Calm Work. Really?
Last week’s work was so exciting that i was almost afraid to try to recreate it. “I’m good with that, moving right along.”. However, i’ve yet to find a training method that allows for results that cannot be replicated. Which makes sense as a dog can act very differently in a new place, or different sheep or different people watching, or new noises or the grass not being cut the same…. Finicky creatures these young dogs. 
On Friday, I put my ego on the line and tried to recreate the pen exercises from last Sunday. The hard part about recreating an exercise in a different place is that no two facilities are the same. Last Sunday we had 2 round pens of different sizes connected by a narrow alley. On Friday the closest we could get was to work a series of pens all connected. The smallest pen was 7′x7′ (ish). We started there and first had to remind Molly that she can move around in a small space and the sheep won’t bite her ala “Black Sheep – The movie“. After a few minutes she got right into the groove of it. She moved them both directions in that little pen.
The next pen was the same width, but much longer. We worked on her waiting with me after she exhausted the sheep from the small pen to the larger pen. Then retrieving her sheep from the large pen and putting them carefully back in the small pen. The trick in small spaces was keeping things calm and easy. Not necessarily about learning a new skill, but using the same skills in a new place.
In the next practice session, I added a 3rd pen that was larger than the first, but smaller than the second. It was probably premature, but it didn’t go poorly just faster than I’d have liked. So we moved them back to the second pen and went back to a few rounds of quiet work before exhausting them to the big field.
I was really pleased with Molly’s quiet calm work. Maybe even more impressive was how well she was using her farm manners. In moving the sheep from the last pen finally into the first there was some gate management where i had to call her and have her walk with me. Otherwise we ran the risk she’d end up fetching them to me before I was ready and someone (me) was going to get hurt. She also held the sheep off me at a gate. Which was great, but a little surprising. Leave it to Molly to teach herself inside flanks from my giving her wrong commands. However, before assuming that I would need to replicate it. Right? 
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