About Catbird Stockdog Training

What they offer

Catbird Stockdog Training teaches herding with Border Collies and other stockdogs on a farm outside Cheney. The trainer, Dave, has competed in USBCHA sheepdog trials since 2006 and, according to the site, was selected to the U.S. team for the World Championships in 2017 and again in 2023.

Lessons and clinics

Group or private lessons cover the basics and the nuance of communicating with your dog, learning to read stock, and, as skills grow, field work, trial management, etiquette and how terrain affects a young dog. Video lessons are structured as one three-to-four-hour morning or afternoon session, and clinics are held on the farm. The farm covers about 90 acres of rolling ground with a round pen, several smaller sheep paddocks, six-acre and fifty-acre pastures and a 60-foot square pen in the barn for starting young dogs and winter tune-ups.

How he trains

The site sums up the approach in one idea: if a dog isn't doing what you want, he probably doesn't understand what you want.