flanking problem

[Liz P]

I was working on penning with Freya to get her ready for our trial this weekend. The sheep I was using had never been penned but Freya got them in very quickly. I put a tarp in the back of the pen for a challenge and she got them in again without any problems. I moved the tarp to the floor of the pen and asked her to put them in, but she was having a really hard time. She was very reluctant to take her Away to Me command; sulked when I gave it to her, ran left instead, etc. She did get them in twice but was obviously not happy.

 

We left the field and I gave her a break so she could relax for awhile and get a drink. When we went back into the field I sent her on some mini outruns and did some flanking exercises and she was fine (her usual happy self). I put the sheep out a bit further and we did some outruns to the right, no problems. We went back to the pen and I pulled the tarp up. She put the sheep in but was still giving me issues with her Away to Me. She kept running to the left and continuing all the way around the pen, pushing the sheep back out of the opening. I put her in a down when she tried to go the wrong way but she would get really sulky.

 

She normally doesn't have any problems working off balance, so I am a bit surprised by her behavior.

 

Any thoughts?

[Debbie Crowder-BaaramuLuke]

Hey Liz,

What's the tarp about...is that about making the sheep more uncomfortable about going in?

 

(OT-Freya looks a lot like a feminine Simon...is she super keen?)

[juliepoudrier]

Liz,

Is it possible that the noise of the sheep walking on the tarp upset her? (My old dog absolutely fears the sound of crinkling plastic.) If you have a second dog, one way to make the sheep more difficult to pen is to tie a dog to the back of the pen. That at least would avoid the tarp issues....

 

J.

[Debbie Crowder-BaaramuLuke]

That's kind of what I was getting at...it's easy to challenge the sheep if you want to turn auto-penners into Something Tougher, but some dogs get the heebie-geebies over noises that don't make sense to them, especially with us pushing them with commands. I have to wonder if she's just sulking out because she has an aversity to the noise or it's just a response to the confusion. I'd lighten up on tarping.

BTW, Simon had sudden weird noise issues when he was younger, I just desensitized him, but not around stock, mostly because being around sheep took away the sensitivity to them. If I was putting a lot of pressure on him, I have to wonder if it wouldn't have come up there too.

[Liz P]

I didn't even think of that, it's certainly possible. Freya doesn't really have noise phobias. She gets really excited when she hears sirens or motorcycles and she used to like to bark when people clapped. Oh, and if I put the show "Cops" on she would sit and watch it and bark when they caught the bad guys. I did use to have a tarp roof over the kennels, but I never felt that the tarp roof upset her. The thing is, she was sulky about going right even after I removed the tarp.

 

Yes, I did put the tarp down to give her more of a challenge with the pen. She has never missed the pen at a trial and I wanted to see what she would do if I made penning harder. There wasn't really room to put another dog in the back of the pen or behind it.

 

LOL Debbie, you like the stretched out pic of her? It got all distorted when I made it my signature photo, not sure how to fix that. She is super keen and so fun to work with. I would take 10 more just like her! So when do I get a pup from her niece? You know I am going to keep bugging you until you breed her!