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getting youn pup/dog to quiet down around stock


Guest kimkathan
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Guest kimkathan

My 1 y.o female dog that I have had for 2 1/2 months is working well after 10 -15 min. She initially starts out well )lasting only about 2 min) then she will dive in , grip, head, heel.(She is not trying to take down the stock, only "cheep shots" and wool in her mouth. It is a quick nip and release) she is a very VERY keen dog and wants to work constantly. I have started walking her off the field as soon as she starts to "try and mix things up". I don't want her to get in the habit of not working proprerly until she feels like it. I think she is griping to make things speed up and get more action from the stock, however, she does not do this with cattle, only sheep and goats. I have tried to set up a situation in which she will go in for a grip so that I can start to let her in the proper situation and start to put a word on it, but to no availe. She is coming along quite quick and I would like to put her in Novice come late spring if able, but not if she is like this? Any advice?

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Guest aurdank

Hi Kim,

 

Your dog no doubt feels the pressure more from sheep and goats than from cattle, and if they're hair sheep, or some other lighter type, she'd feel the pressure all the more. Only cattle that are especially heavy might generate this kind of gripping reaction for the opposite reason, namely, that they remain impervious to the dog's efforts to move them; but if they move at all, they actually can be easier for even a lighter, more sensitive dog to work than some kinds of sheep. So I'd not recommend barbs or kathadin or cheviots say, but some kind of woolly that is dog broken but not sour and will move off the dog and toward the handler when they feel pressure coming from it. I'd also recommend that you work your dog in a round pen, not a field, where you can keep ahead of her and can discourage unnecessary gripping, either with a timely AGGHHH or a flick of the crook as she starts to move in (I wouldn't just put a name to random inappropriate gripping, becuase you want to teach her to grip not only on command but where to grip as well). In the round pen, the handler must continually move, either in figure eights or sharp square turns, now to the right, then to the left etc as the dog balances the sheep to you (I've described this method in earlier posts). Here you can also work on perfecting the stop command (I'd recommend the "stand") so that you could also use it in a timely way when she's thinking about gripping but before she actually does (you can tell by reading her expression). I wouldn't formally discipline her for gripping in this way, because you'd risk taking the grip out of her altogether. On the other hand, she may be a little young to start teaching to grip on command, as this is usually associated with a lot of pressure. For instance, the handler takes a ewe in a corner and holds its head high so that it can't jerk around or move onto the dog; the handler also has to straddle the ewe ( and should wear work gloves too). The dog stands before the face of the ewe and the handler slaps the ewe's face while simultaneously saying "take a Hit" or "Hit". This encourages the dog to take a bite on the ewe's nose or face and to associate that action with the word "hit". The difficulty is that the atmosphere in which this occurs is freighted with tension which can excite the dog but also make it less confident if it is at all sensitive or insecure. So I'd wait until the dog was a bit older before trying it. One draw back too is that the dog may come to expect that it can grip only when the ewe isn't moving, and so in a real situation may not respond to the "hit" command. That's why I prefer the "Bite Chute" approach which I described in another post, because although the ewe is confined somewhat, it can still move a bit and the dog learns to respond to the "hit" command when the ewe lowers its head to challenge the dog. There's a lot of pressure here too, and so I'd wait until the dog was a bit older and more confident before trying it. Your dog is gripping not because she wants to speed up the action, but because she isn't feeling confident around the stock because of the pressure they generate. Only by working in the round pen, in semi-continuous motion, will she first learn to relax around them and so learn that she can control the pressure without gripping. So, I wouldn't walk off when she starts to grip, just try to create a dynamic work situation in which the tendency to grip can be corrected and in which the dog learns that random gripping out of insecurity or fear is unnecessary. I wouldn't move into a field to work her, incidentally, until she was firm in the round pen, which means that you may have to delay for the time being entering her into novice trials.

 

Albion

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