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Getting worse not better


Guest Lisa Bass
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Guest Lisa Bass

Hi Albion -

 

I have a 17-month-old bitch that in all honesty is only moderately talented. She has confidence problems and although I'm pretty sure she'll eventually, maybe, be able to run in N/N, that's probably about as far as she'll go. But she clearly loves the work, so we keep trying.

 

Recently I got my first sheep. They are dog-broke; I bought them from my trainer, so they know the drill.

 

Up until I got the ewes home, my bitch had been making slow but steady progress with once-a-week lessons.

 

I thought that having the opportunity to practice four or five times a week for 15 minutes or so would bring improvement - and in my other dog, it has - but the opposite has happened with this girl.

 

Ever since the sheep came home, she has been a complete fruitcake. She has regressed in her training on several fronts, both when I work her here, and when we go to my trainer's place.

 

I thought maybe after the sheep had been here awhile she would calm down but it's been a month, and she is still acting like a nut. She's busting up her sheep, she's weaving a lot when she wears, there are other examples - all things that I thought we had fixed months ago.

 

So yeesh, what the heck should I do now? Should I take her off the sheep for a couple of weeks and give her a chance to think about things? Should I just keep on flailing away and hope things improve? Go back to the round pen? My other dog is improving by leaps and bounds with the additional practice time - I am utterly baffled why my bitch seems to be falling apart.

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Guest aurdank

First, not all dogs, obviously, are the same; and the one making the more rapid progress may be keener and strong to begin with. The other may be more sensitive and unable to take as well the pressure from the stock. The sheep were dog-broken to begin with, and if you're working them every day, even for 15 minutes per dog (which for the dog may be a lot), they can become too heavy and resistent to the dog who is now falling apart. This no doubt is why she's weaving on the wear (can't move them by walking straight into them) and why she's busting them up (out of frustration). So, I wouldn't work one set of sheep every day with two dogs, because they will become sour, eventually even for the better dog. Every day may be too much pressure for your less talented dog, which may be causing a further loss of confidence in her. And working for 15 minutes per session per dog may be too long as well, causing mental fatigue and some of the resulting behavior you describe. Consider that a big open course is likely to last no more than 13 minutes; often 11-12 minutes. A novice course might last at most six minutes. So, I'd work her 8-10 minutes a session (you might be able to have two sessions with a decent interval between them). I would also try to get different sets of sheep and a mix of types of sheep. Some dogs do better on particular types of sheep, and it is better to build the dog's confidence working to his or her better suit until s/he has the confidence to engage any type of sheep. (I have a softer, P-N dog in my kennel, for instance, who is terrific on Rambouillet, ironically, but finds kathadin frigthening). You may also wish to rotate the sheep you keep after a decent interval of working them. And finally, you must reflect on your own reactions to the dog's behavior, because if it is inducing anger and tension in you, she will feel this, and you will have a negative feedback loop, so to speak, in which her reading of your emotional state will further undermine her self-confidence. When confronted by this behavior, try to remain calm above all; and just call her off in a pleasant way rather than force a correction in the heat of the moment. Hope this helps.

 

Best wishes,

 

Albion

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Guest Lisa Bass

Hi Albion -

 

Thank you for replying, and thank you for all the good information. I think you may be right about not working her quite so much. She is a very soft dog, very sensitive. I try never to scold her harshly, because it would be fairly easy to turn her off. She can't take much pressure at all, and it may well be that trying to practice even 4-5 days a week is too much for her. I will try working her just 2-3 times a week and see if that helps.

 

I do have one followup question, though. You said working her in shorter, 8-10 minute periods might be beneficial, but what I have seen is that she is very flaky and not thinking at all for about the first 5 minutes of a practice. After that, she will settle down a little and start thinking about her work. If I restrict her practice to 10 minutes, I'm only going to get around 5 minutes of real thinking out of her. Is that enough?

 

Once again, thank you so much for your advice. It is so kind of you to share your knowledge and experience with us Little Hats! Actually, I'm such a rank newbie, I don't think I even get a hat at all, even a teeny one. Maybe one day I can aspire to at least a beanie... <g>

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Guest aurdank

You're most welcome. I'm very happy to help where I can. Getting your own sheep is an ambitious thing, and so I think you're on the right track to making good rapid progress. On the follow-up question, I think you should use your own judgement here. Perhaps you can try two intervals of work, one short and the second a little longer. Perhaps on the second go-round, she'll begin to focus sooner and you can work her for a slightly longer interval. You can also experiment with your new regime. If you find that 3 times a week is still too much for now, drop it to two; and if she, down the road, starts to show a little more stamina, you can increase the number of work days and/or duration of each training session. You might also try letting her watch you work the other dog; this often has the effect of keening up a dog, and may perhaps get her to focus more quickly when it gets to be her turn. Good luck.

 

Albion

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