dog.
In 1930, von Stephanitz was judging the Sieger Show. After putting the dogs through their paces in the ring, von Stephanitz made his decision. The dog he chose was a sheep-herding dog, Herold aus den Niederlandsitz. Some time earlier, von Stephanitz had given the dog the following courage test. The dog was placed in the down position by the owner in the middle of a large field. The owner was sent out of sight while von Stephantiz and another man mounted their horses and began to ride around the dog in smaller and smaller circles. The dog held its down. Then suddenly both riders rode to opposite sides of the field, turner and rode at a slow gallop toward each other with the dog in the middle. Von Stephanitz’s horse reached the dog first. Just before his horse was about to run over the dog, the dog leaped up, grabbef the horse by the top of the neck with a full grip and held on until von Stephanitz had to knock him off with his crop. This was the kind of dog von Stephanitz knew was needed to improve the character and temperament of the breed at the time. Herold aus den Niederlausitz was selected Sieger again in 1931.

German shepherd herding dogs are used where large flocks must be contained in relatively small grazing areas and kept out of unfenced neighboring crop fields. The working style of the German shepherd herding dog consists primarily of boundary patrol, or flock containment. Since the shepherd must pay the farmer for any damage done to his croops by the sheep, the shepherd cannot afford the expense of keeping a dog that cannot hold a boundary.
German shepherd herding dogs are selected for their strong prey drive since a strong prey drive is fundamental to maintaining a sustained high energy in the dog while working sheep. How the dog naturally expresses, or is allowed to express, his natural prey instinct while working sheep illustrates the fundamental difference between the German shepherd’s style and other styles of sheep herding.

2. Puppy Testing

Manfred breeds only for his own sheep herding needs. He keeps at least two experienced working males and a young dog or two in training. When he needs to replenish his working stock, he looks for and leases, or buys, a breeding bitch selected for her proven working ability.Before making the final breeding decision, he arranges to work the bitch himself for a least a month to make sure she has the instincts he wants to complement his male line. According to fred Heyne a top working dog must be bred, it cannot be made by training.
When a litter is whelped, Manfred spends as much time as possible with it every day right from the time it is born to familiarize the pups to him and to the tones of his voice. Testing begins at about 3 weeks of age with the following being some of his puppy tests:

1. At 3-4 weeks he puts a pan of food in with the hungry litter. When the puppies are eating and fully intent on the food, he makes a sudden loud noise near them but out of their sight. He does this several times over the course of testing and notes puppies that consistently show no concern over the noise;

2. At about 4-6 weeks, he stands by the pen and calls the puppies to see which ones consistently come to him. He notes those puppies showing the greatest interest and attraction in being with him;

3. From 4-7 weeks, every other day he puts a lamb in with the litter. He starts with a very young lamb and increases the size of the lamb as the puppies grow. He notes those puppies consistently showing only an intense attraction to the lamb – i.e. ones, which approach the lamb with tail wagging and strong eye contact. He repeats this test every other day for 3 weeks to see if interest is maintained with the same intensity; and,

4. After 7 weeks, he puts a size-appropriate lamb in with the litter to see which ones consistently grip the lamb in the three places allowed for gripping – the top of the neck, the ribs and just above the hock. He eliminates those puppies that grip in the wrong places. Throughout the many weeks of puppy testing, Manfred constantly watches to see how each puppy relates to him and responds to the tones of his voice. The importance of this can be seen when he discusses the formal education of the dog in the field.

Manfred developed this method of testing his puppies to help him accurately select dogs with strong natural prey drive appropriate for sheep herding, self-confidence and the willingness to accept the shepherd as pack leader. Manfred selects for himself only those puppies that meet his testing criteria 100% - if no puppy tests 100% ; he will not keep any. Although Manfred assesses his puppies from the beginning, he acknowledges that he can still only hope for the best because he does not believe that the dog’s character, or potential for work, is fully set before the dog is three years old. He does believe, however, that by two years of age the dog’s qualities are about 75% set.

One should keep in mind that Manfred’s standard of selecting only those dogs that meet his testing criteria 100% is extremely high and probably not realistic for the average hobbyist. One must also keep in mind that a working shepherd must be far more demanding of his dog than the hobby herder. While the hobby herder might demand that the dog concentrate on its work for relatively short periods of time, a working shepherd must know that his dog will maintain its concentration for a whole day, every day. According to Manfred this intense concentration is possible only in a dog with the highest instinct/drive/attraction to the sheep. Any dog with some degree of interest in sheep can be trained to herd, but that dog will never have the concentration or reliability to work sheep as the dog with the highest drive and attraction to sheep.

