The Perpetual Motion Machine

Posted By Amyinseattle on September 2, 2010

I got some video of us working the Come Bye inside flank.  To cover the obvious; yes i can see now that the camera needs to be moved to the left.  oops!!

Here is the first video.  Remember this is the 3rd time she has done a Bye side inside flank and the second time she’s done them successfully.  So there is a lot of hand-holding here.  I want to build her confidence.  So there is a lot of leaning over and you can’t hear it, but there is lots of Yes! and such.  She seemed really unsure still.  i want her to go under the stick.  i want her to come around in front of me, but as we played more i was afraid that she would start associating the inside flank with coming to me instead of just coming in front of me.  I realize the difference is small, but Molly gets into these habits. She remembers and associates things. After a while i was not asking her to Come Bye Here not so close to me, but also behind me or a bit in front – depending on where the sheep were.

This is the next time we went out on the same day.  In this video she’s much smoother.  She doesn’t care if the stick is out or not.  She doesn’t need me to draw her in, just use the command that she’s already associating.

We also worked in a different and slightly larger sized pen. I think next weekend i’ll work the Bye side in the corner of a field. Different places so she doesn’t just associate this little chore with one particular location.

There isn’t any video for the Away side, but i’ll start that this weekend.  She did really well on the bone shape excercises.  Just moving them gently from one pen to another.  She had a hard time at first understanding to push them past me and into the other pen. So when she was about to pass she sheep to bring them back while we were all still in the alley, i told her There and then Walk Up again.    These yearling weathers were happy to keep walking to the pen… so that helped too.

Category: Dog Things, Molly | 1 Comment »
Tags: Australian Shepherd, Driving, Flank, herding, Sheep, Video

Posted By Amyinseattle on September 1, 2010

Flanks; inside, far away and behind the back!

I started today putting Molly in with the same medium (read here, totally fetchy, but not quite sofa quality) sheep as we used in the lesson.   To review we’re trying to do inside flanks.  Typically a flank is half a circle with the handler at one end of the arc and the sheep at the other. The dog goes out along the arc from the handler to the sheep and the sheep run like mad to the handler in a straight line. Each arc direction has a name; counter clockwise is Away to Me or Away, clockwise is Come Bye or Come (also known as Go Bye, but i use Go around the house for other things).  An inside flank is an indication to the dog to complete the circle, as opposed to just creating the initial arc.  When we’re teaching the inside flank, we use the term Away to Me Here or Come Bye Here.  The inside flank can be used for alot of purposes, but the best use to describe is when you are standing at the gate surrounded by sheep and need the sheep to go somewhere else or they will trample you at the gate.

I started first by asking her to do some things that were familiar… flanking in the 4×4 pen.  But i not only encouraged her to circle, which i almost never do, but also to stop behind me and flank on command.  She got the hang of it pretty quick.  After a bit of that, I started occasionally putting myself back to the fence and encouraging her to come to me.  Come as a command is not what i use to call her to me.  However, everyone else she interacts with does so she knows that Come is like Here.  So while her command to complete the flank – Come Bye Here was new, it wasn’t totally foreign.  i just put emphasis on the word she new and less emphasis on Bye.  In time i’ll add the emphasis.  After encouraging her to come to me i wanted to add some R+ to her coming in front of me.  My hope (above all hopes) is that in encouraging her to go in front of me and then letting her do something fun, she’ll start to drive to get in front of me by completing the arc.  Work backwards through the behavior chain, if i’m remembering correctly.   She’s happy to come in front of me on the Bye side for now.  So we’ll see how this works.

After doing the Bone/Dumbbell Exercises below, I also tried this theory with the yearling weathers as they are lighter than the girls… WAY BETTER.  Still not a complete flank, but they weren’t bent on being with me.  I could see the difference in her confidence.

When it came time to put the medium sheep away i had Molly push them off the gate then bring them around and out the gate. The medium sheep live in the pen that is just off the sorting pen at the other end of the alley.  So the draw is to that end of the alley.  The sheep take off that way at a nice slow trot and Molly went right down at about the same pace and stopped at the end of the alley/entrance to the pen.  On a whim, i called out her flank and to my surprise… around she went nice and slow and back up the sheep came back into the 4×4.  Which lead me to send her into the 4×4 with a walk up, then flank… and out they came and down she went.  Why is this important?  Well… for one, because the last time we tried this at Fido’s the speed of choice was fast. For two, because she took the flanks i called out. And for three because i stayed up at the 4×4 pen the entire time.  So YaY!

Category: Molly | No Comments »
Tags: Australian Shepherd, Flank, herding, Sheep

Posted By Amyinseattle on August 26, 2010

In order for this post to make sense you have to understand two things about Molly.  One – Molly has an awesome memory. She learns how to do things, and does not deviate from the way she learned how to do things.  She remembers being slighted by people.  Two – with many dogs there are two lists; the people we like and the people we don’t.  Molly only has one list – the people she likes; no one else exists.  According to Fancy Dog Trainer Lady, she’s not affiliative.  She doesn’t take treats from strangers.  People put their hands out to greet her and she acts confused (looks at the hand, looks at the person, looks at me, then at the person, then at the hand and then at me, etc).  She’s not afraid.  She just doesn’t understand basic social conventions.  She’s so my dog.

