blackacre Posted October 20, 2003 Report Share Posted October 20, 2003 OK, I'm kind of excited. Yesterday Jaffe showed the first glimmer of desire to work with me. Our lessons a couple of weeks ago really seemed to have had an effect. Actually, the most valuable insight I got was that he has no eye to speak of and is working the sheep's heads. This is why it is so hard to keep him behind the sheep and why he is perpetually zooming past me when I am trying to get him to fetch (RDM, take note. Sound familiar?) He is also one sided of course but this is now improving. He will go come bye now and only tried to dive in a few times in our last session. The problem is though that my sheep are very light and reactive and will rip past me as soon as I get Monster Boy behind them. I am trying to buy in some knee knockers but in the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions for working with what I have? I don't want to insist on a stop just yet, at least until he learns to stay behind the sheep and balance. Now that I think of it, I guess I could get someone to hold them really tightly but I am most often working alone. Denise, are you there darlin'? A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue in France Posted October 20, 2003 Report Share Posted October 20, 2003 I don't know what distance you are asking the dog to OR and fetch but it should be easy enough to move to the left or right and backwards of the balance point once the dog has lifted the sheep.ie move backwards in an arc, zigzag or a full circle or a figue of eight...it doesn't rally matter where you go. This should encourage the dog to balance them to you, gives you the opportunity to encourage him to his off side and it slows him down. It is a basic balancing exercise which helps a combination of things nad doesn't require a stop. There aren't many times when you stand still when starting a dog. Sue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denise Wall Posted October 21, 2003 Report Share Posted October 21, 2003 Well, I don't know if this will help but here's what I've sometimes done in those situations: Get a PVC pole (maybe 10 feet long or more), hold it waist-high, full-length horizontal to the ground, and sort of bounce it up and down as you walk backward. The ends will move more than the middle that you're holding. This does a few things. 1) it tends to keep the sheep from running by you because you're blocking them with a wider block than just your body. 2) the swaying up and down motion of the ends of the pole tends to keep the sheep and dog backed off and focused on you more as a target. This will help a dog that is concentrating too much on the heads to concentrate on you and holding the sheep to you instead. 3) it relieves the dog of the responsibility of thinking it has to catch the sheep as they run by you, making it think more about holding them correctly in front of you. This is basically just a crutch where you're making yourself a larger target for the dog without having to have a lot of control over it to make things nicer. The advantage is you can move around while still being sort of a small fence You can also back up to a fence to send the dog for the sheep. It won't need to worry about the sheep running by you then for sure. It's also easier for him to tell he's pushing too hard when there's a definite boundary behind you. Denise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackacre Posted October 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2003 Damn, you're brilliant Denise. That is so cool. Now that I think of it, I had a clinician up here in the summer and he was using two sticks, one in each hand, to deter Jaffe from passing him on one side or the other. I like your idea better though, since it should also be a visual barrier for the sheep. Of course, I'm going to look like the Frenchman that walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers, although I would guess not nearly as graceful. A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StillTerry Posted October 21, 2003 Report Share Posted October 21, 2003 I have to agree with Andrea; that is very great advice. I have seen the long pvc pole at the homes of many handlers that I respect and now I know at least one of the reasons why they use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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