Dog Not Covering on the Pen

[Guest BelgBC]

I'm having a problem with my three year old Novice dog on the penning. This is my first serious herding dog and we don't have our own sheep yet, so that's why he's three and we're still in Novice.

 

Anyway, he was doing pretty good with penning, doing a lot of moves on his own to line them up, and holding the pressure well to put them in. He had a tendency once they were in and cornered to want to continue eyeing them, but was fine once I shut the gate and called him off. But one day when I opened the gate and sent him around he decided to go IN the pen instead of around and it ended up with one sheep jumping over him and landing on him (he wasn't hurt, but he did look scared when that sheep was flailing in the air over his head). This was about a month ago.

 

Since then he seems to have lost his nerve at penning. The pen I work on opens from right to left, so the dog is typically covering the 'Away' side as sheep approach. The problem is now instead of getting to where he can turn their heads and pen them like he used to, he sort of just hangs out there just out of range and lets them skim around the pen again and again. If I try to hurry him along or give him another flank, he just goes wider and wider and wider (I had him about 70 yards down the field at one point)but he's always just short of where he needs to be to turn them. If I push it too much, he tries to quit and leave. He's fine again as soon as we get away from the pen and gets around to turn the sheep without a problem.

 

It didn't help that the first time he started this (the lesson after the sheep jumped on him) I I didn't connect the two events yet so I got really upset with him for not taking the flank correctly and that made it worse. He wasn't trying to leave until I got mad at him.

 

Any suggestions for something I can set up that can help him regain his confidence on this? Do you think really easy sheep would help? I can't see a way that I can 'make' him do it right, since anything I do he just goes wider. So I'm not sure how to help him.

 

Diana

[Guest Lori]

Hi Diana-

 

It sounds like your dog really got his confidence shaken and is now uncomfortable being close to stock. I think if you can work on improving his confidence when he's close to sheep, you'll see improvement in his pen work follow.

 

Instead of working at the pen just now, I would put the sheep in a corner of the field, or up against a fenceline. Stay with your dog and walk together towards the sheep. You'll have to pay attention to both your dog and the sheep to see when each begins to show signs of discomfort as the the distance between the two decreases. Having you close beside him will help him feel more brave.

 

Stay calm and reassure your dog if he starts to look anxious. Lie him down and let him settle.

After a few seconds, ask him to walk up another step or two with you. Don't rush it. Again, lie him down and wait a bit. By doing this, you're reminding him that he can be close the sheep and be OK. Don't push him forward to the point that the sheep feel they need to break and run or he looks really uncomfortable. After he's stayed up close calmly for a short time (maybe 30 seconds), call him off and walk away from the sheep. Take the pressure completely off.

 

Now, turn around and do it again. I realize this is not the most exciting use of your sheep time, but making progress with a confidence problem always takes alot of time and patience. Alternate with putting the sheep in different corners or along different fencelines. When you see that your dog is starting to look less anxious about being close to the sheep, you can alternate between calling him off and flanking him around to pull them off the fence line or out of the corner and do a little wearing. Don't fuss at him if he's a little buzzy when he goes around to pull them off in the beginning. He's likely to feel some stress having to go into a tight situation. Let this go for now. One thing at a time! Keep these workouts short and positive.

 

If you have access to a small pen, I would also recommend you do a few minutes of quiet balance work in a area small enough to prevent him from going off contact. Don't overdo this at first. Stay calm and quiet. Remember you are reminding him that he can be close to sheep and be OK.

 

When you work your dog, are you renting sheep time or working with an experienced trainer? If you are working with a trainer, you may also want to ask their opinion and assistance in teaching your dog to grip on commmand. I hesitate to recommend this to you if you're working alone on rented sheep with a novice dog as things can get out of hand pretty quickly, and the sheep owner may not appreciate the results! However, sometimes teaching a dog to grip on command can give their confidence a boost.

 

I hope some of these suggestions help. When you see you dog handling these different close work situations comfortably, try him back at the pen. Let me know how you progress!

[Guest BelgBC]

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried him away from the pen, but in a corner, and he looked a little worried, but went around okay and was fine with stopping close to them. It seems to be closeness associated with the pen and running sheep that really gets to him - sort of like he's worried to get in front of them because he thinks they'll just run him down. I did manage to get him in a situation with the pen where the fence was close on one side, so it prevented him from going out wide, and we just worked through it very slowly. I had sheep that weren't really trying to go anywhere, so that helped, so I followed your suggestion to just let him go closer a little bit at a time. The fence sort of eventually guided him around to the correct place and the sheep actually went in the pen for him, so that seemed to help him a lot. I've tried him a few times since then on easy sheep and he's been okay with them, but we haven't had opportunity yet to get back on sheep trying to run past the pen. When they just walk past he's okay now with stopping them and pushing them back. At least he's no longer leaving the field as soon as the word 'Away' comes out of my mouth.

 

I work with a trainer mostly, but do rent on my own as well, so we've been to a variety of places. I'll have to ask about teaching him to grip. This dog has absolutely no tendency to grip sheep - his first action when things start to fall apart is just to kick out and put the sheep back together. Which is a comforting thing for a novice that I never worry about him hurting a sheep, but I think there are times that his confidence could use some improvement, so maybe getting him to grip would help that.