50 replies to this topic

[juliepoudrier]

^^I also read it as Chris having removed the problem sheep from the group.

J.

[WildFlower]

you are lucky, the Wisconsin Working Stock Dog Association is one of the best state clubs in the country. They are active and hold training clinics and trials throughout the year. Google wwsda and their webpage will come up. Also, Laura Wentz is a contributor to these boards and she could probably steer you in the right direction of helping get your pup started. I would encourage you to join their club. It is a good one with all ranges of folks experiences. Pearse Ward is also a board contributor and I believe is the current president of the WWSDA.

mn

^^ Mike is correct on all of the above.

I am in WI and novice handler. The WWSDA is a great club with a calendar of events that cover just about the entire year - I think the only month where there isn't "something" going on is usually December.

www.wwsda.org

Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

[Laura L]

Thanks Mike & Vicki. I just saw this this morning and was going to put the WWSDA website in a reply. Chris if you're interested in a sample newsletter, send me a pm. There's worksites listed in there and the calendar of events has a few things coming up including a Jack Knox clinic that's held in an indoor arena in February. Even if you don't enter a dog, it's a good time to come & meet some people who have the same interests as you!
Laura

[ShoresDog]

The Jack Knox clinic will be a great opportunity -- get there if you can!

[ChrisNewhouse]

I'll do my best to make it to that Jack Knox clinic. Its about 4 hours from me, but it sounds well worth the trip.

To clear up the confusion from my last post, I removed the aggressive ewe and the ram from the group and took her out with two docile ewes. Its funny: I bought Nina to help me with the sheep, and now I have the desire to buy more sheep to help me with Nina.

Everyone seems to be in agreement to hold back and wait until she's older, so that is what I'll do. I'd welcome anyone's thoughts as to what I should be working on away from the sheep. So far she knows how to sit, lie down, come when called, go to her kennel, back away, fetch, track, drop, leave it, and that a verbal correction like "ah ah" means to stop whatever she is doing. I also taught her "get back"--meaning to back away. She's not perfect at these things yet, so we'll keep reinforcing all of them, but she's doing very well in my opinion.

I'm trying to figure out how to get pictures from my computer onto my posts, and when I do I'll post a few for those who are interested.

Edit: Here's a link to some photos of hertaken a few months ago.

Thanks,


Chris

[Alchemist]

My understanding is that opinions differ on what it's good to teach a puppy before training them on stock. (But I'm not even a novice handler). Some will say a "lie down" off stock has little use. My dog's trainer (and a lot of other people I know) does recommend basic obedience. Yeah, it might not translate immediately, but ultimately it'll catch on.

One thing that I did that she thought was useful involved a lot of impulse control exercises. Holding the stay while a ball was being thrown; NOT dashing down to the stream, but waiting until released, and so forth.

[KelliePup]

My understanding is that opinions differ on what it's good to teach a puppy before training them on stock. (But I'm not even a novice handler). Some will say a "lie down" off stock has little use. My dog's trainer (and a lot of other people I know) does recommend basic obedience. Yeah, it might not translate immediately, but ultimately it'll catch on.

One thing that I did that she thought was useful involved a lot of impulse control exercises. Holding the stay while a ball was being thrown; NOT dashing down to the stream, but waiting until released, and so forth.

I did a lot of obedience work with Kayzie in high distraction environments before putting her on stock. We also worked A LOT on self control, more so than I have ever done with a dog. IME, which is limited to Kayzie and Kellie, Kayzie listens better and seems to be progressing quicker with the amount of training I did before putting her stock than Kellie did. Kellie's obedience skills prior to being put on stock were very limited.

Kayzie's first try, she was very excited and had some trouble stopping at first, but she caught on quickly and is much more controllable. I've also noticed that gradually our lessons have been getting longer and longer as we get better and better. Granted, we're nowhere near ready for trail or ranch work, but I'm happy with her progress.

[Debbie Meier]

As far as what I teach the dog before going to stock, just depends on the dog, but what I do teach I try to refine. For example, Nina knows sit and lie down, test those commands out with you at different distances and using little to no body language as assistance. I like to see if they will respond to the command at a distance from me when I speak the command in a normal conversational voice. Basically play around with teaching the dog to work to hear me. I don't want to shout commands, I want to just say them, so I want to make sure I am teaching them in the same tone and influx as I want to use them. It's kinda funny, it's actually harder then it sounds.

[Alchemist]

Oh: it's also useful to teach them that "good dog!" is NOT a release. (Nor, while working stock, is it permission to change from first to fifth gear). You probably won't use a lot of praise while training, but you don't want the praise you do use to be misinterpreted.

[juliepoudrier]

I teach my pups basic manners, some basic obedience, and otherwise just let it be a pup. Mine is 4 months old. She has a recall, knows sit, sit up, and lie down, and recently learned to walk on a leash. She understands a verbal correction (though she's not easily dissuaded by one!). Not to chase chickens. And that's it. I think she needs this time to grow and have fun and just be and recognize me as the keeper of good things in life (that is, that it's good to partner with me). I have NO expectations that the basic obedience she has learned will translate on stock, and that's okay, because anything she needs to learn while working is best learned *while* interacting with the stock. I've never spent a bunch of time teaching things other than the above for any pup I've started on stock. To me the crucial thing is for the youngster to learn to want to work with you. JMO.

J.

[zenotri]

Just want to say, I really enjoyed this thread and learnt heaps reading it.

Any updates on Nina?