Derek Scrimgeour clinic report (River Falls, WI, May 10-14, 2008)

I'm finally back from the Derek Scrimgeour clinic, and I really don't even know where to begin to write about it. There was just so much information to process! I learned a freakin' ton!

It took us two days to drive from Colorado to the clinic in Wisconsin, and the forecast for the days of the clinic was five straight days of pouring down rain. Yipes! Fortunately, the weather wasn't quite so bad, but the first few days were cold, windy, and wet. Poor Derek was pretty jet-lagged, I think, and the first couple of days were a bit confusing for some people (okay, for me). But each day, I was able to understand and apply a bit more knowledge, and, by the last day, I felt pretty confident that I understood and could apply the basic tenets of Derek's training system.

Derek's system is deceptively simple to understand intellectually, but it was a bit harder to translate into effective body positioning, proper voice tone and cadence, and correct timing. I am very glad it was a five-day clinic, as it turned out that I needed all five days to be able to incorporate enough of what Derek was teaching to be able to repeat his success (well, not to the same degree, of course ;-) by myself when I worked with Taz. (Because Derek's system is a bit different than that of most other trainers, I had decided to put Craig, who will be ten years old this summer and has already been trained in more traditional ways, in the clinic only if Taz wouldn't work for Derek for some reason. Happily, Taz did work for Derek, but really I was working him most of the time myself anyway, and he really responded well to Derek's techniques.)

The basic premise of his system is applying pressure on the ground rather than the dog. Rather than pushing a dog out, he makes whatever area of ground he doesn't want the dog to come in to dangerous. So, if a dog is slicing his flanks *cough, Taz, ahem* then he does not try to run at the dog or otherwise get in the dog's space to force him out; instead, he threatens the ground between himself and the dog, so the dog doesn't want to enter that space. By putting pressure on the ground, rather than the dog, you're claiming the space so the dog respects that he can't push into the area you're claiming. You make your space uncomfortable for the dog. At the same time, his focus is always in front of the dog as the dog flanks, which ensures that he is always in position to cover the sheep if the dog tries to slice in or spiral in while he is flanking around. It's important not to fall into old habits of chasing the dog around on his flanks; this just pushes him forward—it does nothing to keep him out and leaves me out of position if he slices in. I'm probably not explaining it very well, and there are a bunch of little steps that I had to keep straight in my mind to get it, but once I did, Taz was wide and didn't slice at all.

Some things I took away from the clinic:

• Think in smaller movements, not big sweeping ones.
• Clear, definite communication (even if I'm not exactly right) is vital. If I'm ambiguous or questioning in my commands, the dog is left to guess at what exactly I want.
• Corrections must always be followed by praise for the system to be most effective. It's pressure > release > praise. Without the praise, it just becomes a negative system.
  
• Invite a flank; demand a stop.
  
• Walk up means walk. Walking up straight and slow is the key to more advanced stuff.
• Organize the work; choreograph everything.
• A correction is a "focuser" for the dog. Dog begins to respond to tones if they convey information consistently. "Lie down" can be said in a normal tone of voice to tell the dog what you want him to do; if he doesn't do it or if he takes another command incorrectly, "lie down" can be said in a harsher voice to convey that you are not happy with his choice. This is immediately followed by another chance to work correctly.
  

There's about a million other little things, and I'm still sorting everything out in my head, but I worked Taz this morning at Bill's and I was able to continue our success. Derek warned me not to overdo this, because I am putting a lot of pressure on Taz right now, but I need to ingrain it a bit more before transitioning to the driving stage (where I'll have to reteach Taz to drive a little according to this method). Because these lovely new flanks are not completely set in his mind yet, I think I am going to scratch Taz in next weekend's trial. I am pretty disappointed about that, but I am trying to think about the big picture here, and this is my best chance to fix Taz's flanks once and for all. (Well, I may have to remind him once in a while, of course ;-) But if this new foundation sticks, I think our progress forward will go a lot faster.

So, I know this post has been a little all over the place, but my mind is a bit of a cyclone right now. All these new ideas are swimming around in my head, and I'll write more about them as I try to make sense of everything I've learned. Elaine took some videos of Taz and me working, too, so I can review what was happening when things were working and when they weren't. If they aren't too embarrassing, I might even post them ;-)