I took all the "currently trialing" dogs to Carol's yesterday and they all did pretty well. Here's what we worked on:
Gwen: Driving. First we fence line split off about 8 sheep from the large group. It was a good exercise for her. She's going to be a really nice shedding dog. She so quick to stop and is so fast, that she'll come thru in a flash. She's incredibly responsive, which keeps her from picking her own place to shed, and she does not like to bite, so gripping on a shed is something I don't expect will ever happen with her. She did a nice job on the drive, and our teamwork on is starting to really show. Early on I was stopping her from going to their heads. Now I can bump her back into the correct position with tiny flank whistle. I'm getting really good at seeing it, and she responds perfectly nearly 100%. I'm also learning how to help her get some sheep movement if they happen to stall out. Once the driving hurdle is cleared, she will be fast on her way to Open. The outrun is there, the stop at the top is there, the lift is there, flanking on the fetch is there, full set of whistles is there, and the shed is not far off at all. I can see the light at the end of tunnel! :-) A lot of things can cause this type of "hold" in a young dog's training when they seemed so promising so early on, but I think the biggest thing that happened to her was too much distance and too much control before she was actually ready. Gwen will stay in PN through the fall. How her driving comes along over the winter will determine if she's ready for Ranch in the spring. I suspect so, but I am not going to put any kind of expectations on her.
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Toss: Toss was a little hot-headed yesterday. Something he hasn't been for awhile. We ended on a good note though. I did the same fence line "shed" with him and I think that got him pretty jazzed up for the rest of the session. I had to work at the call through a few times because he kept wanting to pick his own break, rather than where I was calling him through. He is still in the early stages of shed work and I am still expecting him to come mostly to me, not curl in the group he's to hold too soon. And he proved I'm right in still asking him to come through to me, since he was blowing that off. After he did that a second time I took him to a fence with no sheep and called him to me about 4 times. We went back to the sheep, and ta-da, there was the nice split I had been asking him for. Toss still needs whistle work. He's close to ready for Ranch, but is not solid enough on his whistles. I don't think he's thinking whistles yet. He's good when he knows that's what we're working (iow, I'm making it very easy for him), but once he's out there really working the sheep, he doesn't "hear" anything but the stop and walk up. Or if he does give me a flank on a whistle, it's not a good flank. So that's our fall plan, whistle, whistle, whistle. He might be one of those that I just have to completely shut up and only whistle so he's not relying on my voice as a back-up.
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Deal: Deal pushed my patience yesterday and reminded me how gosh-darn hard headed and tough she can be. Deal is not hard by some people's standards, but she quite hard to me. I do not like a dog that is so hard it takes a 2x4 or a shock collar to get the point across that a lie down is a lie down! I know some trainers prefer this kind of dog. I do not... In fact, I think they can be a tad on the soft side, given they have talent and work ethic! (I cannot tolerate a quitter). Anyway, since it was kind of a fun thing, I again split the large group into a smaller one to work. Deal has a bit more shed experience, so I didn't use the fence line with her. She was wicked. She did the same thing as Toss initially, that being make the split somewhere other than where I asked her to. Only Deal being Deal, she was being unfair to the sheep and using her teeth, and using them hard. She would not lie down when I asked and she continued to grip unfairly. I actually had to grab her by the sides of her face (multiple times) flip her over and growl at her. She'd take the correction, then pop right up and be focused back on the sheep... The 3rd time I grabbed her I picked her up by the sides of her face... (I was thinking, this is not fun- but this is the level she took this to) I decided if she did it one more time, she was done, she'd just lose her turn. Carol had said to really watch her body language and get her to stop before she rushed in and gripped. I caught her and she stopped. We called that good. Carol said to not do anymore with her, let her think about what we just went through. So Deal turned her session into a "you-WILL-lie down-when-I-ask" session. I guess I shouldn't be surprised Emma is such a tough shit. She simply got it from her grandmum! Before I worked any dogs I asked Carol what Deal needed before she was ready for Open. She said just road miles. After our session Carol said "I guess you know what she needs before Open"! LOL!! In other words, she needs to shed without using her teeth! ;-)
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Mary: Mary worked nice. I didn't do a call through with Mary, just a gate sort. She did it nicely. I did some small outruns with her to solidify the stop at the top. She did great. She also did some very nice drive work. Carol likes Mary quite a lot. Mary and I have had our issues, but I have always appreciated how natural she is and how easy she is to work, and that you could not have a better temperamented dog. I make a real effort to be extra fair when I work her. She's not a dog that can take a lot of over-directing. And really, because she is so natural, it's not usually needed. I'm working on getting her on full whistles because I think that will help our relationship since it will take any emotion out of my commands. Carol said she needs just a little work on her inside flanks, which is corner work. Which is exactly what I had been doing with her. Both her and Gwen.
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Cruz: I had Mary drive all the sheep way out into the biggest field under a shade tree so I could do an outrun with Cruz. He stopped for me the first time, but the 2nd time I asked him to stop, he blew me off. I set it up again and this time when he blew me off I really, really yelled his name and told him he better lie down, then called him back. (Cruz is so biddable, it's amazing how little I have to do when he needs a correction- which is a rarity) I don't usually call a dog back on an outrun, but I felt like he would "get it" if he didn't get his sheep if he blew off my stop whistle. So I sent him a 3rd time. He went out nice and never needed a stop part way... It was like he put the whole thing together! He can do a nice outrun, but he has to be thinking and typically he is *not* thinking until he's almost to the lift. Then he relaxes and starts using his brain again. Oh how I wish I had more space so I could help him learn to relax on the outrun... He did very nice shed work, we are really becoming a team with that.
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