Harford's Apprentice

There seem to be two main ways to train a young dog to Drive. Firstly, with the sheep set
in the middle of the field, or, if that seems too difficult for the young dog, using a fence as a
guide. I had much better results from the mid-field method which I have found really helps
develop the dog’s natural ability and confidence in moving sheep forward without reliance
on a boundary. My dog, Sweep, was trained in this way and he went on to win the
International Drive Championship.
The aim of Drive training is to keep the dog walking straight and steadily behind its sheep;
moving them away from you rather than bringing them towards you. For young dogs that
are puzzled by this at first, I found a simple way to explain this new skill. Keeping training
in the middle of the field and to counter their instinct to herd the sheep towards me, I’d
stop the dog immediately if it tried to flank to the right or left. Then, with the dog stopped,
I’d reset myself and the sheep relative to the dog before starting the Drive again.
This regular stopping and repositioning of the dog and sheep, perhaps every two or three
yards at first, means there will be a lot of short Drives in the very early stages - but that is
fine. Be patient. I hope the diagrams illustrate the zig-zag pattern we all made as we worked
our way up the field, that zig-zag becoming a long straight line as training progressed and
the dog’s understanding and confidence improved.
I’d stay close to the dog and the sheep in these first Drive training sessions to provide
support, walking normally and relaxed even when stepping across to correct the dog’s position.
Focus the dog on walking straight behind the sheep and nothing else. Little or no voice
commands, let the dog concentrate.
As time goes by the dog will walk further and further in a straight line so the zig-zag up
the field will become less pronounced. Eventually I’d want to see that the dog has control
of and so can Drive sheep straight ahead for 50 or 60 yards with no command, or perhaps
just an occasional quiet Walk On command.
Later, with the long cord released, I would begin to teach the dog the correct pace for the
Drive by walking alongside the dog. This also begins to give it experience of the need to
either slow down or stop on command to keep the sheep moving smoothly at the correct
pace. A walking dog is a winning dog.
To keep things really simple I’d never use Flank commands or call a dog off while teaching
the Drive as it can encourage the dog to look back at you when you want it to concentrate
on walking on. At the end of Drive training I’d ask it to go around to the head of the sheep
and call it back from there, or instead, call it off at the end of a Fetch if I have asked it to
bring the sheep back to me.
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