Orbiting

[Guest Teampenner]

I have a 10 month old pup that has been going to stock for about 2 months. He is an intense, keen puppy and is not pressure sensitive. I have not been putting much pressure on him at this point, just letting him get the feel of his sheep. We live on a farm and he has been keen to start since he was 4 months old.

 

This pups littermate sister went to sheep for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Her first time out, she cast out around her sheep and immediatly found her balance point and within 5 minutes was balancing sheep to her handler and changing directions easily. This male pup doesn't seem to "feel" that place and just continues on around his sheep wanting to orbit around me and the sheep. He also wants to go up the middle unless I'm careful about getting him started to cast around. He is VERY keen and does balance to his sheep (would love to hold them on a fence) but just doesn't seem to see ME as part of this balance picture. The bitch pup just seemed to naturally include her handler in the picture. He wants to walk straight into his sheep where she seems to naturally want to go around hers. I can get him to change direction by blocking and pushing him back around but it seems like we've been doing this for awhile without any noticable change in him finding that balance point (to me). He has gotten the idea that the sheep should be with me but if he goes out to gather will just keep flanking by rather than "draw up" to fetch.

 

Is this just a "mileage" problem that will resolve itself with lots of walking backwards and constant blocking?

 

TIA for any advice.

[Guest Teampenner]

Just a quick update on the orbiting pup. We've been back to our excellent trainer a few times since the original post. The problem has been resolved. No need to spend time answering this question...it's no longer an issue. Thanks,

Teampenner