Welcome to NaturalHerding.com

This instructional website is exclusively for students who have either taken lessons or a seminar with Laura Noll. It is an educational resource for those currently working their dogs and who actively seek to improve their herding skills and their relationship with their dog for positive and successful herding.

Subscriptions are on an annual basis and will be approved on a case-by-case basis. This is because the lesson material presented in this website is written as supplemental to hands-on lessons or seminars, not as a book of herding instruction written from “scratch”. It is also intended to be a dynamic, steadily growing and changing website, designed to meet the needs of Laura's students, especially her long distance students.

About Our Philosophy

Laura Noll selected this motto several years ago because it is how she approaches herding – from her heart, but she also approaches herding with her head. Her more than 30 years of stockdog training experience gives her a unique and very perceptive approach to herding, which led to this website's name and motto - “Natural Herding”.

Natural Herding is one of the best ways to describe how Laura works with a herding dog. She works with the dog’s natural instincts, drives, needs, and sensitivities to get the most out of a herding prospect. Through this process, the dog-owner relationship deepens, creating respect for the owner in the dog and properly orienting the dog-owner relationship in both herding and everyday life.

What Laura Teaches

Laura focuses on clear goals and effective communication skills to both her human and canine clients. A new handler must understand the goals and objectives of a herding lesson if they want to communicate the lesson effectively to their dog.

Further, Laura focuses on the nature of the relationship between dog and handler because it is the key to successful, confident and enjoyable herding. Truly, it is the key to all successful and enjoyable dog ownership and dog sport activities. Often this relationship is damaged or improperly oriented and Laura helps handlers to orient, develop and repair where necessary, their relationships with their dogs.

Laura is based in Southwest Virginia, USA, but has spent much of her herding career in Los Angeles and San Diego. She teaches herding clinics and judges herding trials in the US and Australia. She teaches extensive theory in her clinics and lessons to provide herding structure and framework for the handler while showing them how to create a successful herding experience with their dog.

For more information about Laura and for articles about introductory herding sessions, links and a recommended reading list, please go to www.glenrosefarms.com.