(Don't you love the upside down dog to go with the upside down outrun?)
I promised a tip on tight, slicy outruns and this is the first installment. Many times, novice trainers end up with a dog that sets out on his outrun nice and wide from his handlers' feet. As he runs up the field though, he's getting tighter and tighter and ends up blowing into the sheep or racing across too tight and fast at the top. If you think about the shape of that outrun, it's upside down from the ideal pear shape, where the dog widens as he runs out and lands nice and deep, setting up a calm lift.
Many times, novice trainers try to deal with this by pushing the dog even further off to start his outrun. I find that for a lot of dogs, if you'll actually do just the opposite, and start the dog tighter, or even move him straight forward towards the sheep before giving him the send command, that the shape of the outrun will improve. The dog tends to begin his outrun with a more proper attitude, is feeling less pressure from the handler, and is in contact with the sheep from the beginning of the outrun. You have to be a little careful about this with a dog that has a ton of eye, but even dogs with eye prefer this sort of outrun, where they can check the sheep and bend, check the sheep and bend, as opposed to just running pell mell, not in contact, until oops, there's the sheep, let's bang into them.
So, if you're having outrun problems, stop to think about whether it's an upside down outrun you're getting.
Whew it was a busy weekend around Shoofly. It's good to be sitting down behind a computer to rest up. Friday i took off a half day and got my van cleaned out (a huge job) and all the crates washed etc, then washed 4 dogs, then mowed my acre of front yard (oh how it pains me to think sheep could be out there grazing!). Saturday started with a few lessons, then getting set up to move my group of wethers to a new field to graze, then more mowing around the farm, and to top it all off i about wore myself slam out tilling up the garden. Sunday, more lessons and then i worked my own beasties, and finally crashed. Double whew!
It was a good dog weekend. I had a student come in for 2 days of lessons with a really nice daughter of Kent Kuykendall's old Bill. I enjoy time with both the owner and the dog a lot, both very nice. My friend Lauren was around both days and she's really doing well with her new dog Mac. It's so nice to see them coming together as a team. Laura and Mary came out yesterday and they're always fun to hang with, and both of their young dogs are doing well and coming along. We put Linc (my Bart's littermate) on the sheep and he was all turned on and into it in no time, looks like he'll be a good one and a nice fit for Laura. I popped Bart out with the sheep so they could see him, and he was terrific. I set him down and jokingly said "here's his outrun" and the little snot ran out and around the sheep like a pro. Actually, little snot isn't exactly an appropriate term of endearment any more for his 28 pound (yes, 28) self. Big snot.
Saturday and sunday morning were especially nice and a couple of those times that make me so appreciative of the dogs. My lesson sheep (yearling hair ewes) are mixed in with the ewes and baby lambs on the big pasture, so there's a good bit of sorting and shuffling to be done to get them separated. Saturday morning Zac and i got it done pretty handily with an International shed but Sunday the sheep were a lot more difficult. Zac was in heaven doing sheds to push off ewes and lambs, turnbacks to catch and move them when they'd try to rejoin, cutting here and there hard to hold groups separate and all that fun stuff that just makes a sheepdog feel like a sheepdog. He was just so satisfied (in his let-me-back-at-em Zac way). That dog just loves to work. He's got his faults (they all do) but he's sure the dog for me. I just marvel at his ability and fire. After getting all of that job done, i went up the hill with Jet to gather up the wool wethers from the wooded field i'm keeping them in. Zac is a little too keen for that job sometimes - i let him do it last week and he came out with a big scratch under his eye. He has no regard for taking care of himself when there are sheep around. Anyway, Jet is a good gathering dog with a strong fetch. The wethers were all over those woods in little packets and i just sat there at the gate on my atv, directing Jet and sending her back and pulling her in or pushing her out, and it just struck me what an advantage it is to have a really trained out, finished dog. They really are quite amazing creatures, these dogs.
