wondering now if huskies have it in their nature to be herding animals?! A friend of mine has a bunch of land that is leased for cattle grazing and today my boy was running around there and he wandered over to a large herd of cows and started barking and running back and forth and the next thing I know the herd was all running in the opposite direction! Then out of the blue one of the bulls started running towards him and ran him off! Wish I had my camera because the whole thing was priceless!

I've wondered the same thing. When Freya gets excited, she herds my kids lol

A long, long time ago for the tribes of Chukchi people who were not nomadic - Their Siberians were used as hunters and herders. (these "Siberians" later became other breeds thanks to the Russians!)

The original imports were from nomadic tribes and used for pulling sleds so the herding instinct was very much lost/never really there in the first place since it wasn't a trait the nomadic tribes bred for. What you most likely witnessed was an overstimulated dog (the sight of the cattle/strange things) that caused the barking and the cows becoming stressed due to the dog which caused the panic and the dog to run (appearance of a herding act) which caused the cattle to move and the prey drive kicking in causing the dog to chase. The bull running towards him triggered the fight or flight instinct in which your dog choose wisely to flee .

In all honestly you probably COULD train a Siberian to herd on some basic level. It probably wouldn't be very good though lol so don't expect to enter any HT with him.

Adobo just goes nutso when she sees cows or horses and wants to play (?) chase. Just be careful so your Husky doesn't receive a kick I'm sure it could be quite damaging.

Since herding drive is modified prey drive... I would err on the side of caution and say that Siberians in general wouldn't make good herding dogs. For example... When my dogs are playing they will run against each other, bite for the neck or back, and pull the other down. Ewe, the Aussie, on the other hand runs against or around and barks or nips. There's never a bite with him.

You haven't meet Maggie. She would be a perfect herding dog. However, I grew up with border collies. She picked up her herding herding stuff from my parents Border collie. Though since the prey drive is really high in most huskies or mals, they wouldn't be good herding dogs because I know like Maggie she take off. BC's will respond to most commands on the first try. Maggie 2-3 tries.

My female greyhound used to herd my three boys when they were little, she didn't like it if one got away lol

Under the history of the husky states that they were used to herd reindeer.

http://www.siberian-huskies101.com/history-of-a-Siberian-Husky.html

When I thought Char might be a mix with border collie, I read somewhere that a husky border collie was a dog that could herd moose! I guess it wouldn't be far off.