Written by Dawna Sims | PSR Stockdogs

As we train our stockdogs, we spend a tremendous amount of time teaching them to listen, respond, and work as a team with us. But in that process, there are two qualities we can accidentally take away from our dogs that are incredibly difficult—sometimes impossible—to fully restore.

Those two things are speed and confidence in their instinct.

Both are gifts our dogs naturally bring to the job. Both are essential to creating a truly great working dog and both can slowly disappear if we’re not thoughtful about how we train.

Be Careful Not to Teach Your Dog That Speed Is Wrong

One of the biggest challenges for handlers is that we naturally want things to slow things down. When everything is happening quickly, we feel out of control. We want more time to think, process, and react.

In many situations, slowing the work down is appropriate. We absolutely want our dogs to rate the stock so they aren’t running them unnecessarily or creating stress. Calm, thoughtful work is always the goal. However, we need to be very careful how we achieve that calmness.

When a dog is racing through gathers or flanks, our goal is not to make them slower. Instead, we focus on improving the quality of the work.

We build:

• Square flanks.
• Wider outruns.
• Better confidence.
• Lower arousal.

As these pieces improve, the frantic speed often disappears on its own. The gathers become softer, the flanks become smoother and dog begins to work with purpose rather than excitement.

The important distinction is this:

We improve the movement without taking away the speed.

If every time our dog moves quickly we correct them, fuss at them, or insist they slow down, eventually they learn a dangerous lesson:

Speed is wrong.

Then one day you need that speed. You need a quick flank on light stock, you need your dog to cover a hard draw before sheep escape or you need an explosive response when the situation demands it. But your dog no longer has that gear available because they have learned that moving with speed gets them into trouble.

Once a dog truly believes they shouldn’t go fast, restoring that confidence can be incredibly difficult.

As handlers, we have to remember that while slowing things down may help us learn and have time to think, we don’t want our learning process to take away one of our dog’s greatest natural abilities.

Don’t Silence the Voice in Their Head

The second quality we must protect is our dog’s confidence in their instinct.

We often describe instinct as the “voice in their head.”

It’s the part of the dog that reads livestock, feels pressure, anticipates movement, and makes split-second decisions that no handler could ever fully predict. As trainers, it’s easy to become focused on obedience. We want every command taken immediately, we want every flank exactly where we pictured it, we want every decision to come from us. But sometimes what we’re asking conflicts with what the stock is actually doing.

If every time our dog makes a decision we tell them they’re wrong, correct them, and insist they ignore what they’re seeing or feeling, eventually something changes. They begin to question themselves. Instead of confidently reading stock, they start waiting for us to tell them every move. If they hear often enough that their instincts are wrong, they’ll eventually believe it.

That is a tremendous loss.

Our goal shouldn’t be to replace instinct with obedience, it should be to teach our dogs how to understand us while still trusting themselves.

Allowing Dogs to Think

Great working dogs aren’t robots, they are partners.

That means they need opportunities to think, solve problems, and make decisions. Sometimes those decisions won’t be exactly what we would have chosen. But, if they make sense for what the stock is doing, those moments become valuable learning opportunities—not mistakes that always need correction.

When dogs are allowed to think, perform real jobs, and experience success using their instincts, they become more confident. Confident dogs become more reliable, reliable dogs become better partners.

Finding the Balance

The best trainers find the balance between guidance and freedom.

We teach our dogs the skills they need and how to receive information from us. We teach them to work with us instead of against us. But throughout that process, we protect the very qualities that make them exceptional working dogs in the first place.

We preserve their speed and we preserve their instinct.

When we do that, something remarkable happens. Our dogs become more cooperative, not less. They become confident decision-makers who trust us because we trust them. That is when the relationship transforms from handler and dog into a true team.

As trainers, that balance should always be our highest priority. Because the goal isn’t simply to create a dog that obeys—it is to create a dog that thinks, works, and partners with us while never losing the natural gifts that made them suited for this work in the first place.

About Dawna Sims

Dawna Sims has more than 21 years of hands-on experience training dogs and handlers to work livestock and is the author of The Rules of the Hunt. She leads PSR Stockdogs with Megan Sims-Kennedy; together they were named 2025 Herding Breeder of the Year by the American Kennel Club, and their program is ASCA Hall of Fame Excellent Kennel #25.