Herding Instinct

[TrinaJ]

Well today my miniature horse got out of her yard and into my back yard (she crawls under the fence ). After 40 minutes of trying to coax her to come to me (She knew she was going back into her yard), Jett, my 5 month old rotty decided to 'assist' me by herding her into the yard - she literally rounded her up and pushed her in through the gate!!! Are they born with this instinct or did she just perhaps think it was just a game?

Next time I think I'll just inlist her help rather than trying to 'catch' the little mennace.

[fbkeays]

Rottweilers were orginially cattle dogs. They drove cattle. The herding instinct is very strong in rottweilers given that they had not been bred for it since about 1890 when the railroad took over their job of taking stock to market. There also was a law passed that a dog that was used for hunting could not also be used for moving stock. Rottweilers were the all purpose farm dog and that included hunting everything from birds to boar.
By the turn of the century they had lost their orginial jobs and their numbers were shrinking quickly. About at that time someone decided to see if the rottweiler could be a police dog. That is how they got involved in SchH and why they are in the working group instead of the herding group in AKC.