#sheepdogtraining

Well, my fun training and trial weekend was a bomb.  Due to acclimate weather, both the trial and Friday training place were cancelled.  So, I had my lesson on Thursday and then returned to the real world.  The lesson was fabulous as we tried this pretty incredible (and a little scary) exercise.

Basically, a pen (which is a square/rectangle, is pulled so two sides overlap and make a triangle.  You stand inside of the pen and send the dog for the sheep.  After this happens, you keep your mouth shut.  I do recommend duct tape (maybe handcuffs if you are big on hand signals) or just have a really intimidating instructor standing next to you to keep you quiet.  The entire exercise is to see what your dog does from this point.

For those that do not realize, the Border collie was ORIGINALLY bred to be a "hill dog", to gather a large number of sheep at any distance with little input from humans.  Now a days, especially here in the US where we do not have an incredible number of large sheep farms (think about it, most of our sheep comes from New Zealand), the traits we are breeding for may be a bit different depending on the breeder.  Some choose those natural gathering dogs, some lines are being chosen for bite and driving, others for speed, etc.  Your expectations for this exercise is that the dog has been sent to gather, so they should bring the sheep to you and try to hold the sheep to you.  Using a flock of about 20 sheep around a small triangle makes this difficult because the sheep don't want to settle next to you so you have some around the pen action.

Beck was first up for me and, hilariously enough, my worst dog at this exercise.  He was sent to gather and the entire time he spent driving sheep around.  He would start to bring them to me, but make it about 6 feet from me before flipping in and driving them away.  I was actually (eventually) told to talk to him somewhat so that we could get sheep to us.  Now - my take on this is pretty simple here.  He is cattle dog blood lines, was a farm dog on an Angus cattle farm, and was a cattle trial dog.  I imagine no one wants cattle literally brought to them and they like more push and driving in cattle.  So, you can see where some breeding and training can alter that natural original purpose.  He and I have done the exercise since and it went about the same way.  So, we will continue to work with the exercise - as in the last practice I was able to get the sheep to me with whistle commands and make him do the exercise with verbal commands to show him what I was expecting.  We will see what he thinks next time we try.

Quelle was beautiful.  That dog is loaded with natural feel for her sheep and is a natural gathering dog.  She brought them and kept them to me, was really good about getting a feel for where to be to hold them to me as a group without them slipping around the corners, and we practiced some corner assist shedding (using a corner of the triangle to separate the sheep to two groups and calling her to that corner).  So since I talked about breeding with Beck, I will talk a little about Quelle.  She is out of a UK import stud to a female that goes back to imported hill dogs.  Quelle is very much bred to gather and  has a natural outrun - she knows to go out and look for sheep and bring them back to her handler naturally.  Which means the training to drive has been a bit shakier even though she is enthusiastic to drive as well.

Crystal is not a natural dog - although she is definitely more likely to gather than to drive.  She did so, brought them up, but had a very difficult time finding where she needed to be (not too far away, not too close, etc.) to hold the sheep to me without loosing them around the corners.  She has no problem coming through the group to me, but almost no feel for her livestock.  The lesson actually turned into a grip lesson.  Crystal has NEVER shown a propensity to grip.  Zero bite.  So we had her backing sheep around and chasing singles around the pen, trying to encourage her to do so.  Our lesson turned into a confidence boosting lesson because, even if she never bites, she needs to approach her livestock (especially those facing her and thinking of charging) as though she will bite.  

And for whatever CRAZY reason, we did this exercise with Eve.  Eve is now 10 months old - keen as can be on livestock, but has NO recall and I was told not to put a long line on her.  Again, NO RECALL and in a large field where cattle are at the other end, there is a giant lake, and and open gate to the road much further away.  Yeah, laugh, ask questions, wonder why she has no recall, but I am pretty sure I was thinking this was crazy when I got her from the car.

Does anyone even realize how nervous I was - I was expected to send my 10 month old puppy who has been on short trips to livestock maybe 5 or 6 times, out to pick up a large group of sheep and I was expected to stand in a pen and NOT HELP HER.  

That puppy...  wow.  She has an outrun, she went out and got behind them.... then proceeded to circle them.  No desire to bring them, but she definitely had them.  Combination work of adult dogs to help push the sheep and me calling her to tell her where I was, eventually got me my sheep.  From there, she knew exactly where to be to hold them to me.  She held them so well to me that it was hard to push a sheep or two around a corner so she would have to cover.  Every time I bent over to push, she would flank over and keep it in.  Crazy little girl.  And when she wanted them to move, she came in with a hard heel bite.  

