Reddit mentions of Top Trainers Talk about Starting a Sheepdog: Training a Border Collie on Sheep and Other Livestock

You might enjoy http://www.amazon.com/Trainers-Talk-About-Starting-Sheepdog/dp/0979469015



Not Cattledog specific but still, good discussions on early days with puppies.

First off, I think it's excellent you're trying to incorporate your dog into your sheep operation... it'll be easy to see the benefits once you really get going!

>She does these just fine when we're on our own

The flanking/driving commands are completely useless off of sheep, there is no relevance to the dog for those specific commands away from livestock. They need the livestock as a reference for them to make sense. Once you introduce sheep into the mix, obedience completely goes out the window (at first), and that's completely normal. Once they get keen is when you can start introducing concepts and adding some pressure to them.

What's the DVD you've watched? A couple I really like are "First Steps in Border Collie Sheepdog Training", which is good for covering a lot of basics with different types of dogs (including a 'sticky' dog with a lot of eye like yours), and I've only seen it once but Aled Owen's "Time Well Spent" covers a lot of basics and concepts as well.

A couple books I really like:

A Way of Life (this is probably my favorite)

Stockdog Savvy

Talking Sheepdogs

Top Trainers Talk about Starting a Sheepdog (another favorite, but this might be more in depth/advanced than you need right now)

Overall, though, I would really recommend finding a trainer who can help you get started- take lessons, and work on what you're learning at home. If you can tell me whereabouts you're located, we can help you find a trainer near you!