So I decided I needed to pull my head out of my ass and just do what I can at home. There's a lot here that I can do, I just have to get to other places enough that the dogs understand they need to take the same direction at 300 yards that they do at a closer distance. To me the biggest obstacle here is the constant draw to the barn. Although my little ewes are finally getting a lot better. They graze the whole property at night, so they are familiar with the area which helps a lot I think. They're also finally figuring out that none of my dogs are going to eat them, chase them, etc...So this was my little exercise for Gwen, Mary, and Deal. These are my 3 that don't always like to pop off the pressure. Actually Gwen comes *off* wonderfully, but she wants to fly all the way around to keep holding the pressure side. Because I do so much better when I can see it, I thought I'd try to make a diagram of what we did.
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It's simply driving along, at different distances away from the fence, then flanking either to the right or to the left and fetching them back. Of course flanking "comebye" is no problem, as that's the side they want to protect. To make this side a challenge, I ask them on at the "top", stopping them at about 3 O'clock and have them drive *towards* the barn (This is hard for Gwen as she's certain I've lost my mind and the sheep are going to get away), flanking them to cover before the sheep escape, then fetching them back to me. Flanking "away" in this set up is hard for Deal and Mary. Mary was very, very responsive though, and trusted me. I was very pleased with her. She would want flank "comebye", but a quick and not overly harsh "Mare" would snap her out of it and would go correctly. (she didn't get all "pissy" because I was insisting she do it my way) The great thing about Mary is that she has wonderfully natural square flanks, so all I have to do is get her to trust me and once she does, the flank is beautiful. Deal however sometimes lets her eye pull her in when she has to flank like this. She has to be reminded to not curl in/get flat. She has really, really gotten better with experience though, and as long as she's thinking and not reacting, she does wonderful. Going "away" in this situation is so backwards for Gwen. I think being so well bred for cattle, it can sometimes hinder her sheep work. She is always thinking heads. In a cattle trials of course there is no "center line" the dog can't cross. That is how Gwen prefers to operate. However yesterday, she did this very, very well. She started to relax and never dove in out of frustration. She was also willing to stop at 3 O'clock on the "comebye" flank, which is hard for this little control freak as she knew stopping there opens the door for escape. By never letting her lose them during this, I hope we're building a level of trust. I think the last couple sessions of pen work really made a difference in her. I did better yesterday reading her on the drive and flanking her, rather than stopping her when she would start to come up too far on the pressure side. This keeps the sheep moving, so we don't end up with stopped sheep and frozen Gwen. I played give and take with her, sometimes flanking her further to the sheeps rears in order to keep them moving, regardless of what kind of "line" it made, then would ask her to flank in a manner that would hold the line- which would sometimes mean walking into their faces as they were stopped. (she likes to just hold them in this situation) She seemed much more confident to walk right into them to get them to move. And I'm more on the ball about making sure that I don't allow her to then flank in the direction that's going to stall them out again. (if Gwen had a motto it would be "I got 'em and I'm not gonna let 'em get away"- but she is really learning and Carol says it's nothing she won't work through) To make things harder or easier, I varied the distance away from the fence and from the corner. To switch the flanks around, I simply started at the other end.
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I did a little bit of this with Toss, but it's not really a difficult task for him. He doesn't mind pressure in any form- he'll flank into it, and off from it, all the way around it, walk into it, follow it, hold it, whatever you want him to do he does willingly. His exercise was whistles and keeping his driving flanks square. Especially his "away" side. Once he knows I'm going to kick him back, he flanks beautifully, but he is still in the stage of being reminded. He's really, really a nice dog. I know I'm going to appreciate his forward approach when he's more experienced and we completely trust each other. He's been a long maturing dog and hasn't done much trialing because he was always so hot or cold. And when he was cold, it was not pretty!! (for quite awhile I'm sure my neighbors thought his name was goddamit!) I didn't need him doing that at a trial! He is still on and off, but is now more on than off, and the off is less severe. He is also really, really becoming a team player. He is really turning into a dog that wants my approval greatly. Cruz and I just did some shed work. It's hard with just 3 hair sheep!! We got a couple though. I figured out that when I say "this one" rather than "in here" he's not coming all the way through- like he gets too focused on the one sheep. I had better success with the "in here".
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So that was my morning yesterday. I got all the "trial dogs" worked and was very happy with what they gave me. I'm letting them be today and then tomorrow I'll do some pen work again. I don't like to repeat stuff back to back, I think it gets boring for all of us. My plan is to work them again tomorrow (Thursday) and Saturday. Then go to Breezy Hill on Sunday. I went ahead and entered. I just have to think of it as expensive training.... I need to get my dogs on to different fields, so I just need to start entering trials.
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