One of the important points I stress when advising new trainers, is the importance of increasing your dog’s experience.
New sheep, and a different training ground, offer excellent fresh challenges for the dog and broaden its experience dramatically. And with broader experience comes extra confidence.
We recently seized the opportunity to run Kay, Mo and Mel on a full sized hillside trials course in Gloucestershire. I haven’t competed in sheepdog trials for some years now, and I must admit, at first sight, the course was daunting.
The pictures don’t show it well, but looking from the post there’s a fairly steep slope down to the fetch gates, followed by a sharp climb up the bank to the peg (where the sheep would normally be placed for a trial). If you click the picture to enlarge it you may not be able to see the letting out pen, but it’s by the tiny tin shed on the horizon!
Gill was fully occupied, filming the event on video, so there was nobody to actually let the sheep out and keep them near the peg. We had to make the best of the situation we had.
Mo’s first encounter with Herdwicks
The sheep were Herdwicks – which are currently favoured by many sheepdog trainers as they are free moving and easy on the dog. Unfortunately, they were not sympathetic to our cause. The eight Herdwicks had placed themselves out of sight at the far right of the field (nowhere near the peg). Gill took Mo to bring them back to a more manageable position, but by the time she was back in filming position the sheep had found refuge in the shade of the far left corner of the field. Worse still, their dark brown wool proved to be perfect camouflage. They were invisible from the post.
Not being used to a long outrun (let alone one where there are apparently no sheep) Mo set off fast and wide as usual, but her lack of experience quickly became apparent. She started to look around, obviously wondering what she was supposed to be gathering. I redirected her, and even called her back to re-send her, but to no avail. Next, I took her closer to the shady corner and sent her off again to collect the sheep. We were able to position them somewhere nearer the middle of the course and, fortunately, the Herdwicks stayed in place. long enough for me to return to the post with Mo. However, with our backs to them, we didn’t notice another nine sheep run across to join the eight we’d put in place.
If at first you don’t succeed…
I sent Mo off again, and this time she had much more success. I don’t know which of us was the more surprised to see that the bunch had doubled in size! Despite Mo’s very wide outrun, as soon as they saw her the sheep began to run towards the far right of the course. She’s not the easiest dog to stop but she flanked really wide, and gave them plenty of room to steady down. I was able to hold her back enough to allow the sheep to slip through the fetch gates – all seventeen of them!
I was really impressed with little Mo as she brought her sheep neatly around the post and set of towards the first drive gate at a brisk but controlled pace. As they climbed up the bank towards the gate, the sheep kept their line, and Mo’s drive was still on maximum points when all seventeen herdwicks went through cleanly. I flanked Mo to the left, and she turned them neatly towards the second drive gate.
The crossdrive was a struggle as the sheep were trying hard to get up the hill and back to their original refuge. Mo responded very well but I had to keep her almost on the opposite side of the sheep to me, such was the sheep’s determination to escape uphill.
Judging the second drive gates is never one of my strong points but this time Mo and I got it just right and the seventeen sheep went through cleanly. The lines may not have been perfect but we’d got all the sheep through all the gates!
It’s important to give your dog an all-round education!
It was at about this time that I realised I’d never done any shedding with Mo. I’d fallen into the trap of using Kay and Mel all the time because they are such naturals at it. I had intended Kay and Mo’s runs to be ‘dress rehearsals’ for a proper trials run, so decided to try the shed and see what happened. Fortunately, the sheep parted immediately and when I called her through, Mo responded instantly and turned onto the shed sheep like an expert.
As you might imagine, by this time, I was delighted with Mo’s run. It wasn’t a trials winning performance by any means, but for a first attempt away from home, it was excellent. We now had a real challenge though. We had seventeen sheep and needed to complete our run by penning them. Unfortunately, this was where our luck ran out. The sheep knew their drill perfectly and whenever Mo brought them quietly to the pen, they walked towards the opening but at the last second, split – half going to the left, and half to the right. They seemed oblivious of my efforts to keep them back even when I left the pen to run out and block them! We eventually ‘retired’ gracefully.
Sometimes it’s all down to handler error
Kay had an easier task than Mo. The sheep were well in view, about fifty yards beyond the fetch gates. Even so, they ran off as Kay approached, even though she was very wide. Like the little trooper she is, Kay saw what was happening and flanked right out wide and fast to bring them back on line. Unfortunately, I made a complete hash of reading the sheep, stopping Kay far short of where she needed to be and as a result, two or three of the Herdwicks slipped outside the gate.
Kay then brought the sheep up neatly around the post, before heading off for the drive. The approach to the first gate was shaky but somehow the little flock went through cleanly and Kay coped beautifully with their determined efforts to run away uphill on the crossdrive. All seventeen were posted successfully through the last drive gate and Kay brought them into the (imaginary) shedding ring.
The Herdwicks once again parted quickly and Kay came through, controlling her subjects wonderfully before turning back and regrouping them for the pen, but just as with Mo’s run, the sheep were too clever for us and we failed to pen them. We need to work on our penning!
Mel had a good run (as I would expect) but she’s feeling her age now and not as fit as she was. When the sheep began to give her a hard time we called it a day, rather than have Mel “fail”.
It had been a worthwhile day for all concerned, however. Mo and Kay had some new experiences, which will stand them in good stead for future work. Their trainers learnt where we needed to concentrate our training when we got home! It’s not just the dogs who learn from a change of scene.
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