I took some time this weekend to shake the dust off myself and The Machine.  It’s funny, we always talk about how to ease back into to work after a long break and such.  Where i know the information in my mind, i went to send her and immediately moved forward from where we’d left off.  This doesn’t happen every time, but more often than not and it’s part of what makes her fun.

This weekend was Day One of take pen training.  I had thought that doing the barbel work would have been super helpful, but I was finding that the information wasn’t transferring as i’d hoped.  My initial try was just standing at the pengate and walking her in on command.  Which wasn’t working for a variety of reasons.  The first being that she’s not done a take pen before so she’d run in the Away direction along the fenceline not in the pen…  The second being that the heavy Barba-deer we were working haven’t been worked in a good long while and they weren’t interested in starting today.  Molly has never dealt with sheep that do the Fight portion of fight or flight, so this was all new to her.

After a little try and failure, i set her up at the mouth of the pen and walked in with her by the collar. Not rough, but with two fingers helping move along the pen’s fence line toward the sheep at something that resembles the speed desired.  Then a sit at the hinge of the pen, which can later morph into a pause – like running contacts in agility. This all moved along nicely for a while. She’d push them out and then stop, i’d change positions from her left side to her right and then send her out on a Come Bye to fetch the sheep and bring them back to the pen and stop her before she entered the pen.  Her stop at the mouth of the pen after fetching became a bit dramatic after a while as a few times she stopped so fast she slid on her bum and then selfcorrected and scootched backwards so not *in* the pen.

On one little trip around the take pen, i went slower and with that tipped our hand in a way to the sheep.  Understand that alot of Molly’s power is in her speed and motion.  She’s still figuring out how to use her eye and her teeth.  We’ve skipped the idea of her using her voice. It just isn’t who she is.  When the sheep started to realize that she wasn’t as powerful when she slowed down and there wasn’t anything to fill that void they began to slow down.  By the next go around, the black sheep turned and went head down and hoof digging in the same way you’d see a bull in a rodeo – challenging the dog.   There are two ways to deal with this.  The first is to be the handler, reach out thunk it on the nose and keep on moving.  The other is to be the ‘assistant’ and encourage the dog to thunk it on the nose and keep moving.  I chose the second as Molly isn’t young or grippy, nor does she seem to desire take a sheep down by the nose. It’s good for her confidence.  The next quick thought was how to name this or to name this.  We use Take Hold in tug and i didn’t want to risk her exhibiting her tug behavior on a sheep.  So out of my mouth came “psppsppsppp get her, nutty” and she knew exactly what i wanted.  With a finger still on the collar she put her power in the back legs and her nose almost to the ground underneath the sheeps nose and snapped twice.  True to a heavy sheep, the black sheep just turned gave a flank and moved slowly out of the pen.  “that’ll do… walk up” and Molly was back with me and moving them out of the pen.  The last walk in i didn’t hold on to her at all.  Just had to step into her a little to remind her to stop before leaving the pen.

Overall she did great work.  I did take video, but then realized that it was centered on the wrong part of the pen.   However we’ll get another video soon. There is still alot of work to do.

It seems like the successes i enjoy the most are the ones that I don’t do on purpose. The thought process is like this: oh, well this location is sorta different… what can i try here? Oh, there she goes. Lets see what she does.

No joke. Now don’t think that she just takes off and causes messes. She downs and recalls nicely about 90% of the time, even at a dead run in large spaces and has good manners in small spaces. When I say ‘oh there she goes’, she’s taken about 4 steps and I’m noticing something new in her body language. Usually in relation to the sheep, but sometimes in relation to me. I like to capture those little moments of instinct and mess around with them.

We spent some time in our new favorite big field with Lisa and my other favorite red dog, Brynn. Brynn did beautiful drives… and we were struggling with inside flanks today and did some great small flank & circle work. Molly got to multitask, drinking in the stocktrough and holding the sheep at the same time – one of her favorite things. In finding not so much success with other skills, I watched her do this little multitasking stunt and decided to try asking her to walk up from this position. She was already paying attention to them without me anywhere in the sight-line. Also in standing next to Lisa and Brynn, the sheep would be less likely to fetch to me. Like holding a side… sortof. I only asked for 4 or 5 steps before i called her off, but she was beautiful. Nice well mannered and thoughtful steps with a little eye.