3. Raising the Young Dog

The cornerstone of education is the acceptance by the dog the shepherd as pack leader and the dog’s understanding of voice communication. This is why it is so important to expose puppies from birth to the meanings of the intonations of the human voice. Puppies must be exposed from birth the variations and subtleties of the shepherd’s voice-the pleased, cooing voice (brava/good) and the displeased, sharp voice (pfui/bad). Just like puppies learn the meaning of the mother’s tones of voice, the shepherd’s voice must become to means of praise and correction in the education of the shepherd dog-not the hand or the crook, if from the beginning, the shepherd has established himself through trust and confidence as pack leader and has conditioned the dog to understand the meaning of the tones of his voice, there should be no need for physical corrections. During early exposure to sheep in the field, the dog is restricted on leash-but the leash must only be used with the voice to guide the dog, not to punish it. The dog is not taken off the leash until it has learned to view the sheep as subordinate members of its pack – to defend and to keep in order – and until the dog understand the meaning of boundaries – that sheep inside the boundaries are in the proper place and that the sheep outside the boundary are to be put back inside.

There is no place, according to Manfred Heyne, for force training or punishment in the education of the shepherd dog. Force training and harsh physical corrections only serve to weaken or destroy the dog’s ultimate ability to work on its own – qualities irreplaceable in the shepherd dog. This gets back to the basic reasons for instinct testing: if a dog has the instinct, drive and attraction to the sheep and wants to please the shepherd as pack leader, the instincts only need to be channeled. Force training cannot create instinct, drive or attraction to sheep, it can only serve to distort or suppress them.

During the dog’s first year, all obedience work must be play training and building voice communication. Early play training should be aimed at building confidence and establishing a bond of trust and respect between the dog and the shepherd: the dog is praised when it happens to do the right thing; the dog is ignored or calmly restricted, but never punished or corrected, when it happens to do the wrong thing, the idea being that the dog, because of its desire to please, will eventually correct itself. No corrections other than voice corrections are made, and the dog must always be given the opportunity to work things out for itself. Serious education can begin at any age after the dog is one year old. If the dog has the proper instincts, it can be introduced to sheep at any age and achieve the same results. Serious education should not begin until the dog show that it is ready-the timing varies with each dog.
Sheep herding should not be obedience training; rather it is the working together of the shepherd and his dog. The dog must be allowed and encouraged to work on its own instincts more than on the commands from the shepherd from the shepherd. The stronger the instinct, the better suited the dog will be to working sheep and the less it must rely on commands. The education of the shepherd dog should be built 100% on the dog’s instincts.
Practicing What He Preaches: The Education of Nikko
I met Manfred Heyne in 1987. He invited me to join him in the field for three days just before the Bundesleistunghüten to demonstrate what HGH herding is all about. That was when I met Nikko.

4. The First Year

Nikko was nine months old in September 1987 and had never been in the field with Manfred and his flock before the day I joined them. It was my good fortune that Manfred had decided to test Nikko’s readiness to begin his education at this time.

Manfred led his flock to pasture with Nikko on lead and Luki, his experienced herding dog and Nikko’s father, working free. Once in the field and the boundaries established, Luki patrolled the far boundary while Manfred stood on the opposite boundary with Nikko on lead. Nikko’s full attention was focused calmly but intently on the sheep. After about a half-hour, Manfred quietly unsnapped Nikko’s leash while they were standing on the furrow – the visible boundary. Nikko was free. We both stood quietly waiting to see what Nikko would do. Almost immediately Nikko, with all his attention focused on the flock, began to move back and forth of the furrow. At first Nikko moved about 10 feet back and forth then, as he gained confidence, gradually extended his distance along the entire length of the flock. Nikko did not once come off that boundary. During the time Nikko was moving on the boundary, the only sounds from Manfred were soft, quiet praises: “Brava, Nikko, brava. “Manfred was very pleased. He put Nikko back on lead after about1/2 an hour on the boundary saying that after the Bundesleistungshüten he would begin Nikko’s formal education in the field. Nikko had shown that he was to learn to tend sheep.