We're trying to get ready to leave on thursday for the Shaker Village trial in KY this weekend. The dogs are all working pretty decent, though perhaps not as fit as i'd like, going into the Bluegrass in a few weeks. Spring farm chores have just cut into my training time, but that's how it has to be. Moss' trial debut will be this friday, in ProNovice, and i'm just as excited as can be to see how he'll do. He's been working so well at home. Yesterday i put him around a Nursery/Ranch course at home and he did extremely well. I wish he'd been out to more fields and on more unfamiliar sheep but i think he'll do okay at the trial. The Open dogs all look pretty decent. All 3 get to run this coming weekend, which is nice. Only 2 get to run at the Bluegrass. Right now i plan on that being Zac and Spottie. If Spottie has trouble, i'll run Jet the second day. It's hard to believe the time is coming when i'll need to retire Spottie, but it surely is. I've started keeping my ears open for a great retirement home for her. She's still running well but realistically, at 10 she probably will need to retire before the fall. If the perfect place for her comes up, i'll have to consider it. She's still fit enough to teach a new partner for a couple of years. She's sure done a good job trying to teach me. :-)
Okay, here's part 2 of hitting the crossdrive panel. Early in my Open career, i spent about a year missing crossdrive panels with my good old Ben dog (pictured at left). I lost count of how many times i ended up out of the placings because of those darned things. And it was my fault, not his. He'd drive a dead straight line, all on his own, letting me make tiny adjustments all the way across the crossdrive, and i would very carefully, with perfect control, pass above those darned panels time after time. So i decided to change my strategy on crossdrives, and over time it's gotten a whole lot easier to line the crossdrive up and hit those panels.
What i decided to do was intentionally bring the sheep low on my crossdrive, in what is called a "banana drive", so called because of the curved line. If you bring the sheep low and then aim back up into the crossdrive panels, it's way, way easier to see if you're going to go through the panels. Think of how much easier it is to tell when you're going to hit the first drive panels. It's the same principle. You'll lose a couple of points for being offline but less than you'll lose for missing a panel.
I found that over time i got a lot better at hitting the panels, and i don't need to "banana" the crossdrive quite so much. One skill you might want to work on with your dog to make this work a little better is a nice fast inside flank, because you'll find yourself needing it sometimes to turn the sheep into that crossdrive panel so you don't miss it low.
Next up -- strategies to deal with a tight, sliced outrun.
I thought i'd try something new here. Joan suggested perhaps doing some articles on handling strategies in addition to the training articles, and i thought that was a great idea. I think i'll try doing this as a regular feature - T&H Tips (Training and Handling Tips). These will be more concise and to-the-point than the full articles (hopefully! We all know i can get wordy. ;-) I'll start the title of these with T&H so they're easy to pick out from my other useless blabbing.
First up -- Hitting the Crossdrive Panel, Part 1
Get on the course before your class and watch someone walk the crossdrive line, picking out markers as well as you can. Don't pick out so many that you get confused while you're running. For me, 3 is ideal. Find something at the beginning of the crossdrive, fairly close to the drive-away panel (maybe 10-15 yards into it) so you can check that you're online soon after making your turn. Next, find something somewhere around the middle of the crossdrive. Note where that marker is in relation to the fetch panels, so you can find it quickly while you're actually running. Next, and most important, find something fairly close to the crossdrive panels so you can tell if you're online or not going into the panels.
Next up: Hitting the Crossdrive Panel, Part 2, or "My Depth Perception Stinks, what do i do about it?!"
(Photo of Spottie above courtesy of Christine Henry)
Lambing is over, woo hoo! That last ewe finally gave in and lambed this morning, producing a huge ram lamb. Final count 11 ewes and 7 rams.
Here's the Tuesday training article. As usual, i'd love feedback and/or suggestions on future topics.
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This week I thought I’d spend a little time talking about training voices.It’s something that people tend to not think that much about, but it’s very important to the dogs and really the first or second line of communication we have with them (along with body language).
When we start trying to use a whistle, we fret about how it sounds, about how consistent the tones are, sometimes we even record the whistle commands so we can practice and get good, reproducible sounds before subjecting our dogs to them.How many people stop and put this kind of effort into studying how they speak to a dog while working it?I honestly believe that a good part of the “presence” that experienced trainers have with young dogs is a well developed training voice.There are no magic phrases for dogs (they don’t speak English) but there surely are magic voice tones.An experienced trainer can walk into a field with a dog and by using only one word repeatedly (any word at all), used with appropriate tones and body pressure, have a dog behaving and working nicely.It’s all about how you say it, not what you say.
As for so many things when it comes to training dogs, our natural reactions are just the opposite of what we ought to be doing.When things get wild on the field, or our dog is gripping, running like a fool, generally just being a knothead, we start yelling in loud booming voices (men) or voices that rise in pitch at the end of a phrase (women).Both of these naturally wind a dog up and we’re putting pressure on our dog with our tone when he’s already feeling plenty of pressure (that’s why he’s being a knothead to start with), and we just make things even worse.
Stop to think about your tone in different situations with your dog, and try to give him as much help as you can so he can be successful.Say he’s going into a tight corner to pull sheep out.That’s a fairly stressful thing for most dogs, especially early in training.So as he starts into the corner, speak to him in a tone that conveys how you expect him to work – a nice, steady, confident, elongated sound.Try to do it *before* he gets wound up and worried, and just speak to him in a quiet tone that lets him know you believe he can do it, and that you’re there with him.Chances are, that little bit of soft tone will be just enough reminder to keep him quiet as he works.If you have a dog that’s a little soft, always speak in really confident bold voices.Try to avoid fast, excitable tones with a too fast, too excitable dog.
