Herding Dog Breeds

 All of the dogs listed below belong to the collection of dogs called Herding Dogs. Dogs in the Herding Group ( sometimes referred to as the Pastoral Group ) were developed to perform a variety of tasks relating mainly to the herding of livestock. The types of livestock that these dogs are associated with are quite diverse and include sheep, cattle, reindeer and any other cloven footed animals. The Herding groups of dogs are eminently suited to these pastoral tasks as many of the breeds have a weatherproof double coat to protect them from the elements when working in severe weather conditions. Their natural abilities have been fully recognised and the initial livestock herding function have been extended to include police work and Search & Rescue amongst other.Thus, the various Herding breeds,  including the Australian Cattle Dog, were bred and introduced to help man according to his specific requirements such as:

1. Herding or Droving various animals including cattle and reindeer
2. Police work
3. Tracking
4. Providing a service to handicapped owners
5. Performing Search & Rescue
6. Acting as sentries and couriers for the Armed Forces

Herding Dogs Characteristics:
In this day and age not every Herding Dog might be called to undertake these tasks, but nevertheless, they still harbor the skills and characteristics that made the original Australian Cattle Dog breeding program successful.
The Herding dogs are medium to large in size. They are intelligent, active, courageous, and determined dogs who make excellent companions and respond well to firm training. Their instincts are very strong and given half a chance they will try to herd, or round up, the family.  They enjoy work and look to their owners to provide tasks to enable them to meet their instincts and be rewarded accordingly.
All of the dogs listed below belong to the collection of dogs referred to as Herding Dogs.

• Alsatian
• Australian Cattle Dog
• Australian Shepherd 
• Bearded Collie 
• Belgian Malinois 
• Belgian Sheepdog 
• Belgian Tervuren
• Border Collie 
• Bouvier des Flandres 
• Briard 
• Canaan Dog
• Cardigan Welsh Corgi
• Collie 
• German Shepherd Dog
• Old English Sheepdog
• Pembroke Welsh Corgi
• Polish Lowland Sheepdog
• Puli
• Shetland Sheepdog

Note: To discover more about specific breeds of Herding Dogs, their origins, history, temperaments and characteristics please follow one of the Blue color links from the list of Herding Dogs :