Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Hmmm . . .

I got to Bill's yesterday and found out that Larry had already been there earlier in the day and he had sorted off the lambs from the older ewes. I was a little disappointed to hear this, because I kind of wanted to mimic yesterday's conditions as much as possible. Jack, one of Bill's guard dogs, joined us as we brought the sheep down the field. Jack is still kind of a puppy, sweet as pie, but he can be kind of a nuisance to the dogs when they're trying to work. I tied him up as soon as we got to the other side of the field. Instead of going to the northern pen, I had Craig put them in the southwest pen because that was where the water was and it was still pretty warm.

Unfortunately, there wasn't as much grass for the sheep to eat on this end of the field, and this part of the field didn't benefit from the hill at the top of the field blocking the sounds and sight of the pens by the barn. The lambs were bleating their little hearts out for their mamas, and the ewes were much less content to hang out and wait for the dog to pick them up or set their course. I knew today would be more difficult than yesterday was.

I decided to begin with Craig. That was when I realized I'd forgotten my whistle. Rats! All those times I wore my whistle and it never made it to my mouth, and now when I was here specifically to work on my whistling with Craig . . . oh well, we could always practice driving. I wanted to improve my timing, of course, but also try to lie him down long enough to use the draw to my advantage and let the sheep drift back on line, rather than get into the familiar flank-counterflank routine.

We did all right, I guess. I tried to lie him down to take advantage of the draw, and it did work a lot of the time, but he fought me a little on some of the stops. I know he was just wanting to cover in case they broke. He also still had some trouble with the transition from drive away to cross drive. I tried to do the flank around to one side and then the quick flank around to the other to show the sheep the dog on both sides, but Craig didn't seem to understand what I was doing. We were driving in a triangle, so there were no panels or anything; I just switched directions when we came up to a landscape feature I'd spotted earlier or a black barrel lying on the field. Thus, he didn't have any real external cues for when we were switching to a cross drive or the drive back toward me. It's in these situations that I think he doesn't entirely trust me. I think he wants to do the right thing, but if he doesn't really understand why I'm asking him to do something it does seem to me that he thinks I might be making a mistake. So he doesn't always react immediately to my requests, which then creates situations where the sheep move a bit out of position, and then it no longer makes a lot of sense to do what I asked. It's frustrating to me, but I know I need to work with him more so I can improve my timing, so I'm wrong less often and thus build that trust.

Okay, onto Taz. I had a harder time with him than I did yesterday. It was harder to set the sheep up so that they weren't moving, and he was keyed up about that. He kept checking back to see if the sheep were moving back toward the barn when we walked away from them to set up for an outrun, and a few times he took a few steps to anticipate covering a break, should it happen. I admit I often stopped far shorter than I'd planned to send him because I wasn't sure if they would stop moving or they really would eventually break. I set him up wherever he wanted to go (usually about five or six feet from my side and about a foot ahead of me). This made me stepping off in the opposite direction a bit less dramatic for him, I think, and he seemed to begin hesitating just a teeny bit again sometimes. But he did leave my side when I sent him with the "ch-ch-ch" sound. I can't really put my finger on how it was different. It just sort of seemed like he was all over the place yesterday, and I couldn't seem to isolate the circumstances that made him, say, leave my side slower or run tighter. Maybe it was that he was taking off a little slower when the sheep were still, and a bit tighter when they were moving. But I don't think that was always the case. We actually didn't really have a bad day, though I think I'm making it sound that way. I just wish I understood more about what I was seeing when things didn't go perfectly right.

This is where I need someone more experienced to help me understand why things are happening. It's often just so difficult for me to interpret what exactly is going on and what might be motivating the dog to respond the way he does. It seems like Taz should have been wider if he set himself up, since it is his pattern to feel his sheep more when he can make certain decisions, but perhaps the threat of breaking sheep overrode this. Or maybe I have not guided his instincts properly and I've sufficiently screwed up his natural sense of that bubble that he now needs more direction when I send him. (Just to be clear, I'm not beating myself up for that; I am just wondering how to help him now.) I'll try to go out tomorrow, one last time before I leave for four days, to see if things become a little more clear . . .

6 comments:

Robin French said...

I'd say just try it again and see if you can use the other part of the field where you don't have to fret about the sheep taking off. Sounds like you and Taz were both feeling itchy about it.

Laura said...

Yeah, maybe it was that we were both just afraid that they'd get away. This is why I get nervous working the dogs myself sometimes. We did come close to losing one set up the field. Actually, we did lose them. One by one, they started just breaking. I sent Taz quickly (which I know is a big mistake, since I should only send him when we're set up correctly) and he tried but couldn't cover all of them sufficiently. Two ewes were too far away. Then, he got most of the group under control, but kept losing one or two here and there to the growing larger group of escapees created by the two that had escaped the first time. Eventually I called him back and saw that the group had stopped for some reason midway back toward the barn. So I walked up the field a little, set him up, and sent him properly, and this time he was beautiful--he left immediately, was nice and wide, and didn't really even slice very much. His fetch was pretty dead on as well.

So go figure. Once the thing we feared would happen happened, he did just fine. We'll try it again on the northwest corner of the field, and perhaps we'll have more consistent results. Thanks again, Robin!

Robin French said...

It sounds like setting him up differently is going to work for you, you just need to get the situation right to start working on it. You can even try having him walk up on the sheep a little bit and then send him with a shush. Bet he flares out. But make all the other stuff easy so you're not both nervous to start with.

Something fun you can try if you get another evening like last night - let the sheep try to break and send Taz just as they start off towards where they want to go. Keep it short so he's able to catch them before they get real committed to getting away. The dogs love it, it makes them get deeper at the top, and after a few times of not being able to get away, the sheep will stop trying quite so hard.

Laura said...

Yay, more ideas! I'll try walking him up a little before sending (just fyi, he is a boring kind of dog, to use the vernacular you and Julie P. were talking about this morning). Loves to drive straight ahead. He takes his flanks when he drives but is sill learning to stop before going all the way around (to turn it into a fetch). Actually, just as he was getting better on his stopping when doing his inside flanks was when he began this whole hesitation routine, so I kind of stopped doing anything like that (though Bill keeps warning me to not stop driving with him altogether while I'm working on his outrun...)

Robin French said...

I usually find that when i start working on inside flanks with a dog, that's when the outrun actually opens up and makes sense to them, especially if i'm stopping the dog at 9 or 3, and then letting him flank on around to balance. I use the dog's name to pull him towards me before giving the inside flank, which pulls them off the sheep a little, and it just opens up. You might be able to see it on some of my videos of Moss.

It's funny, that walking up before sending is the fix for dogs that are too tight and slicey, and also for dogs that are too wide. :-)

Anyway, it sounds like you're on the right track and none of your problems are big uns.

Laura said...

Methinks I'll definitely have to check out your vids again...

I think I hadn't been sending Taz around to cover very often when we were working on inside flanks. I'll have to revisit that when I get back.

Speaking of videos, why don't you feature a video with your next training tip to illustrate your lesson (I mean, on your blog, not here ;-)? Seeing it always helps me to really understand a concept...

Anyway, I'll keep at it. Thanks again, Robin!