Elsie and I spent this lesson trying to figure out how to convince Molly to flank toward me for the crossdrive.   After discussing what i was seeing the few times i’d tried to flank her, we decided to head back to the little sorting box (4×4 pen).  The little pen allows for significantly more control.  First, we started with basic flanks;   i stand in the middle and she did beautiful little flanks and little fetches.  Then… after completing a little fetch i walked with my back to the fence.  The hope was that i could allow her inertia to come all the way around and push them off of me. Or not.

You see, this is what i should have been doing:  Since she was balking at the balance point and flipping around… i should have been stopping her at the balance point and THEN calling her ‘away to me – here’ or ‘here – away to me’, whichever works.  But that’s not how it works in the small pen to Molly.  You’re supposed to go to balance.  *I* was apparently doing it wrong.  So she’d start to slow down after she went to balance, i’d down her and then she’d not come toward me.

But i was having  learning problems of my own.  I couldn’t anticipate the stop and down her at the right time.  Then i couldn’t get to the side of the sheep to call Molly to me.  After watching me struggle, Elsie went in with Molly.  While Elsie and Molly have met a number of times, it just never really dawned on me that they were in the same space but not interacting.  So as i watched Elsie try to handle Molly – with lots of Yes! and encouragement – it was obvious that in Molly’s mind she was working for a stranger and she was not happy about it. After a little work, Molly would walk to Elise and she could be helped to cross over.  That would be after she slipped through the gate at the least amount of pressure. Poor spoiled beastie.

When I traded spots with Elsie,  she was better and I could see what i was doing wrong.  I’m still not getting to the right place every time but i’ll get there.  After a little convincing she’d come toward me, but not in front of me.  Why? Because she thinks you’re not supposed to do that.  After taking her by the collar and using it to guide her in front of me once of twice she was coming more easily to me.  Little by little the place that she is balking is getting just a touch closer to me and further off balance.

So the lesson here is to help her learn to complete the flank.  That Away to Me and Come Bye aren’t always just about going to the top, but sometimes is going in a circle.

Category: Molly | No Comments »
Tags: Australian Shepherd, Commands, Flank, Sheep

Posted By Amyinseattle on August 24, 2010

I think for a lot of people, when there is epic failure we tend to go back to what is comfortable.  2 steps forward, 1 step backward.  Maybe it’s just me.  But  i’m a huge weenie.  However, last weekend when  I took Molly down to Fido’s i decided to not have a real plan… just walk in and do what came to mind.  No training goal per se, just go in and do and enjoy doing.  Let it flow?

We did a few fetch drills.  She’s not bending in on the Bye side as much anymore, but still inconsistently on the Away side.  Which is ok. Time and consistent work will work that out in time.   I’m not too worried. I am starting to send her off my side though.  She’s using me as a crutch otherwise and i’m tired of it.  I don’t wanna walk that much anymore!

We did some pen work.  Which she did well at with one caviot: she’s unsure about going around if i’m behind the gate.  behind the fence is fine, behind the gate makes for a black and white chicken.  Considering though that this is the 3rd time i’ve ever worked take pens with her, she’s doing not so badly.  She also put sheep out into the arena for other people.  Not quite and AKC style set-out, but put them out the gate nicely and they did happen to land around the right place. Yay – since i’d like to try to use her as a setout dog sometime.

We also did a baby crossdrive as per directions below:

In this image, i am yellow, Molly is purple and Sheep are red.  Though instead of going out and around me like in the pic, she’s walking right in behind the sheep because they’re already at the fence.   There are two ways to look at this and i’m sticking with the lemonaide version:  she walks up very nicely, slows on command as needed and after 10 or 15 steps does a lovelyjob of peeling them off the fence back to me. Which for a speed demon is a minor miracle.  The reality version is that she walks up very nicely, slows on command and cannot seem to take a flank toward me.  Tried calling her in Come-Here, Away-Here.  Tried just Come Bye so she’d flank out behind me, and she takes the away to fetch them in to me.  So, instead of perpetuating a bad habit that we can talk to Elsie about it on Wednesday.  When she did it last weekend i tried it twice and she just couldn’t get her head around it.  When i tried it this past weekend i started telling her to Lie and then the flank hoping that it would catch her attention.  Not so much.

However, in a brighter spot, in an open field she’ll push them off me and drive them away straight off me.  She’ll catch the eye and just keep on going.  I’ve had to reinforce the Walk Up which has worked well as she’s forced to Walk Up walking away form me.  So she’s not associating the Walk Up with walking toward me.  Now to just teach her that covering flank. OOHHHHHH Elssssie….

At least i had the good sense to ask for help before i totally break her this time! LOL

Oh and nothing new with Simon.  I might put him out on Wednesday for kicks.  He has a drive so maybe i can figure out steering a little better with him.

Category: Molly | 2 Comments »
Tags: Australian Shepherd, Commands, Driving, Flank, herding, rateing, Sheep