training penning

[Guest veranthn]

Hi Amanda:

 

I have taken your advice and begun studying with Karen Child. It's another month until my next lesson, so I am hoping that I can shoot a question your way.

 

I feel like we are ready to start thinking about novice trialing, but have not yet approached the issue of penning. Is there a typical point at which it is appropriate to start training that skill? Are there precursor skills that should be in place? How do you teach it?

 

Thanks,

 

Nate

[Guest Amanda]

I'm proud of you going to Karen Child for help. She's good and she'll know what to do. The straight goods are worth a lot. Maybe I'll end up being some use in this forum afterall.

the penning.

I do like to school at the pen. I do not like to do, if the sheep run in with no resistance and are over doggy.

Teaching penning can begin at jobs--chutes, putting sheep in the barn, into a trailer. All the prinicpals are the same.

Dogs ought to have progressed into some form of driving, because otherwise, they will refuse to accept the logic of an off balance flank, in effect, holding the sheep to you at the pen mouth, instead of driving them past you into the pen. Being able to do small drives and accept the flanks that hold drive lines is a pre-requisite.

I keep a hundred and twenty ewes and I do not consider them all that easy to pen. But I do not school penning until I have undogged weaned lambs which are a bitch to get in. These will teach a dog patience and poise, attributes that will be coveted as the blessing they are, later on.

Hopefully by now you will have started a thoughtful dog and that it will just plain get the hang of penning. I like a dog to cover his side with out much command. I am never able to flank as swiftly as the dog can think, and most of my penning command amounts to "come on". And they know the job is to put them in the pen I like the dog to understand pressure required. Hazel, my old friend, often told me to lie down, and worse, she was right. Any decent trial dog has learned the same thing unless their hand regularly forbids much participation on the dog's part. I do not like seeing no dog involved at the pen and I would do them points, if judging, for it. Practice makes perfect but don't let the sheep be practised.

You can make pens with doggy sheep more difficult by tying a Border Collie in the back of it, but there is no training replacement for cunning or silly sheep, that go into open revolt and challenge you and your dog to cope.

Amanda