Herding

The American Kennel Club describes the purpose of their herding titling programs as follows: "The purpose of noncompetitive herding tests is to offer herding breed owners a standardized gauge by which a dog's basic instinct and trainability are measured. The purpose of the competitive herding trial program is to preserve and develop the herding skills inherent in the herding breeds and to demonstrate that they can perform the useful functions for which they were originally bred. Although herding trials are artificial simulations of pastoral or farm situations, they are standardized tests to measure and develop the characteristics of the herding breeds".*

Members of the Inland Empire Collie Club were among the first collie enthusiasts to provide herding instinct tests and offer training clinics and workshops beginning in the late 1980's. We began sponsoring annual AKC herding events in 1992. In the early days of the AKC herding program, some of our members drove 8 hours, one way, just to have a 15 minute training session and watch others train their dogs. All that dedication paid off - nearly 20 % of the collies who have earned AKC herditng trial titles have been owned, handled, or bred by an IECC member, and a number of our collies have also earned herding titles through the American Herding Breeds Association, the Canadian Kennel Club, and the Australian Shepherd Club of America. The first collie to earn an AKC Herding Championship was HC Pokies Winterset Foxxi CD, owned and handled by IECC's Judy Garbarino, and the first collie to earn an Advance Herding title through the Canadian Kennel Club, and the only collie to have earned both advanced tracking and advanced herding titles through AKC, and the only collie to have sired over a dozen AKC herding titled offspring have also been owned and handled by IECC members.

The IECC holds an annual AKC trial over Labor Day weekend in conjunction with the Spokane Dog Training Club. Over the last few years, we've been holding additional smaller AKC and AHBA trials in during the summer. Several of our club members own stock, and a herding schedule is set every spring with practice at different locations. If you're interested in joining us, email contact@inlandempirecollieclub.org for more information. You'll have to copy and paste the link as we no longer have hyperlinks to our email address to prevent spam.

To New Herding Champion Stanley and his Mum Suzanne Schwab ~ We're VERY proud of you!!!
[CLICK HERE] to read Suzanne's account of their journey to the ultimate herding title.