In this video, 12 week old border collie Lennon meets sheep for the first time.
Initial exposures are important for working lines border collie pups as you want to ensure that you’re creating the right conditions to evaluate whether their instinct is ready to kick in.
In this video you see Lennon starting off as just a happy puppy out for a walk, then he has some mild curiosity for the sheep. But then when they react to his presence you can see something click in his brain “these things are maybe afraid of me” and after that his tail starts to drop and stiffen (into a “working” tail) and he’s off to the races.
Some pups bred from top herding lines never turn on (the genetic lottery). Some pups show no interest until grown. Others, like Lennon here, switch on extremely young and never look back.
