#mondio

K.O. got to see a his friend Kevin again last week! He gave us a training plan and helped us with the direction we need to go (after 2 failed attempts at MR1, it was sorely needed. We saw the Bouvier he was training Artoo and Bubby was there, for moral support, of course.

However, I always recommend that you do your bitework foundation first, before you start herding.  This will allow you to reinforce the correct response to the stick and also decoy pressure.  This training does not seem to have an overly negative effect on later herding training, probably because when you do begin herding you will also have a higher level of control on your dog from the protection sport training.  So when they start thinking about taking a shot at the sheep during that first lesson, a verbal "get OUT" command is something they understand and can respond to.  It's not unusually for my dogs when first doing herding to decide they want to grab the stick, crook, flag, etc because I'm blocking them with it, but that resolves itself quickly.  If you do your herding foundation first, or try to do both herding and protection sport foundation at the same time, there is a high chance you will create conflict for the dog that you will spend the remainder of their career trying to fix.  Especially if the same person is doing both the herding and protection sport foundation work.  But if you want to do both, and have a dog with the talent for both, go out and have some fun with your herdingator.