Our other fabulous little surprise was on the way out of our new favorite field. Since Fido’s was doing their Ranch Trial Training there were sheep in new places, including the alleyway to the field. I noticed that with both Brynn and Molly walking in the alleyway, the sheep were driving nicely. Not freaked out, or really even showing signs of stress at all. I asked Lisa to close the gate behind her and started the process of having Molly fetch the sheep to me and then swinging around and pushing them off me. First just walking with her as we pushed the sheep and she steered (i’ll have to take a video, it’s pretty funny). Then having her walk in front of me, taking her walk up and then lying her down when she was about to flank around and calling her back to me.

At this point, she seemed to really get it. Lying her down and calling her back is a new thing, but she was totally in tune with what was going on. I remembered how Elsie had told me that my homework was to start the walk up as she got in front of me in her inside flank. So she’s be walking perpendicular away from me. However, in a 8′x20′ alley, there really wasn’t enough room to guarantee that she’d take the flank. Instead of risking a bad experience i decided to improvise. While she’d not be learning to take them away from in front me, it seems that something that can be installed as we go.

At one point in all of this i noticed that once she got about 10′ away she kept trying to fetch on the Away side. She’d get just far enough to turn the noses before i caught her and told her to down and the recalled her. After the third time, i’m not sure what happened but instead of saying That’ll Do, Come just came out of my mouth and she pivoted and came around. Heads turned and i wasn’t about to call her back… so Walk up. And Up and off they went.

So AWESOME. I repeated, but was too chicken to try to Away side flank. It’s still soft and i need to keep working on it. Next weekend.

I tested this new game on different sheep in a similar space, and repeated the exercise. At first she was a little unsure as we had inadvertently gone from superbroke puppysheep to the light trial training sheep. Despite that it didn’t take her very long to get her head around the larger flightzone. Whhheeee!!!

More inside flanks. When Elsie told me this would take a while to get down, i thought she was trying to make me feel better.  Yeesh.  On the upside, i’ve worked Molly on the Bye side in a few different places and she seems to be getting more solid.  Her Away side still needs work, but she consistently improving.  In this last session, i used less of my voice on the Away side.  She’s always learned best by physical cues, so i wanted to start getting the motion down first instead of having my words confuse her.

We did that a few times and broke it up the session by doing some take pens.  She’s a little hesitant to walk into the pen by herself, but i’d almost rather her to be a little hesitant and turn her up, than have her bolt in there and constantly be trying to tone her down.   At least right now and assuming that she’ll gain confidence with experience.  Honestly, my biggest fear wasn’t her going on, it was the coming out.  I really didn’t want the part where the sheep come out to be pandemonium.   Sheep doing 90miles an hour trying to get anywhere but where they were.  I understand that will happen with some sheep regardless, but I wanted her to get an idea of what i was looking for the first time. She’s a first time learner after all.  Teach her a bad habit and she’ll do it forever. 

After doing the back and forth – inside flanks then take pens and repens – i think i got a little over confidant.  I’m not sure how the picture in my mind looked.  Maybe that was the problem, i’m not sure i had one.  I wanted to see if she’d do the work in a larger space.  Which she will, eventually.  What i really didn’t plan on is the part where the sheep leave. Whoops… and to add insult to injury where she’s really fast, she’s doing exact what i’m telling her to do repeating ComeByeHere over and over sounds a lot like ‘faster faster faster’.  See what i should have done was stood either close to corner so they’d head up the corner and she’d stop right in front of me, or stood further from the corner and had her push them into the corner and stop. This seemed like such a good idea at the time. heehee oh well.

To continue the comedy, inbetween my inside flank and take pen/repens a very nice woman, Lauren i think, came up and asked about that very cute little dog i was working.   She’s puppy hunting.  She made some really nice compliments about how Molly worked and how i was using my voice. EEE!!!  Since i was still standing in the sorting pen with Molly and sheep, I found I had to stop our conversation occasionally to turn Molly the other direction. You see she’d broken her stay and was doing her inside flank drills without noticing that i wasn’t actually involved.  So, instead of stopping her i just turned her the other way and she started doing the away side flanks.  Remember, the ones we’re struggling with?    Apparently the correct command isn’t ‘away to me here’, it’s ‘hey, Obsessive Compulsive.  Other way.’ with a little hand gesture.  Who would have thought?

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.

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.

I’ve really struggled with this post.  Sometimes when writing i feel a little like i’m posting to two masters; the Training Journal concept and the very public nature of a Blog.  Which, when things go great, are great. When they don’t go as well as hoped, it can be hard to really publicly call a spade a spade.  It puts one in a  position in which they need to look past the appearances and really see things as they are.  In sticking with wise advice from smart friends, lets start with what went right instead of doing a post in chronological order.