The best advice I can give when it comes to voices and working dogs is to stop and think about how the dog perceives what you’re saying, what message he is taking from your tone of voice.Speak in a voice that reflects what you expect from the dog.And if you need to use a voice correction, stop to listen to yourself and see if your tone is one that might be actually making your dog worse instead of better.Consider videotaping your working session and listen to your voice, and watch how your dog reacts.Try on your dog’s ears for a little while and get inside his head.
Whew, what a long weekend. I took off friday since my brother was in town. It's been ages since i took a day off without spending it driving to a trial or some such, so that was pretty nice. I got lots of dog working in, lots of sheep moving and sorting, lots of catching up on farm chores, even managed to get my yard mowed. I love those sun up to sun down busy kind of days. Now back to work monday so i can rest up, whew.
Moss was really good this weekend. Peggy and i got together all 3 mornings to work dogs and hold sheep for each other, and he seems fine with that picture. I think he's easily ready for ProNovice now, even on a little more difficult sheep. We'll see in a couple of weeks at the Shaker Village trial. He's still awfully young but i think he'll do fine, and i'll be making sure it's a good experience for him. Denise uploaded the video she took of him last weekend at the farm and you can see it here --
I gave Bart a little go at the yearlings yesterday and he was pretty amazing. He's not even 4 months old yet but he was heading breaking sheep hard and turning them back. I backed up with the sheep to the fence to see what he thought of holding the sheep there and he looked like an old hand at it, whipping out to catch the ones trying to break off. Wish i had video of that, it was just pure instinct in this little fuzzy black body.
And i have a new lambing dog this year. Gael was wonderful last year with some really nasty ewes but she's just too hard to hold back, so i tried Jet and she really is doing a terrific job. A big black ewe nailed her yesterday, or rather tried to. She went at Jet and Jet just calmly opened that big mouth and met her head on, and she's been staying in line since. After seeing that, i decided to just go ahead and use her for my main lambing dog since it didn't seem to hurt her feelings or make her lose confidence. She was hit hard and unexpectedly once when she was quite young and it put her off pretty badly so i've always been a bit protective of her but she's up to the job and is enjoying it. Her balance is so good that she's really spectacular holding a ewe and her lambs off by themselves.
Spottie was her usual good old self in training this weekend. She just keeps going and going. Someone called her a "machine" one day last summer when we were out training, doing long outrun after long outrun after long outrun, and i think that was a perfect way to describe her and a very nice compliment to her.
Zac did an interesting thing today in training. I sent him on a long outrun where the fetch would be out of sight for me. When he got back to me, i noticed he was wet. I thought maybe he'd grabbed a dunk in the pond, which he'll do every once in a while, like on his outrun, if it's on the way out. It turns out though, that one of the sheep had gotten way down on the bank of the pond and the only way to do a proper flank and bring it out on line was to swim the flank! Peggy said he'd done it perfectly, never lapped at the water once, and rose gently out of the water for a nice lift. Pretty cool.
Anyway, it was a good weekend with plenty of time with the dogs, time to visit with friends and family, lots of things checked off the to-do lists, even some fishing yesterday and few new pictures of the new lambs. I'll upload them to the Pbase site (link to the right).
I love the redbud tree that stands in the middle of my farm. It's sort of the farm's signature tree. Every year i try to get some pictures of it because i know it's only a matter of time before it's gone. That right branch slips a little closer to the ground every winter. It just says "spring is here" to me, especially with new baby lambs running around under it. I got the photo shoot done yesterday and pictures of the lambs and a few of Zac (with some very curious lambs) can be found on my Pbase site http://www.pbase.com/robinfrench/spring2008
Zac was a very good boy with the ewes and lambs. A couple of the ewes thought about challenging him but he was very patient and is learning to work them. This is the first year I've used him at all with the babies and moms. The lambs just had to go over and check him out!
And finally i have some more recent video of Moss working. Peggy kindly agreed to come out and get some of him for me. He was pretty good but not quite as sharp as he was over the past weekend. He wasn't taking his stop or slow down commands especially well last night, where over the weekend he'd turn in and gear down on even a small peep of the whistle. He's sure getting trained though, and working very well. Denise got some video of him over the weekend and i'll post that when she gets it finished.
(Don't you love the upside down dog to go with the upside down outrun?)
