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Need help with outrun.


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Hi Bob,

My 4 year old male Border collie has been running in ranch since last fall. I've been doing a lot of driving training with him during the past 12 months and he seems to understand the concept quite well.

However, I discovered much to my dismay, as I was preparing him for a trial this past November, that his usual lovely outrun has deteriorated. More specifically, he is overflanking whether I send him to the right or left on his outrun. I had always been able to trust him to read his stock and know intuitively where to stop on his outrun based on where the pressure was.

I've been told by other trainers that is is not unusual for a dog's outrun to suffer when you concentrate on teaching the drive.

Any suggestions as to what I can do to restore my dogs natural sense of balance at the top of his outrun once the snow melts and we can get back to training?

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:rolleyes:-->

QUOTE(Jan B @ Jan 19 2010, 11:49 PM) 336529[/snapback]
Hi Bob,

My 4 year old male Border collie has been running in ranch since last fall. I've been doing a lot of driving training with him during the past 12 months and he seems to understand the concept quite well.

However, I discovered much to my dismay, as I was preparing him for a trial this past November, that his usual lovely outrun has deteriorated. More specifically, he is overflanking whether I send him to the right or left on his outrun. I had always been able to trust him to read his stock and know intuitively where to stop on his outrun based on where the pressure was.

I've been told by other trainers that is is not unusual for a dog's outrun to suffer when you concentrate on teaching the drive.

Any suggestions as to what I can do to restore my dogs natural sense of balance at the top of his outrun once the snow melts and we can get back to training?

 

The outrun does not have to suffer when you are teaching the drive. You should always end your training sessions with balance work and you will never lose the outrun if you do that. It is very important, especially with trial dogs, that you have balance sessions every time you train. Because of the necessity to be commanding the dogs repeatedly when training and trialling they tend to lose balance if it is not kept in them. The reason for this is obvious as balance is very natural and when trialling and training to trial we often get to the point we are telling the dogs what to do all the time and they become used to that and are waiting for us to tell them what to do. Therefore loss of balance. Always mix your training up. Keep it interesting for the dog by changing what you do throughout your sessions. Never, ever, just train one thing every day for long periods of time. Your dog is required to do a lot of things throughout his life and his trialling career and you don't want to lose any of them. Right now, you need to start sending your dog on his outrun and moving yourself to change the balance point a lot so that he is recognizing where you are all the time. You need to move quickly and surprise him as to where you are all the time. Start short and move out as he becomes better at it. No commands, just you moving yourself back and forth sideways at the other end so that where he must bring the sheep changes all the time. This will sharpen his natural instinct to balance properly and you will, eventually, get your nice outrun and lift back again. If he starts to go past the balance point, move yourself into him to force him to go the other way in order to bring the sheep to you. This will eventually teach him not to run by at the top. I don't like to stop a dog at the top as the dog really should know better where the balance point is than you do. He will find it again if you let him and you can't let him find it if you are giving him commands when he should be using his instinct and stock sense. As far as the fetch is concerned you need to control this for pace right now and just move yourself around to keep the sheep on line. Eventually you will need to start giving commands on the fetch again to be sure you have control but for now keep it as quiet and natural as possible. At the end of EVERY!!! session do 30 to 40 seconds of balance work, walking the field with your dog bringing sheep to you, turning, slowing down, speeding up, etc. NO COMMANDS other than for pace. Try this for a while and get back to me and let me know how you are doing and we'll go on from there. Be patient and watch your dog to see how he is working so you have two way communication (reading your dog).......Bob

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Hi Bob,

Thank you for you advice which makes a lot of sense to me and will be easy for Moss to understand. It's good to know that I was on the right track as I had been doing what you advised in your reply to my query but, obviously, it is going to take some time. I never, ever train the same thing every day and have found that it is necessary to make the training interesting and challenging to keep Moss keen to work. No drilling for this dog. When the snow melts here in New England, I'll let you know how he is doing.

Thanks again,

Jan & Moss

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