On heavy cattle – Molly was totally obsessed with keeping her cows together and found that she could use this obsession to work together with another dog who’s obsession was to move them – anywhere.  So where the BC was working on the outside of the roundpen and occasionally going in for the heel and getting the cattle moving, the two girls kept the cows moving along nicely in a group – the BC in charge of forward motion and Molly dutifully working just off the fence in side the pen and keeping all 3 cows together.  When the cattle got to a spot where the BC  couldn’t get in a reach, Molly eventually pushed just enough to get them on their way a bit. Even went in for a grip.

She’s fine working in the pen without me there. Meaning only that she doesn’t cause trouble. We were working to get the cows into a side chute from the arena. Molly was in the arena with a lone cow. At first i was out with her and she wasn’t sure what to do.  Eventually as she watched me go through the chute she started holding the cow to the chute.  She had to push the cow into a small (cow width) chute just taking her commands and using a little common sense.  It was slow – really slow – but she got it.  Moving one cow by it’s self is hard.  It’s always easier to take a group to the one, but this is what we had.

On Goats – She was awesome with her short flanks.  There was a dog kennel with distracting puppies in the goat yard. I was having some problems keeping her engaged.  “These goats just follow you. I’m going to lay near the stocktank until you actually need me.”  I starting having her do blind short flanks with goats around the puppy pen.  It was about 3 feet off the arena fencline and 10 feet from the corner. So i  had her holding them close to the pen on the arena side and fetching. Then then swinging around on an inside flank, turning them the other way and bringing them through the 3foot ‘alley’.  Stop her for a hold, coming all the way behind me and doing a little drive through the alley and to the corner.  Hold them in the corner  – confirmed only by the fact they didn’t run anywhere else as i couldn’t see them! Then finally calling off and finishing.

On Simon – I often forget just how powerful that dog is.  He could move a cement pole.  I love that about him.  He only works once or twice a year, but he knows exactly what he’s doing. It may not always be what i’m doing…  It’s not always pretty, but come hell or highwater the cow will move.  Head or heel, it doesn’t matter and half the time he doesn’t even have to threaten a connection.  A cow lowers a head and he lowers in turn, gets 2 inches from their nose, lets out a few barks and even heavy cows will turn.  Bad breath?

The general bad: she was flat.  Earthworm flat.  Unhappy, ‘i am doing this under protest’ type flat.  The kind of flat that is really just painful to watch.  I didn’t register The Perpetual Motion Machine as an act of irony. I put her on different goats and she was still flat.  She blew out two pads and worked just as flat.  i couldn’t even tell a difference until she started limping.

There are a lot of reasons she could run flat.  Maybe because i was nervous beyond my normal nervous?  I’ve not worked goats before so i wasn’t sure what to expect.  Maybe because she started follow Ron and I after i told her to Down and forgot to say Stay and he got after her?  Maybe because it was all new stock types to her? Maybe choosing heavy stock instead of stock that required less pressure was a bad call on my part?  Maybe different terrain was messing with her head? Maybe she is just coddled – which i’ve tried hard not to do, but what is heavy pressure to a bitty girl is different?

Really, who knows.  The moon was in the wrong position… whatever. While i was really disappointed that these Border Collie people that we were visiting with were seeing a working Aussie for maybe the first or second time and saw my flat flat dog. I got over it when one commented that ‘the stock don’t move unless the dog is moving’.  It’s the breed type, but if that was the part that was most bothersome, then there was no making a good impression with my dog anyway.  Not in a bad way, butjust as a general statement.  We’re looking for different things.   I’ve been insulated by the AussieFolk too long. LOL

Don’t read this so much as being ‘down on my dog’.  It just wasn’t what I expected.  I didn’t expect a Cowdog, but I was expecting more power. meh.  Will come with confidence. Between now and then, i know that if  Elsie is doing cattle lessons… we can talk seriously about doing a lesson.  Previously my concern was that she’d be too much. 

Last week, i had this really amazing moment.  The universe finally punished me for doing something exceptionally stupid. It’s been holding back lately.  I’m a huge proponent of R+ learning, but every once in a while you need a well timed right cross to say Pay ATTENTION.  I worked with a trainer years ago who used to tell me that if you weren’t here mentally, then your physical presence wasn’t worth the effort.  I always thought it was some weird voodoo, but i finally get it.

