Margaret Johnson Posted April 29, 2008 Report Share Posted April 29, 2008 Hi everyone, I'm getting a couple of young dog's ready to trial and just started working on obstacles. Unfortunatley, the dogs seem to find them very exciting. I don't have too much trouble with gates as they help me at the farm with my sheep all the time, but the panels & shoots are where the wheels come off. Does anyone have a way of introducing obstacles that makes it easy for the dogs to under stand that the sheep are not going to get away &/or it's not the opportunity that they've be waiting for in order to catch one of my woolies? Thanks for your help, Margaret Johnson Shakopee, MN silverwindfarm@hotmail.com www.silverwindfarm.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokjbc Posted April 29, 2008 Report Share Posted April 29, 2008 Hi everyone,I'm getting a couple of young dog's ready to trial and just started working on obstacles. Unfortunatley, the dogs seem to find them very exciting. I don't have too much trouble with gates as they help me at the farm with my sheep all the time, but the panels & shoots are where the wheels come off. Does anyone have a way of introducing obstacles that makes it easy for the dogs to under stand that the sheep are not going to get away &/or it's not the opportunity that they've be waiting for in order to catch one of my woolies? Thanks for your help, Margaret Johnson Shakopee, MN silverwindfarm@hotmail.com www.silverwindfarm.net What level are your dog's at? Are they driving the panels/chutes on their own or are you right next to them ? I've found that my dogs "get" things like chutes and panels once they've done a little driving and have become comfortable with the sheep moving away from you. Also, a good down and keeping things slow will help- if your sheep like to bolt through that stuff, you might want to try a different group that doesn't have such a strong draw. Also, if there is any "job" you can do with a bunch of sheep and a chute, that might help your dog learn some patience. I don't really like to "practice" obstacles too much- I'll do a little to work out my own kinks with it but if you work on their driving and correct flanks and decent stop, the dogs should be ok with this stuff. In fact, I'd expect that if I practiced obstacle type work too much and my sheep were too predictable in their reaction to "escaping" the obstacle, the dogs would probably learn to anticipate rather than read the situation as it occurs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaBluez Tess Posted April 29, 2008 Report Share Posted April 29, 2008 The only obstacles we use are the ones in place such as gate, fences, natural items and so forth. I use the gate as an example...I use it to sort sheep or put the sheep through. Another example is when I will use Tess to "tend" the sheep....I'll have her push the sheep past a natural obstacles such as a stand of trees. Panels/chutes is what I use to worming etc....so they learn to push the sheep in and if needed move them out. They learn to run sheep up the tilt table ramp. But I don't use obsacle to *train for trials* but to *train for a purpose* Diane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Margaret Johnson Posted April 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2008 I have 4 up & coming BC's. It's the 2 - almost 2yr old boy's that I'm hoping to start trialing in Novice this year. I also have 1 almost 3yr female who is the best at obstacles, but busy being a mom right now, and 1 - 1yr old male who's just starting his training. My first 2 BC I trained to a basic farm dog level before they where struck down with health issues (HD & epilepsy). I have a lightly dog'ed, NC ewe flock & 6 schooling sheep. The schooling sheep are 3 Cheviot cross yearlings & 3 unbelievably dog broke, old, & crafty sheep who know my commands maybe better then the dogs. I've been useing any combination of the schooling sheep (3 to all 6). Both of the boys are just starting to get driving, have nice flanks and good outruns. I'm usually parallel to the dogs & sometimes work it with a line - sometimes without. One of the boy's is good getting them through, but then over flanks to bring them back. The other does well getting them into the obstacle, but then gets very excited. Come to think of it my crafty sheep do like to "hide" behind the pannels - is that part of the problem? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelpiegirl Posted April 29, 2008 Report Share Posted April 29, 2008 When I was doing tiny pen work with my dog, it was set up so I would have her squeeze behind the sheep, pull them off the wall- they would come off the wall and run hell bent for leather out the little corral we had. My dog being young, and in control didn't know WHY I would ask her to get those sheep pulled off just to let them run away. At one point she hesitated when I sent her. I then shut the gate- she saw this, and was pleased as punch to pull them off- knowing, I suppose, that dumb handler (me) was not letting them go. It is a control thing for her. These dogs DO think. As for putting through gates, and wanting to go and re-gather, I think that is a natural, and not bad thing. You just need to do this enough so that the dog realizes that putting them somewhere else and letting them go, is not a bad thing. It shouldn't take long, but you should be there to correct the dog if when you ask for a down, he/she ignores you and flanks around. as for the chute stuff, same sort of deal- the dog needs to be able to feel his sheep, and then allow himself to be directed by you. We are sort of fighting natural inclinations here, so the dog needs to be shown that it is okay to listen- and that he will have the sheep again when you ask- which will be soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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