There was certainly more excitement to this, including an adult dog coming in to help with biting, separating a single sheep that another adult dog wanted to help Eve catch and bring back leading to a lovely chase.  It was so hard to stand in that pen and do nothing.  I am used to going out and helping her, but I wasn't allowed to as the exercise is about seeing what is natural behavior and instinct to the dog.  

It was pretty incredible to watch that puppy and she is going be a wonderful stock dog when she is trained.  She is going to make me work for that training though and I will be looking forward to it.

The exercise in general was a lot of fun and different from what we normally do.  It is certainly something to come back to and hopefully will free the dogs up when it comes to the Outrun Lift and Fetch.  Beck will definitely need a lot of this.  

Unfortunately, my instructor is headed overseas and so the next lesson will not be until mid/end March.  Which means I will be back to training on my own.  Hopefully, I have enough exercises and things to work on to fill the time.  I have a fun set of trials coming up and a trip to Florida for two trials, so that should certainly eat up some time.

New Year's Goal!  To keep up with this blog better!  I am still recovering from over a month's stretch of trials and training (along with my regular full time job and life), so rather than backdate a bunch of things - I want to really look at this New Year.  I have trials coming up this weekend - so I plan to blog those results and evaluations, and another at the end of the month.

For a while now, I have felt like I was drifting a bit in herding.  I did not have a real instructor - but rather someone giving some suggestions and someone to work dogs with.  I am now working with one of the top USBCHA handlers in the US, taking lessons at his farm twice a month.  He is incredible.  He has ages of experience over me and is an incredible trainer, focusing on bringing out natural ability in the dog - wanting it to work and think on its own with you there to help and guide.  I have taken four lessons with him now, and I am really starting to feel a difference.

His methods are a bit different from other approaches I have taken and they certainly seem effective.  I am feeling a lot more confident in my own handling - which is rather remarkable really.  Enough so that I am looking at moving my main trial dog up to the Open class in USBCHA trials in another month.

For Beck (my main man), we have been focusing on using lighter control.  I have been using quieter and quieter whistles so that it doesn't sound like I am yelling at him all the time.  Beck carries a lot of tension in his work and it builds resulting in unnecessary grips.  So, we are also working on letting him work more naturally and doing exercise where I am not putting any control on him - talking sweet to him, unless he grips where then he is given a nasty verbal correction.  Just one 10 minute span of doing this made a quite a bit of difference in a trial course.  I am looking forward to seeing how taking off some of the heavy handed reins results in a smoother and happier dog.  This dog is my first dog and I desperately want to do well with him.

For Quelle (the up and coming dog), I had taken off the reins entirely since I purchased her, building back her confidence and getting her more comfortable with pushing on livestock, teaching her to grip, etc.  Now that I have all that back, we are working on adding control back to the work.  It has been pointed out to me that she has great feel for her sheep - she does a great job of reading her livestock and knowing how to bring them on.  But in a fetch (bringing sheep to my feet), she starts speeding up and flipping back and forth rather than staying nice and behind them steadily.  That is one major thing we have been working on - additionally, we are trying to get that same sort of movement when she is driving (she is moving livestock where directed, me not in the picture).  Yesterday's lesson really did show a lot of improvement there. 

My main thing recently has been shedding.  In USBCHA trials, the open class has to do things like splits and/or sheds.  And I don't mean buildings here (although that might just be easier).  A split would be to take your group - lets say four sheep - and literally split the group into two groups of two, your dog and you make that separation in a tiny circle  and the dog takes control of one of those groups that you direct the dog on.  The dog has to keep the two groups separate while moving one away from the other.  A shed is much the same, only it is not two even groups.  Usually here it is a group of 3 sheep and you are asked to shed off a single sheep.  I will get into specifics about shedding (and the international shed) at a different time.

Point is, this is a skill level you exhibit in the top tier class of USBCHA trials.  It is a skill I am desperate to gain as it makes zero sense to me!  I get it in theory, but in practice making that space for my dog to come into and let sheep wrap around my legs....  it is taking some time.  I will have to search for some photos (that will not belong to me) to illustrate this for you.