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Slow outrun


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Hi

 

 

 

Thank you for doing this.

 

Here is my question. I got a little bitch who is 2 1/2 yrs. Been doing farm work. Managing moving flocks to the fields and woods a few miles and back. Started doing her on a few sheep for fun. She will gather some distance, drive a bit and has got something going on, good something. She is patient and easy and powerful. however she is so much different than any of my other dogs I am getting a bit confused.

 

 

I've trialed her twice.

 

Just in Ranch. First time I sent her on her comfortable side, which was not the way most handlers were sending as the exhaust was on the opposite siide. But I knew from her farm work she'd cover no matter what. She did and we had a good run.

 

 

 

But now here's the thing. When I sent her the second time I sent her the other way and she ran out and slowed at the top. I kinda hissed her round and she brought them to me and we went on.

 

 

 

I asked a few of my way more experienced friends what was going on. They said she had slowed because she felt the pressure and was not wanting the sheep to fly down the hill. (Whoa...way different than old Sweep the Broom who would LOVE to have them fly to the moon.) I then asked my friends well is this then just experience and getting her out.....I got 8 points off on the outrun.......She has done this once or twice at home so I set her up so the pressure was so that she had to move more quickly to the point of balance or loose the sheep the other way. And she doesn't want that.

 

She was a slow maturing pup and I started her slow....but is there something else I can do.

 

 

 

I hope this makes sense

 

 

 

Again Thanks.

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Sounds like you are getting on with the job if you have trialled her twice, with success.

 

If I had had a good outrun the first day at a trial, I would not have tried the other way the next day. Trial tip for the future. If things had gone wrong the first day, I would not have bashed my head against the wall making the same mistake the next day. I would have tried something else.

 

You say she has a comfortable side. If you know that ahead of time, it would be incombent upon you ot train out the kinks. Get her going on her wrong side. Set up outruns that require her to over shoot to catch sheep. Bring everything in close enough that you can intervene handily. Doing a big outun is harder to correct if your dog pulls up. If she slows at the top chase her out. Get it right over and over again, at hand and slowly stretch her out when she does samll outruns reliably. Plainly, she know waht to do when going out on her good side so it shouldn't be too much for her to get the hang of going well on her bad side.

 

Maybe she is sulking on you a bit. Tell her to pull herself together. Perservere. Don't let her get away with it.

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One other thing

She might have been confounded by the set out person. Get some one at home to stand around your sheep, so she has to negotiate around a humanine, not just the bovines. Get a friend over to play catch back and forth, little outruns with a stranger at one end. Uncertainty can cause a dog to pull up, but it is a problem that is normally easy to fix. Make the job certain.

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Thanks guys.

 

 

 

Diane gave me a lesson with her but she was kinda under the weather. But I now wonder if you are right about the set out.

 

 

 

Although I talked to Bonnie and she didn't think so......she was setting.

 

 

I have been working on gathering the big flock and she goes normal on both sides. then.

 

 

 

I shed a few out and just worked her on her tough side and it was better. Went back to circling, like you suggested Diane, thinking maybe that would help.

 

 

I just will keep her close and work on shuussshing her around...I guess. But boy she is different on the big flock. Got to practice more with a few. I will try to get someone there to stand as well.

 

 

 

Thanks all!

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