teaching flanks

[Guest elayne]

Hi Amanda,

 

At what point do you start training your dogs little flanks and how do you go about doing so? What should you look for to know the dog is ready to learn this and what do you look for to know that you are teaching them correctly. I have heard many people say "just wait until you have to teach little flanks..."

Thanks-

Elayne (again :roll: )

[Guest Amanda]

Dogs learn to expect to hold lines. You begin teaching them when they fetch. You teach them when they drive. They learn to aniticipate line.

You can use the holding of lines to teach little flanks. As you work, if the sheep drift one way or the other, you give a little flank to correct the one way or the other--just enough to correct the line and then a stop. Soon the little flanks, because they made sense to the dog in the first place, become part of the dog's lexicon. Making sense out of the little flanks is the key. The dog must know where you are headed with something, so that the little flank, in the context of holding a line, is perfectly understandable and therefore, to the thoughtful dog, doable.