Kestrel videos

[juliepoudrier]

As promised, here are a few videos of Kestrel. I'll apologize in advance for the quality--I had to set the camera up on a fence post and hope I got most of the action within the view of the camera.

 

This first video was taken June 19. Kes is 10 months old. This is probably the third time I've had her on sheep with any real purpose (vs. just taking her to sheep in the round pen to see if she had her head on straight). We are in my little front pasture, maybe an acre, and the sheep are yearling Tunis mules. They have been worked some, but are not what I would consider knee knockers or puppy sheep.

 

What you're seeing: Kes is very uncomfortable going to the right. You'll notice how she wants to stop (and would really like to flip back to the left), and when I get her moving in that direction she flips her tail in the air and races around, slicing in. So much of the video is just me getting her to circle and asking her to settle down going to the right as well as she does to the left. So I did a lot of moving toward my right until she stopped trying to stop off balance and flip back the other way. Once she was settled and circling nicely, then I'd change directions. I did a lot of the work on the fenceline, too, because I like to start them early getting used to going through tight spaces--it's a chance to teach them they can do it, and since we're working on thoughtful flanks to the right anyway, I just combine it all.

 

You'll notice that even when she's wearing the sheep to me, she's often choosing to hold the pressure off to the left side (even though there is no particular draw in that direction that she needs to hold against). She's probably the most one-sided pup I've ever started. But you can see that when I get the flow going to the right, she does settle in and start working pretty well. (That's Sadie adding her commentary in the background.)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDakt7jqclo

 

Since that first video, I have had Kes on sheep three more times, once at home, once at Robin's, and then again today. The interesting thing is that she is already much more willing to go to the right. Not once did I really have to step into her to get her to change to that side, nor did I have to do a lot of exaggerated circles to get her to complete the flank to balance. But you can still see some yeehaw at the start when she's flanking to the right just as we come into view (and on a few other occasions).

 

Because I was asking her to stop and walk behind the sheep, I also did some jogging backward to take the pressure off her a bit and just bring the sheep on at a good pace (and I didn't fall either!). (That's Twist on the field with us--I have to use her to get the sheep somewhere near the middle of the field before I send Kes; otherwise they just see us coming and run.)

 

You can't really see it here, because I set the camera angle a little bit off, but while I was doing figure 8s along the fenceline, she was taking her stops between the fence and the sheep, which is an area of very high pressure for many dogs, and especially youngsters.

 

I'm not really saying anything to her most of the time. I do ask her to stop and walk up if she doesn't start walking on her own. Other than that, you might here me giving some corections for slicing (you'll always see the tail coming up at those times).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw3jxyXcu4M

 

J.

[juliepoudrier]

Part 2

 

Kes has a little trick of getting out of the stock tank and doing a nice little outrun (to the left, naturally) while my back is turned as I turn off the camera. Today when she did that, I decided to catch her up and let her try a few tiny outruns. Here's the result:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdZjUdTwo-A

 

Finally, after all this, I took her to the pasture on the other side where the ewes and lambs were grazing. I planned to tape that too, but the memory card was full, so I'll try to get that next time. Aside from no outrun to speak of (good thing the sheep will eventually put themselves all together!), she reverted to some of the behaviors you see on the first video: not wanting to cover when going to the right, bungeeing back to the left, flanking toward the front of the flock on the left instead of pushing from behind. After a few minutes she was getting the hang of working the bigger group, but it still was more like her work in the first video rather than the second one.

 

And if you made it through all that, congratulations!

 

J.

[Maja]

What a great kes-and-herding feast both videos and comments! This is so nice! I did notice a side preference, when you first put it on youtube, but Kes works so nice other than that. Very pleasant to watch.

 

maja

[terrecar]

The commentary is great. I am unfamiliar with stockwork and hence would miss the subtleties of movement and what it means. I've watched these types of videos before, with and without a narrative, and I find I need a narrative or commentary in order to better understand what is happening.

[juliepoudrier]

Terrecar,

If there's anything you don't understand or otherwise would like explained, feel free to ask. That's the point of sharing videos--we can all learn!

 

I meant to point out in the third video (tiny outruns) the great bust up at ~2 min. Some of it happened off camera, but it's a prime example of the sort of result you might expect to get when you send a youngster a little further than they are comfortable going (and of course here we're talking very short distances), and of course in that instance I had sent her right as well. She crossed directly in front of the sheep and busted through them, splitting one off (hmmm...the makings of a shed!), but was at least sensible enough to let them join back up and bring them on to me. (It shows that they can do silly things and still not create complete disasters, lol!) In practically every instance where I sent her to the right, no matter what the distance, you can see the tension in her--she's leaning in on the sheep, tail coming up. Compare that to her demeanor on the outrun at the very end (right after Tasha the LGD walks into the scene), where she's going to the left. Her body language is completely different. At the beginning of that video you also hear me give her a correction right at the beginning. Again, she was going to the right, and you can see her tail come up. She was slicing in (coming in to close to the sheep) and so I gave her a verbal correction, which is mainly a cue to her that she's wrong and needs to try to do something else.

 

J.

[PSmitty]

Thanks for sharing, Julie. I very much enjoyed watching Kes. She sure looks like a good one, to me!

 

(I'm gonna have to get me one of them working dogs some day, lol)