tight trial outrun

[Guest Tom L]

My 8 yr old female (just moved up into Ranch) started as a tight outrunner. With time and training she now widens out nicely most of the time, except for the 1st time on strange sheep - which means, of course, at trials! At one trial this season with an uphill outrun she just ran straight up the middle. I tried a redirect, but she was (and often is) "locked-in". I'm concerned that if I push her overly wide in training, she'll lose contact. It seems like she's defaulting back to her inclination to run tight with the stress of a trial. Once she's doing her fetch, she's terrific and handles the rest of her runs very nicely. Is there anything I can do to relax her on new sheep?

[Guest Amanda]

8 years old!!

Just when other people are thinking about retiring their dogs, you want to fix her outrun.

Since she is eight years old, do not be nervous about getting her too wide. Practice in trial like settings--get someone to spot sheep in a new, different field, on different sheep. Let her go wrong and then let her know you mean business about getting it right. It is easy enough to mimic trials. It might take some resolve and resourcefulness to do it.

[Guest Tom L]

Thanks Amanda - right, well better late than never. Can you describe what your definition of 'mean business" is?

 

I've used every training technique I can find, including lying her down as soon as she's even thinking about being tight, running out between her and the sheep, chasing her off, and resending (with a variety of epithets thrown in to reinforce the point, if needed), or calling her off and not letting her have her sheep until she does it right - which she does - the 2ND time. Not real helpful at a trial. So she does respond and definitely appears to GET that I mean business.

 

I'm afraid the one thing I haven't done and probably should, is leave the post when she does it during a trial, since she's smart enough to know I don't correct her there. Is there any other way to handle the problem at a trial?

[Guest Amanda]

Remember eight years old is definitely getting on with the job--so many years of success with the wrong technique.

When I say mean business, at some point, talk is cheap, and there is no replacement for meeting your dog face to face and giving it a shaking. I sure do not like to let them have there sheep if they are running wrong. You are right about her being smart--of course she is, after all those formative years. Contrive a trial scenario at home, or preferrably elsewhere and practise.

You should indeed have left the post early in her career. If you are hell bent on trialling her, you better consider leaving the post even now. The practice might fix it.

[Guest Tom L]

Much appreciated, thanks again.