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crossdrives


Guest Heather
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Guest Heather

I'm not sure that there's any easy answer to this question, but I'll ask it anyway. I have very poor depth perception (one of my eyes is about fifteen times better than the other eye, and my optometrist has expressed amazement that I have any depth perception at all). As a result, crossdrives are a particular problem for me. If there aren't little interim chunks of grass and such to sight on throughout the crossdrive, I have very little idea where I am in space. The problem is always worse, of course, if I don't get a nice, tight turn coming out of the drive panels. If I do, I can more or less keep the sheep moving on a straight line; if I have to correct the line, I'm shooting fish in a barrel. The problem is even more pronounced if the crossdrive is on an oblique rather than ninety-degree angle.

 

Are there any exercises I can do during training to improve? Thanks for any help you can give me.

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Guest Michele

Same here Heather,my brother calls me "Magoo" I could use help in this area as well.I also have a bad habit of asking the dog to turn the sheep right in front of the panels too..anything to help figure out if you have made it through?

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Guest aurdank

Hi Heather, Michele,

 

Sorry I haven't answered your posts sooner, but I am still adjusting to the new (for me)bulletin board format.

 

You should always try to walk the course following the handlers' meeeting, if allowed. Generally, the drive-away panel is lined up with the center of the second drive panel, so that if you have to re-establish the line following a wide turn, it is always good to turn the sheep back toward the end of the drive-away panel, as though simulating a tight turn, and flank your dog so that they are then lined up parallell to it. In other words you can use it as a marker for re-establishing the line. The tighter you re-establish your line, the fewer points you will lose for too wide a turn. The the key is to watch the heads of the sheep as the dog drives them; you want to keep the heads on the line that you establish, and each time they turn a little, they signal that the sheep are drifting off-line. It's usually best if you can keep the dog directly in back of the sheep, but this isn't always possible because sometimes pressure from other sources might be drawing them off-line, and the dog might need to work say along side of them, i.e. pacing in a parallel fashion while holding the line. But if you watch the heads of the sheep, which are the most sensitive barometers of the direction they intend to go, you should be able to maintain the line more easily. When I do the crossdrive I also like to do it in my own mind in sections. I might glance initially at where the second drive panel is located, but while working the cross drive, I mentally subdivide it and focus on keeping the line a section at a time as the sheep pass through it. This is particularly useful when the crossdrive is oblique rather than at a 90 degree angle.

 

If the heads turn a little off-line, you obviously flank the dog to correct it, but you might wish to use a "there" to turn the dog in, so that the line is corrected, or a stop command (I prefer stand), depending on how well the dog is pacing or how much pressure s/he is putting on the sheep. You want to correct the line and not overflank.

 

Albion

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