Covering the draw while driving

[Smokjbc]

Hi,

 

Any ideas/exercises on strengthing balance work on the drive? Nellie is letting way too much leaning towards the draw go on . She's working a bit close on slow sheep, so thats not helping. Mechanically she is doing well, just would like to see more confidence and authority about keeping sheep moving forward in line.

[Guest PrairieFire]

Jaime - can you give a little more info?

 

When you say she's leaning too much to the draw - is she doing MORE than covering the draw - for example, following the stock, or pushing them too directly away from the draw?

[Eileen Stein]

Hi Jaime,

 

I take you to mean that she's letting the sheep drift offline toward the draw more than you'd like, instead of holding the line firmly.

 

Some dogs seem to be naturally better at this than others. One thing I did with my youngster which seems to have helped: In two corners of my big field I have a little holding pen for sheep, like a set-out pen. I have her drive a group of sheep across the field toward one of those pens, then have her put the sheep in it, then (either immediately or after I've done something else with her) have her work them out through the let-out gate (usually this doesn't take much work, sometimes it does). After I had done this a few times (in different training sessions), it seemed to occur to her when I set her driving in that direction that I probably wanted to take them to the pen, and she used more initiative in keeping the line straight and avoiding drift toward the other corners (there is a lot of natural pressure toward one of the other corners, and I can create pressure toward the fourth corner by putting some sheep in an adjacent paddock). This seems to be carrying over to drives in other directions, although she needs more commands to get those drives lined up to begin with, and an "ahhp" or two if she starts letting them drift, followed by an approving "right there" if she re-balances in response to the "ahhp."

 

Maybe something like this would help with Nellie. Hope so.

[cgt]

I have a dog that tends to overcompensate for the draw. (Maybe she is what is referred to as "pressure sensitive" ?) Anyway, it sounds like Eileen's routine would help there, too. Yes?

 

charlie

[Guest PrairieFire]

After rereading, and Eileen's response, I think you mean she's doing more following than pushing...

 

 

If that's true, what I have done is to make my dogs come all the way round on both the opposite side and the draw side...working on simply getting them to listen to my commands rather than focus on the sheepie butts...after awhile, it seems like simply breaking thier concentration has helped, after we've learned not to follow so much...

[mckaycanada]

Make sure the "draw" has no sharp edges or places where the dog can be cornered and then just show the dog how very wrong it is! Let em spill and start from scratch each time you lose a single. Even pull off like you're going to quit then go again.

[mckaycanada]

If the dog holds em let it keep them. Then do it again but don't get to far from the draw because there's a break point where the pressure hits max and you don't want the dog always failing at that point. Once past the point of no return you're okay. Up until the point you're okay. Just got over the same thing with a 1 year old.

[mckaycanada]

I hope I understood that question.