09/01/2026
Q: What is the 1st quality (power, push, etc) you look for in a breeding prospect?
A: I think the two things I want to see first is some class (Style) paired with free forward. I know you asked for #1 thing, but I donāt really put either of these ahead of each other on my list, I want to see both.
I donāt like loose eyed dogs that have a plain method on sheep, the less eye a dog has generally translates to a dog that has free movement in their flanks and often free forward as well. However, these types of dog generally require more management and often need to be told where to stop and lack feel for the sheepās bubble and donāt find balance easily. The reason someone might prefer a dog like this is they generally just come forward when they are told which is very helpful on more challenging livestock. I have found free forward is far more powerful than what some would consider actual āpowerā on stock. When sheep get into a standoff with a dog, more often than not if the dog would just take a few more steps forward those sheep would turn. A dog with more eye may struggle to take those steps necessary to create movement even if they are generally a strong dog.
Style and class are usually related to how much eye a dog has but not always. I enjoy watching a dog with a pretty method on sheep but eye can quickly become a problem if you arenāt careful. Too much eye can lead to sticky movement, tension, tight flanks, lack of scope etc. I like to think of eye as a spectrum and too much or too little is usually not a dog that I enjoy.
So, when I am evaluating a dog, I am looking at what they do naturally and where I will need to focus on to help them reach their maximum potential. All dogs will need help in one area of training or another, dogs with less eye need help feeling their sheep and finding the right spot and a dog with more eye will need help opening their flanks, staying on their feet, building their outruns. A dog with free forward and some eye to feel the sheep will know where to be but also will happily come forward to move the sheep, they arenāt getting bogged down and stuck. Eye can sometimes create confrontation in sheep, so I want to make sure that the dog will come forward even when the sheep are watching the dog.
Over the years I have found for me that the looser eyed types are easier to start in the beginning but are a lot more challenging to teach the more advanced skills. A dog with nice feel and free forward can be tricky at the beginning but often advance very quickly through the more challenging training. This is very simplistic break down and all dogs sit on this spectrum and then you must start considering all the other traits that make up the dog. That is why breeding working dogs is an artform as well as a science, so many pieces make up a dog and it rarely shakes out exactly how you think it will.
