outrun mysteries

[Guest Heather]

Hi, Albion:

 

I bought my trial bitch Phyl about two and a half years ago from a dog dealer in England. She's remarkable in many ways, particularly on her drive, but lately I've been having more and more trouble with her outrun: she can be quite flat at the top and seems to want to come in at the heads of the sheep on her lift in order to hold them with her eye so she can scoop around behind them to start a fetch. Since she has a settling manner with her sheep, this technique often works relatively well for her, which is probably why she never seems to see the need for giving lots of room at the top of her outrun.

 

Now here's the interesting thing: I recently contacted the person who started my bitch (a different person from the guy from whom I purchased her). Her original trainer had her until she was a year and a half old and put all the basic commands on her. I had always assumed that Phyl must have had a built outrun, based on her flatness at the top and the fact that she tends to be overly wide at the bottom. But her original trainer told me that, on the contrary, Phyl had a very natural, pear-shaped outrun initially that came on very easily, and that she always gave lots of room at the top from the very beginning. Do you have any theories about how her outrun could have changed from something that was naturally right to something that's incorrect? (She's five now.) And on a related note, what exercises would you do with her to convince her to stop holding sheep with her eye in order to lift them, particularly when it often works well for her?

[Guest aurdank]

Well, two things can happen when a dog gets older: s/he can get wider on outruns and the eye can tighten, each of which seems to have happend to your phyl. But the wider outrun could also result from how you've been setting her up. Pear outruns work best (and British judges tend to prefer this in any case) when the dog is made to stand close to the handler's leg, and not at a signficant distance (in fact a British judge will dock you 2 pts for this). If the dog is set up at a bit of a distance from the handler, that is a signal to the dog go wide.It doesn't have to be much of a distance by our own standards, but it could be significant to the dog if s/he were used to standing flush against the handledr's leg. Also if a dog is set anywhere behind the handler, even a little, this will tend to widen the dog. If the dog leaves wide, as a result, following a grapefruit pattern, as she nears the sheep, she'll begin to feel out of contact and will tend to come in flat at the top, especially if her eye will draw her (as it will), and if she's never formally been taught to give ground at the top. So I would make sure that she's set up close to your leg, let her even stand a bit forward, though not too much as you can be docked for this too, and make sure she's facing straight in the direction of the sheep and not with her head cocked to the side. This should tighten her up as she leaves. If she kicks out prematurely, even after leaving more tightly, say "here, here" which should draw her in (my whistle equivalent is a truncated version of the recall). But since she's gotten the habit of coming in tight at the top, you may have to stop her as she begins to turn in prematurely near the top, and then give her a "get out" command to widen her. You can try doing this on the fly, but it probably won't work at first. You may have to stop her, run out to her and use your crook to push her wider as you command her to "get out", and then make sure she gets around to the back of the sheep properly by following her with your crook high in hand, emphasize the point. Another method for working the top is to position the dog in a spot from which to send her on a gather, but stand yourself in front of the sheep and send her from that position, like a high flank . As she begins to come in near the top step forward with crook high and say "get out". Again, you could try this on the fly, and if doesn't work, stop her first before giving her the "get out". If she's sensitive to pressure, stepping back instead (releasing pressure) might work better here. And again follow her around the back of the sheep. Since she did this naturally in the beginning, it probably would come back to her before too long. But you also have to look at the field she's running in. A dog coming up short on the heads (not at 12 O'clock) as distinct from coming in flat may be in the right, depending on where the sheeps' heads are facing and on the direction of pressure generated by the field. If the lift comes off straight, then the dog was right to come up "short", because that would be where the balance point is. So, you have to go a little bit with the dog here.