problems with drive

[MARISTELA]

I've been trying to teach my dog the drive. I stand near him and walk towards the sheep. I see he is very concentrated, he looks direct into the sheep and paces slowly, very attentive. We walk together and when we are very close, I make him stop and we start again.

I do that once or twice without problems. But when I repeat this exercise for the third time, I don't know why, but he stucks, looks at the sheep and seems to be hipnotised. He stares at the sheep and stands like a statue, sometimes with the legs in the air just looling at the sheep.

I have tried to see if there is any change about the sheep, the direction they look, or the position of their heads, but it doesn't seem to be the cause.

Can anyone tell me what might be going on?

 

thanks a lot

 

Maristela

[Smokjbc]

I've been trying to teach my dog the drive. I stand near him and walk towards the sheep. I see he is very concentrated, he looks direct into the sheep and paces slowly, very attentive. We walk together and when we are very close, I make him stop and we start again.

I do that once or twice without problems. But when I repeat this exercise for the third time, I don't know why, but he stucks, looks at the sheep and seems to be hipnotised. He stares at the sheep and stands like a statue, sometimes with the legs in the air just looling at the sheep.

I have tried to see if there is any change about the sheep, the direction they look, or the position of their heads, but it doesn't seem to be the cause.

Can anyone tell me what might be going on?

 

thanks a lot

 

Maristela

 

 

Why are you having him stop? Do you run out of room or think he's going to go to the heads? If he is pacing nice, try to set it up so you have enough room just to keep going without stopping, or if you do have to stop to create more distance, can you have him get up right away and start pushing into the sheep again? Are you sheep moving off him nicely or are they heavier/turn and look at him types? I would err in favor of too much pushing on the drive than not enough- even if the dog busts through them sometimes- I don't want them to be "drifting" when they drive- I want them taking control of the sheep. When you get to that point, is their a fence, obstacle or some kind of physical pressure that he is holding them too? If so, that may be his "comfort zone" where he can stay in control..hence the stopping and holding.

 

I'm not an expert, and without seeing your dog I could be completely wrong, but it seems like the problem starts when you stop him and he thinks that he's supposed to hold the sheep instead of push into them. It also sounds like he has a lot of eye (i.e the hypnotized issue) and the more you can keep him on his feet, the better.

 

If you have limited room to work on driving and are always having to restart him,try doing a "box" where you have him turn the sheep (do a quarter flank) and start a new line. If he does pick his own line but is pushing nicely and not going to the heads, let him keep that line for as long as he can and encourage him.

 

Also.. this would be a great question to put in the Ask the Expert section!

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I agree about Ask the Expert - try copying your post over there. I got a couple great suggestions from Jeanne on a long time problem of mine!

 

One of the best pieces of advice that I've ever been given was incorporate the drive into a job. Even if you have to pretend - think ahead of time what your goal is - drive to X point and stop, turn the sheep back, go to wherever. It helps keep you less focused on what the DOG should "look like" and more what the sheep are doing, which is after all what your dog is thinking about.

 

Another terrific tip I got (thanks Karen) was lose the commands altogether once you are moving the sheep - other than stopping overflanking or heading. If you can keep the commands pretty much for starting and stopping the drive, it does two things - it gets your dog feeling the sheep more and feeling in control, which helps a sticky dog immensely (it's a confidence thing) - and it gives your dog a distinct reference point for when "his part" of the job has started and stopped. Giving over control is a big issue with this kind of dog, I've noticed. They need to know, at least at first, when you open your mouth it's for a good reason.

 

Good luck!

[MARISTELA]

Well, I stop my dog because I don't want to lose control on his drive. I want him to understand that he has to push the sheep until the moment I say so. And because I don't want him to go into the sheep. Is that wrong??? I suppose so.

Even before I ask him to stop he refuses to go ahead, so I don't think the fact of telling him to stop has something to do with his refusal to keep on.

The field where I work my dog is large enough. There are no fences, no barriers. When he gets very close to she sheep, which doens't happen very often, they don't move, or if they do, they come close to me, because I happen to be near them.

I can try some real work and see if he understands it better. I think he does understand what I want, but he seems like hypnotized, as I said.

If I see any improvements, I 'll let you know.

 

thanks a lot,

 

Maristela