49. I can’t see my dog!

 

Recently I was coaching an up and coming future star trialler.  We worked through a number of problems successfully. We were now starting to work on the gather and fetch and needed to slow the dog down. We wanted a steady pace with just enough pressure on the sheep to keep them moving in a relatively straight line. The handler had sent the dog out and he was fetching but was a bit to fast. I called out to her to slow the dog down and her reply was I can’t see the dog.

The old light bulb comes on particularly when you realize that you missed an important step in your coaching. We forgot to talk about stock behaviour. As I told the handler you have to have 1 eye on the dog, if you can see him;

1 eye on the stock. They will tell you whats going on; And one eye on the environment(?).

When you are driving with your dog your should understand what your dog is telling you. From your vantage point (seeing over the sheep), you my be able to pick up on something that you may think the dog is not aware of. TRUST YOUR DOG. He is aware. This is why we train our dogs so that there is an understanding of what you want or what is implied.

Now if you are herding cattle most of what I have said above applies. As the dog is working closer in, you will likely not see him much of the time you have to trust what the cattle are telling you and that you have made it clear what it is your doing, so the dog knows what is expected of him. Incidently this is one of the reasons I prefer to start dogs on sheep. It will help develop the link between handler and dog.

TRUST YOUR DOG. He is aware

32. Why?

I follow several web sites, and Face Book pages on training the stock dog. Most seem to be oriented towards trialling dogs or at least thats what most of the advice given appears to be. Now its great that information is available, particularly specific advise for particular problems.

If I was giving advice I would like a little more information other then just describing the problem. Things I would like to know:
1. Information on the parents
2. What does the breeder do (breed, working ranch, trainer) and does he/she use the dogs for work or trialling
3. What training does the dog have to date?
4. How have you trained the dog to far and have you had any problems of any type?
5. Age of dog
6. Type of stock you are using and there temperament.
7. Do you do any warm up prior to starting your training session.
8. How is your pup/dog handled during the day?

This is just a sample of a few questions that need to be asked.

These are a few questions that should be asked so that the problems can be analyzed properly and relevant solutions can be given. Of course one question can lead to another and eventually give you a pretty good idea what the problem may be.  A well known author, rancher, trainer once said ” the first reason for the poor quality dogs is because of a lack of practical work”. I have also learned over the years that you can make a good trialling dog from a working dog, but it is very difficult to make a good working dog from a trialling dog. If you are more interested in trialling then your dogs should be picked using this criteria from trialling parents.

 
See also Post 5 Levels, 11 Sheep dog trial, 17. Around and around again

24. Audible response

At a recent training session, few and far between during the winter, I’ve noticed a trait in my number two dog Smoke. Smoke is a two-year-old New Zealand heading dog who is reasonably proficient with his outruns, gather and fetch. I’ve noticed that when he is running after some runaway sheep .or cattle that as he approaches he gives a bark when he is beside the sheep before turning in front of them and stopping them. This particular trait was also commented on during a cattle dog trial.

This particular trait seems unusual and one that I’ve not heard before on any of my other dogs. As with any new observation you tend to speculate as to the reason why. If you watch your dogs when they’re working there is a lot of communication going on which you should be able to interpret what the dogs trying to tell you. This can be position of tail, can be ears, it can also be the hackles up, any number of visual cues. This was the first audible cue that I have encountered and I’m thinking at this time is the dog is giving a warning. It is usually given when the dog is approaching the lead, in this case, sheep and I think that the bark is a momentary distraction to the sheep which allows him then to cut in front without them barren off because of the pressure. This means that he can be right in front of them and brings them to a stop.

This is going to be interesting to see if this is in fact what I just stated above. To be monitored and I will very likely report back on this at a later date.

The Beginning

This is a repost from Feb 2009

The purpose of this blog  is to start a dialogue on the most valuable working ranch hand, the working stock dog  Be it sheep, cattle, chickens (?) or competition. This blog will not be breed specific but I will talk about the training of my dogs and good part of the time.  I may even talk about guarding dogs as well.

One of my main concerns is the training of the stock dog. I will spend a lot of time on this and will revisit each topic frequently. I suspect that some of my thoughts will be controversial, and hopefully will generate some discussions.

Although I am retired, I continue to be involved in ranching  (on a contract basis), and I also carry out stock dog training as well as putting on stock dog demonstrations at fall fairs and special occasions. I have just purchased a new bitch pup and will be sharing with you all the fun stuff of bringing her up and training her to be a useful working stock dog.  I will introduce you to her and why I made the choice of her breed in a later post.

That is it for now  ….  stay tuned.