You see last weekend i did something small, very dangerous, thoughtless and finally stupid and i got my tush handed to me.  I was being lazy and couldn’t find Molly’s short trial leash in my bag. In a fit of sheer stupidity i grabbed Simon’s leash, tethered her up and we went out to work sheep.  Anyone who has seen Simon’s leash knows what the problem is: the leash extends from 4′ to 8′ and attaches to a snaps on to any of the multiple metal loops on a no slip waist band.  Each end of the leash has a small brass snapclips, so you can attach both ends to the waistband for easy storage.  If there’s no dog attached, it looks like something a dominatrix would wear to work.

I go out, unlatch her, attached the dog end of my leash to a metal loop on the waist band and go about the business of having a not horrible practice time.  She was actually doing pretty well with her homework considering i was mentally out to lunch.  After about ten minutes i was about to leash her up and go put her away when i notice something shiny (ewes with playful lambs in the next field) and took no more than 5 steps.  All the sudden i was sliding on my ass down the field with a sheep under my arm… stuck in the leash.  I tried to stop Molly, but you raise your voice and she goes faster.  Fool headed dog looked like a &*^#(* cutting horse and  fool headed handler was getting what she deserved – a good ass kicking.  After what felt liked minutes or hours, i managed to get a hand on the fence and another one around the sheep and settled her down. Got Molly out of the way… unhooked the sheep and proceeded to go directly home.

I was pretty lucky. These aren’t Jacob ewes.  They are 175 pounds light and i’ve only found one that likes her head scratched.  I managed to get out of the arena with a busted up hand and a few muscle bruises.  I have a whole new appreciation for that VooDoo – and that little three foot leash!

Today was pretty awesome, actually.  First i was proud i got back on the horse; my hand still hurts and i’m a big weenie.  I made a point to confirm that the appropriate leash was in my bag, but left my gloves at home.  meh.  The topics today were supposed to be our Homework and a little bit of outrun work.   Homework from Elsie was Hitting for the Cycle, but at every stop to  have her then also walk into the stock.   Using the word Supposed is a bit out of line, we did those things.  However, it was obvious that we first needed to have a very precise conversation about Down.  I’m tired of screwing around with Down and it’s becoming more and more obvious that our messy down is well, the downfall of our work.

While i put appropriate emphasis on the homework for the entire day, i really pushed the down.  I had the stick (which she feels very strongly) and after about the third time the stick came down Mr. Bean style, it was clear to her that down was Down.  Was I strong with her?  Yes.  Actually the stick was strong, the down command was the same.  I didn’t want her to only down with Angry Down.   I was most impressed with us when she later tried to take a wrong flank and went from full speed to a dead stop.  Click/Brownie, thank you v much.

Our outrun work was the basic stuff i should have been doing months ago (last year?).    In the culinary world, when you take something complicated and break it down into it’s elements it’s called Deconstructing.  The outrun is no different.  It’s something big and it is easier to teach when you break it down into smaller more manageable pieces.   For entirely too long, i’ve been walking out to be in between Molly and the stock, not taking notice that i should have been being more mindful not only of how long the outrun was, but also to start not walking out so far toward the stock.

We deconstructed the figure 8 drill into Outrun, Down, Walk up… about 20 feet of total space used.  Instead of sending her when i was closer to the stock, I was about 2 feet away from her.

I saw some really great stuff and will just gush stock-dork: she was wide off the post, went out square to the top,  turned in and after i showed her she could – she started to walk in easy on her own instead of  running BScrazy.   It was so cool to see her little gears turning.  We’re at about 20 feet right now, and we’ll add distance in small increments.   She did a few repen fetches from my side.  So maybe there is a light at the end of that tunnel too.

Outside of the fact that we had to discuss who’s really running this circus, the last lesson was happily uneventful. We’re still working on Hitting for the Cycle, but with each down well add a walk up into her stock.

Elsie did make a side comment that has be rocking around in my head a lot lately: Your voice is still bad.

As started handlers, we’re often so focused on saying the right words at the right time that we often miss the finer points of how we communicate verbally with our dogs. As a handler, i’ve had that moment that i’m sure others can relate to. When you say Come Bye (clockwise) and mean Away To Me (counter clockwise). The sheep take off the wrong direction, a cluster has ensued. Then in a total brain fart, you get after your dog for going the wrong way, when in reality they went the way you told them to go. But that’s not exactly what Elsie was getting at.

