Training Pups
IV
Maarten
Walter
It’s still summer here in southern
This is also a good time to ponder a bit.
Working stock with your dog builds a special relationship. You get into trouble, you get out of trouble, you help each other out; you learn a lot about yourself and your dog, that’s a part of working stockdogs that doesn’t get a lot of ink. However, this I believe is a big reason for doing what we do.
If you’re lucky, once in your life you build that special relationship with a dog. Your dog becomes more than a hired hand. He (or she) becomes your partner, your friend and you rely on each other in times of need. And its more than that – you are a team that can overcome obstacles greater than the two of you could alone.
It doesn’t matter that your dog doesn’t do well at a trial or that once in a while he makes a mistake. Likely we make mistakes all the time as well. Luckily our dogs can’t yell back at us. What matters is that you and your dog are communicating and can do things, great things, that aren’t possible unless you have that special relationship with your dog.
These great things usually happen when no one else is around to see them. Kind of like golfing that perfect game when nobody else is around. Only you and your dog know that you got the job done or completed something special and that’s all that matters.
So my point is – appreciate those moments. Appreciate the time with your friend and partner because eventually it ends and we have to sadly move on without them.
Both Jubalee and Angus now are very comfortable moving the stock in a medium-sized field. While Angus flanks nicely, has a good stop and rates the stock, Jubalee is still working close and loses her confidence a bit when I push her flanks further out. Still, both of them are more than ready to begin training for the ASCA Open level which includes some off-balance work and some driving.
Once they’re comfortable controlling the stock from the balance point I try to introduce the dogs to getting comfortable working the stock from different directions. As I explained in the last article, much of the off-balance work begins while flanking, especially with the dog on the opposite side of the stock from me.
There are really two kinds of off-balance work that need to be discussed. First is flanking off-balance. Second is moving the stock in a straight line in a direction that’s not towards the handler. I hope this makes sense because it’s an important point to make.
Flanking a dog off-balance is done with pressure from the crook or my body and a stop. I either push the dog beyond the balance point while flanking or stop the dog short of the balance point. Just so they get the notion that they shouldn’t always stop exactly at the balance point every time I flank them. Remember now that his is Open training and my expectations at the Started level is that the dogs always go to the balance point and start fetching.
But now we’re beyond that and can start putting more pressure on them in order to get to the next level. The same goes for the second part of off-balance work which is moving the stock in a straight line but not directly towards the handler.
Since Angus flanks further out, away from the stock, he is much easier to handle and pressure into moving past the balance point. Jubie however, working close and fast, is much more difficult to handle. With her I have to use my body and crook much more to push her past the balance point. And because she’s so fast, stopping her is also more difficult. This points out that a dog that flanks out further and is a bit more relaxed is easier to train.
Moving the stock in a straight line away from me is tough. Progress is slow. Typically I like using the fence line for some of the exercises. I put the stock on the fence and flank the dog inline with the stock on the fence and I say “walk up”. At first I remain opposite the dog and the stock, balanced. Then I begin to let the stock drift past me and make sure that the dog doesn’t flank around to the heads of the stock and turn them back towards me.
As the stock drift past me I continue to walk backwards, parallel to the fence. This makes everything only slightly off-balance. The fence helps to keep the stock going in a straight line and keeps the dog from flanking around as well. It helps to have lighter stock for this and especially stock that won’t run to you as soon as they see a dog.
The further you let the stock drift past you the more off-balance your dog is working. Watch closely as some dogs get extremely uncomfortable and lose their confidence depending on where you are. Help the dog out a lot at first. If they slip away from you and flank around to the heads of the stock, so be it. Set it up again and try some more. Some times you get just a few steps of a drive at a time. This takes time.
Another exercise involves the use of inside flanks. As Rick Hardin explained so well in the last Aussie Times (Sept. 2003, p. 69), an inside flank is done by the dog in-between you and the stock. You will need to teach your dog this because eventually in Open and Advanced ASCA levels the handler must stay behind either the Open or Advanced handler’s line and the dog should flank around the stock without you there to assist.
Even though Jubie and Angus don’t have perfect inside flanks yet, I can get them to flank off-balance, towards me. When they come in to me (sometimes I use ‘here’ also), I give them a stop and have them walk straight onto the livestock. I usually will walk with them a little towards the stock to encourage them. Any steps towards the stock I give lots of praise. And if I see them getting ready to whip around to the balance point I either give them a stop or a ‘here’ command.
Slowly but surely these types of exercises will get your dog comfortable with working the stock without you in the middle of them, putting pressure on the dog. If your training was good your dog will keep the same distance out. But probably not, especially when you start teaching inside flanks. It’s a given that when you start with inside flanks you will lose your distance on normal, outside flanks because you can’t push a dog out away from the stock. This is ok and can be fixed, don’t worry too much about that.
Training is always a balance of events. Training too much for one thing will burn out most Aussies, therefore give them a variety of work to do. So don’t spend too much time in one session working off-balance or driving, especially when working with young dogs like Angus and Jubie, who have just turned 18 months.
Now, as I stated before, please take time to enjoy your dog’s working abilities and your relationship with your dog. No matter how bad you think it is, you’re developing something great, enjoy it.