Bronwen’s lesson to slow down when tackling sheep in tight places
I tore myself away from editing sheepdog training videos this morning, to take Bronwen to the sheep. Our dogs don’t get as much training as they should do at the moment because we’re busy making videos (and fulfilling DVD orders) but it was such a lovely morning, I couldn’t resist.
I think the first thing that went wrong was my concentrating too hard on getting photographs, and not controlling Bronwen with the discipline I should have. She brought the sheep to me very nicely, but when I knelt down to get a low viewpoint it meant my attention was off her. She took advantage of the opportunity to add some “artistic licence” to her performance.
As a result, she got very excited, and when I asked her to get the sheep out of a particularly tight corner she didn’t want to go round them. Who can blame a young dog in this position? There’s nowhere for the dog to go between the sheep and the hedge. Instead, she split a handful of them away. They raced off down the field with Bronwen, determined to bring them back.
Achieving what I set out to do
I was equally determined that she would ignore the runaway sheep and concentrate on finishing the job I’d given her – getting the sheep out of the corner. I still had the camera in my hands, and because of this I didn’t have the training stick with me, so we stopped training and returned to the house to swap the camera for the training stick.
By the time we returned, the sheep were back together in the corner, so I asked Bronwen to get them out. Just as before, she split them, rather than bringing them out cleanly. Things improved immediately though, because blocking her with the stick gave Bronwen a stronger signal to go the way I wanted. She quickly began to see that if she approached the sheep wide and steadily, they would move. It’s when dogs dart at the sheep that the sheep either freeze – or panic and scatter. You can find out more about this in our “Eve at the pen” tutorial.
Start again – but slowly this time
By sending her to bring them out of the corner before they were too tightly packed in, Bronwen’s success gave her confidence. Soon she was moving the sheep out of the corner in a controlled fashion, however tightly packed. I was pleased with her progress.
And I suppose I learned a lesson too – when I’m training a dog it’s important to concentrate on the job in hand!
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