Dogs can very quickly learn associations of actions to words. Don’t think it’s true? Pick a short random word out of the dictionary – like Lemming and for a few days say it just before you let your dogs outside. Just watch to see how long it takes for your dogs to start going a little bonkers when you say Lemming. Anyhow. Dogs can associate actions to words, even changes in commands if you are consistent. Come Bye can be a full out run, where Come is just a little quarter turn to cover naughty sheepies who are trying to escape from the center pen before the door is closed. Away to Me is a sweeping half circle on the fenceline when your sheep start to take off, where Away is a little bump off the fence to keep your sheep from leaving the fenceline in a crossdrive. It’s also the difference between your dog realigning the sheep to go inbetween your fetch panels or coming around and returning the sheep to their feed pan. Like a certain little black dog i know did recently…

On the topic of voice, remember that your tone affects your dog. I happen to own a dog who goes faster the louder i get and then tunes me out if i really turn up the stress (volume). I also own a dog who bites when he goes over threshold. He goes over threshold whenever i stress. Which is also awesome… i’m sure there is a way to harness these two little personality quirks, but i’ve not figured it out yet. Though this is how they tell me to shut up. It has taken me almost 4 years to figure that out, and i’m a little embarrassed by that. I’ve been thinking lately that it would be neat if Molly could learn to use those little white signs that Wyil E. Coyote uses. “I get it, Shut up”  “I Know What I’m Doing” for instance would be helpful. Anyhow.

Think about whistles for a moment. You have to work significantly harder to make a whistle sound angry. Yet in the same turn a well used whistle can serve as an excellent substitute for your voice. The whistle has little emotion. It’s sound, when used effectively is consistent. While i’m not suggesting that every handler should use a whistle; I’m totally whistle impaired. I am suggesting to be mindful of your voice and think of it as a whistle of sorts.

You’ve had this moment, don’t lie.  Your dog knows what she or he is supposed to be doing and yet, there they are off doing something that can only be described as Screwing Around.  But don’t misread this:  no one is beating up on Molly.  Though truth be told, i have threatened to sell her once or twice though.

We all remember Screwing around though.  It looks something like this sometimes.  I even used the key phrase “Molly Quit SCREWING AROUND” at the end if you turn up the sound…

What doesn’t show up on this blog is that it’s been a long few weeks and i’ve not been in my practice.  My brain is fried, my body is angry and i think my ‘center’ is somewhere around my ankles.  I’m stressed out and that is a great opportunity for Molly to see what happens when she tries something new and fun! (whee. )  What is good about this kind of experience is that how i feeling now is very similar to trial stress.  So instead of having her figure out in a trial scenario that she can try all sorts of not fun stuff when i’m stressed. We have the opportunity to start addressing this in a practice/lesson scenario.  Very cool.

First lemme tell you what happened.

I met Elsie for our  lesson.  Elsie walked into the field with the sheep.  The sheep were 30 ft away from the gate.  We walked in, i downed my dog.  I turned around to latch the gate and my dog was gone.

Now i’ve seen this happen to other people so i know it’s not just me.  This is just not my dog.  After i caught her, i took her by the collar and brought her back to the gate and we started over.  It went better, but the sheep were farther away – like the other side of the arena kinda far away.   Then she blew her stay before i was ready to start the outrun.  At the direction of Elsie, instead of getting all worked up, i took her to the car and left her there for 5 minutes.

After our little interlude stays were better, but she was still not taking her flanks appropriately and blowing some of her downs etc.  Again these are not new skills. She’s been doing this all month long without much issue.  But I get a little nervous, i’m not feeling my best and she’s going to see if she can do what she wants to do and i’m not having it.  Anyhow, so she blew her down and i must have been the scariest person she’d ever seen for about 3 seconds.  I did not scream at her. I did not lay a finger on her.  Heck i didn’t take more than 1 step closer to her.  I tossed my stick – which is more something for me to get into the mindset.  I took one big powerful step infront of where she was going and stopped her. I used my best deep told her Down. She lied down and I told her to Stay in my normal working voice as a signal that it’s all over.  We went back to it like nothing happened.

Like Nothing Ever Happened.

If you stay angry, it can become fuzzy what is being reinforced and then you end up with a half a dozen new problems from a stressed out dog who doesn’t know what is right.  Over do it and you can shut down your dog.  Under do it and you will have to constantly ratchet up your reinforcement – to a place that you don’t want to go to.  Use it too much and you have lost the ability to pick your battles.  More importantly, your dog will start to assume that if you don’t come down from on high, they’ve done nothing wrong.  It’s a tool, not a solution.  Just like No, or praise or redirection or changing the pace of your work or even those cute little bean bags they used to sell at Border Collies.com are all tools.  Each has a place.

Gotta say, after that she was beautiful.  This month is little walk ups after our down. Next lesson we’ll start real driving.  Whoopie!