Derwentbank Blog

We went to a training day with Derek in Carlise, Cumbria, which was brilliant. I learned an awful lot. You basically work with it’s natural instincts whilst begining to introduce instructions, with the emphasis beng at this early stage to let the dog enjoy the work.

Derek said Sky prefered her ‘comebye’ flank so try to encourage the ‘away’  flank and not to dicaplin her on this side unless absolutley necessary to build up her confidence. He said it is important the dog loves to flank. At this stage, Derek said to work on ‘comebye’ and ‘away’,  ‘ lie down’ and ‘walk on’ from the far side on the sheep, untill we have this reliably.

I have to use less body language as I was using my arms to give her a hint. But this just makes the dog look to you for a cue, whereas you dont really want them to take their eyes off the sheep, just to listen to your commands instead. You also need to work ot your commands, and stick to these words and only these words. No ‘good dog’ or anything else. Everything you say must be an instruction, so the dog does not become confused, and only the tone of voice varied to show you are pleased or not with the dog.

The importance of hving lightly dogged sheep is vital at this stage of training, which I didn’t realise. Having the sheep come to you for safety from the dog, allows you to work in close proximity to your dog and the sheep to gain more control,  keep the sheep safe, and stop problems before they deveolp.

The sheep we have around here which I have access to work on a smaller highland type breeds which are very flighty. So on the look out for some sheep of my own now, they must be older 4/5 sheer and well used to dogs and people. A heavier breed would be better so they are not naturally too flighly, and around 7 of them to ensure theey flock well.

Booked in for another training course with Derek on the 19th, 20th Feb. Very much looking forward to it!

Another game I have introduced is using a chair and sending her round it from sitting at heal, whilst giving the appropriate command, ie come bye for clockwise and away for anti clock wise. On the returning side I would throw her ball for her to catch to encourage speed around the turn.

Once she was doing this reliably, I would start her at the oposite side of the chair and call her back to me on the correct command. The send her round the chair, and ‘lie down’ behind it, then return to me. Each time she returns to me I say ‘that’ll do’  to get her to come to heal, followed by ‘get ready’ which means come through my legs and sit and await command.

She is still looking at me, and relying on a small hand signal to follow the diection, which I am slowly fizzling out, so she doesn’t need to look at me and looks at the ball only, and of course later the sheep.

To encourage focus on the object rather than th handler, I then substtuted the chair for a ball, so she listened to the command rather than looked for it, just incase the ball ran away.

So we have been to shep and established an interest. I could call her from them, and she grasped the general idea that we were working as a team to move the sheep.

As the is so young, the physical work we ca do is limited as I don’t want to cause any problems in later life. So I am gong to concentrate on the psychological side of things. Today I introduced a new game with the ball, in which I throw and she has to ‘leave  it’ which is a command she knows already, then I allow her to ‘walk on’ and ‘lie down’ (again one she knowns) in intervals until she can eventually bring the ball back. This is a game she would do all day, she lives in hope someone will product a ball from some where.

Leave it,  lie down and walk on are now firmly established in her brain, at least without the distraction of sheep. Anyone who has worked with collies knows it is better to do 15 mins work, and on a high, then go away and let them think it over, and I swear they contemplate things over night.

Sky is my 7 month old collie puppy.  This was the first working sheep day sky has been on. We went along with a local farmer to help round up 150 sheep in groups of roughly 20-50, in several locations.

She has not learned any sheep herding commands as yet, but I have taken her to them on two occasions before to let her run after them to keep an interest.

I kept her behind the sheep yesterday, and encouraged flanking from side to side, staying with me, mainly working on the ‘leave it’ and ‘back’ commands, encouraging her to give the sheep space. I wanted to keep her close, and working as part of a team with 7 people rather than let her run riot. She produced a lovely away stop, completely accidental as the term ‘away’ means little to her just now, never the less the timing was perfect!

She was keen and fast despite only being young and small, she was keen and was not deterred by strong sheep. Very pleased with the day, and we are both exhausted now.