Would I be laughed out of...

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

We like multiple page threads in the training section. Witness the four page thread on the [seeemingly] simple question of whether to leash one's dog going to the post.

 

It's winter and we will all be bored until lambing starts. Keep asking away!

 

On Ted, I asked for a stop but not necessarily a down until I was sure he understood much of the basic ins and outs of controlling his sheep in a sensible manner. Asking for a down is really asking a dog to trust you on many levels.

 

My homework now is focusing very much on a quick and relaxed down and it's remarkable how quickly we've gone from Ted being wound rather tight, to accepting my commands. It's kind of a new experience for me.

 

I've been really lucky to have a long line of mentors whose philosophy has been, work on the basics and the "trimmings" will come easily.

[juliepoudrier]

Soda-Pop (everytime I see your screen name, I can't help but think of The Outsiders--do kids even read that anymore?),

One thing to remember is that as a rescue she probably wasn't brought up to take a correction and so when she gets a correction it's like the end of the world for her (hence the going off and eating poo and all). With time and consistency on your part, she'll probably work through all that just fine. One of my first trial dogs was a rescue of unknown history. She turned out to be a pretty good little dog, but I did always have to handle her with kid gloves, so to speak. She wouldn't quit, but she would get very hesitant if she felt "overcorrected." Fortunately for both of us, I am very softspoken and not inclined toward heavy corrections, so it ended up being a pretty good match. The neat thing about such a dog is that she will make you an infinitely better handler. I credit my ability now to calmly work through things going wrong on the trial field to what I learned from that dog....

 

J.