My dog is so so so fast

[mckaycanada]

Okay. Is my logic correct?

 

My dog is speedy. Takes his flanks but slices and comes up from a lie down at a full run.

 

1) What is the best way to slow him down?

2) If I slow him down will I be able to stop yelling at him to lie down?

3) Is there a tried and true way to get a stop on my dog?

 

Please help. He's great with lambs and seems to be powerful enough but he needs extreme pressure or exhaustion to slow things down.

 

John and Leslie

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Grain of salt warning. My big accomplishment today was catching my dog in a large field and doctoring the lamb he, um, got annoyed with when she tried to rejoin her flock after shedding. However, I have been through what you describe with three dogs now and if nothing else, by George I've got stops, good flanks, and pace on those suckers.

 

1) What is the best way to slow him down?

1) Teach him impulse control. Method of your choosing. I prefer approaches that emphasize the dog figuring out on his own that busting them and stupid crazy flanks are just Wrong Answers. Just keep setting him up and correcting him, stopping him, making him do it again until he does it right. There are other methods where you can use corners to help him feel comfortable stopping, feeling the pressure when he lifts and make sure he flanks right, and some people will use a light long line to get him to feel comfortable choosing to be calm around the sheep. There's tons of ways to do this but your goal should be the same. He must choose to handle the sheep at a sensible pace whether you tell him to or not, unless you are giving him hurry up commands.

 

2) If I slow him down will I be able to stop yelling at him to lie down?

2) I think you are saying if you use a lot of lie downs to slow him down, will you ever be able to wean him off that? Eventually your dog will become more comfortable and find some pace if forced to be quiet and think. However, lie down/walk up is a harder way to do it and can lead to bad habits. You haven't mentioned what level you are at exactly, but if he is working at a distance from you, you should be able to correct him, stop him, and then let him try again - don't let him go on working until he gets up right, even if you stand there all day. If the sheep jump when he gets up, there's your problem right there. If you fix that, dollars to donuts you'll be well on your way to working past these issues.

 

3) Is there a tried and true way to get a stop on my dog?

3) I've only seen one dog that just couldn't be stopped. Darnest thing I've ever seen in my life. but that's another story. If nothing else you can flank him around the sheep over and over until he stops, whether that is five minutes or three hours (as in the case of my current dog). but again, there's lots of other ways - I prefer, again, methods that don't involve a lot of fighting because the type of dogs I've been working with for years are very free flanking. You can either get really hard with such a dog or you can make him think it was his idea. I have a current favorite trick, becuase it worked delightfully well on both my young dog and my hardheaded older dog who never did learn a solid stop. I walk the dog down, take them quietly back to where I gave the command, let them go, and repeat the command. I have no idea why this works but I've only had to walk Ben down once and Don is a totally different dog (except for today's blip, which may have been evidence of some kind of learning curve).

 

But your mileage may vary. I've noticed Dryden Joe dogs, which all of mine are, hate to be collared. Other dogs may take something else to get their attention.

 

Or you can go the opposite way and do what a lady did on a visit here with her Catahoulas. she ignored when the dog didn't listen and reinforced anythng good, particularly stops. Her dogs didn't do anything nutty and were no danger to anything so sitting around waiting for something good to happen worked well in that situation, and her dogs, which are a breed notorious for being stubborn, think stopping is something great they came up with. So that's really a question you have to answer looking at your dog.

 

Good luck!