I took a couple of days
off from training recently and boy did it make a differance. Both
dogs, Kate and Wage were kept in there runs except for a morning walk
with the rest of the pack. I cut back also on the number of sheep in
the training area and it was as if someone held a match to there
butts.
Kate has always been
strong on stock but weak on handler pressure. She is now hitting hard
when she does a lift, something to be corrected later, and balancing
like she has been doing it all her life. She is starting to listen to
commands and will bring sheep to me no matter where I am. Some more
practice on sides then I will introduce her to the whistle then back
to cattle where she originally started.
Wage also looks like he
finally figured it out and is much stronger. When he lifts the sheep
he still wants to come around and head. I stop him with a walk up
command and for the most part it works. What I'm seeing is he should
be a very good, strong dog by the time he is 1 year old. The next
step in his training is sides and working the length of the training
area in out runs.
Here in lies a problem
with the fetch and lift. In the trial world you are always working
towards square flanks. In the real world if your dog is using ssquare
flanks he is wasting so much time and energy that chances are the job
will not get done or he may miss some of the stock. So how does one
solve this problem? I have used 2 word commands in the past: ie Away
to me or Go bye. I will explore these 2 word commands in a later
post.
Until next time
Onward and upward