06/15/2026
When I first announced I was getting an Australian Shepherd for service work, I was told I was setting myself up to fail.
I was told Australian Shepherds are:
- Too energetic
- Too driven
- Too sensitive
- Too reactive to their environment
In some ways they were right, I wasn’t choosing the “easy dog” like a lab or a golden. Aussies certainly not the breed most people recommend for service work.
The funny thing is, the people who were the loudest about what couldn’t be done are often the same people who have never successfully trained a herding breed to this level. What many people don’t understand is that high drive, intelligence, and energy aren’t a flaw.
Those traits simply require a different training approach.
When Nalu came home at 8 weeks old, I wasn’t focused on public access. I was focused on building a dog that could regulate herself. We worked a ton on confidence, engagement, neutrality, and rest, but the internet didn’t see most of that.
They didn’t see the enforced naps.
The hours of socialization.
The exposure outings.
The trick training.
The play sessions.
The days where our only goal was learning how to exist calmly in the world.
People see a one-year-old dog that can settle, work, and handle challenging environments. What they don’t see is the thousands of tiny training decisions that made those moments possible.
Herding breeds are not easy dogs. They notice everything and think constantly, but they also have an incredible desire to work and an equally incredible ability to create their own job if you don’t give them one.
That’s exactly why so much of our training focused on teaching Nalu how to turn off, not just how to turn on.
You don’t get a dog like this by accident. You get a dog like this through consistency, patience, and understanding the breed standing in front of you.
So before criticizing the way someone chooses to train a high-drive working dog, show me the results of your own training, because it’s easy to critique a herding breed from the sidelines. It’s a lot harder to raise one into the dog everyone is now watching.
