Another couple of months have gone by and as usual, a number of things have happened that have impacted our progress in getting Jubalee and Angus ready for the Bluebonnet Futurity in March. Some good things have happened and some not so good. In retrospect the not so good things might have been prevented if I’d known my dogs better. Since they’re both quite young (almost 2 years old) I’ll use that as an excuse.

Since I’m on the topic of excuses, let’s go through my favorite list and I suppose it would be a good thing to find reasons not to use them.

No time. That’s my favorite excuse. It comes along with ‘I’m tired’ and ‘Not getting around to it.’ Well, Aussies learn the most by getting lots of good mileage on them – meaning they need to spend a lot of time working stock. Results and progress don’t come by themselves, magically they require work. So give yourself a good kick in the rear or have someone you know and love give you a good kick to get going. It’ll be worth it – a little fresh air and a little exercise is good for everyone. Don’t forget that every minute you put into your Aussie comes back to you a hundred-fold.

I’m stuck. My dog is not making any progress so I’ll stop training him. I’m going to mess him up anyway. How many times have we heard these excuses? Well, this one is easy to deal with. Certainly nobody is going to train your dog for you. Not unless you’ve got big bucks. So if you feel you’re stuck or you’re well on the way of ruining your dog – go see someone, like another trainer. Frequently another set of eyes will help set you straight in no time. Also, be very aware of the basics of herding, there are steps that need to be accomplished in order (more on that later), no cheating allowed. Frequently people move themselves and their dogs too fast without having capturing those basics.

My dog is great at home but messes up everywhere else. Ah, this we one hear a lot. Working dogs at home, or always at the same place, on the same stock, is fine. However, many dogs when faced with a new situation, whether it’s a new facility, new stock or a nervous owner/trainer/handler (that’ll be you), mess up. It’s time to go practice elsewhere. Get on the phone, check your magazines and local clubs for other people with livestock. Maybe you’ll have to drive a ways but it’ll be worth it. You’ll learn a lot about where you are with your dog when you change a few things. Other ideas: set up a fun trial someplace, make it as real as possible. Take your own livestock to a different place (easy with ducks, not so easy with cows) and work them there. Make really good friends with someone who has livestock, be nice to them, bring them good food and good drinks, help them out with chores and projects in exchange for a few minutes on their livestock. That always works with me.

So, enough excuses. For more information you’ll have to go to Aussie-Excuses-L.

Now the progress report. In the last article (Chapter V) I mentioned we were going someplace else to work stock for a long weekend. I took both Angus and Jubalee although Jubalee was just coming out of heat. I ended up not working Jubalee because I could tell that she wasn’t acting completely normal, her confidence level was way low. No need to add additional stress to her life. As it turns out, Jubalee’s confidence is just now coming back, almost three months later, and we definitely have to go back to basics with her, sigh.

Angus did chores for three days in a different place, different stock, even worked some cows. He did fine, as a matter of fact, he learned quickly where to keep an eye on the sheep that tried to escape as other dogs were working them in the round pen. The cows were very heavy, both weight-wise and speed-wise, they did not want to move. Other dogs required help from an experienced dog to get them to move. Angus did ok on his own but I was there to assist him whenever possible. Always try to be in a position to help out your dog, especially on cattle. I didn’t work him a lot on cattle, it seemed like not the right cattle to start a dog on.

Back at home, Angus has got great inside flanks, if you’ll remember, those are the flanks done in-between the stock and the handler. As expected, his outside flanks have fallen apart and I’ll have to address that later on. His biggest problem is his straight walk-up, I can flank him back and forth and accomplish a drive that way but a straight drive is a very difficult thing right now.

Training outside flanks is easy since it’s easy to put pressure on a dog when they are flanking around the stock and you, therefore I’m not too worried about that. The straight drive is a tough one. I have to remember to use the lightest livestock as possible, that will drift away easily from him. When he starts after them I have to use the word ‘steady’ with him a lot to avoid having him flank around the stock to get to the balance point. If this continues I may put a very light line on him and see how he reacts to that. Since he already looks at me a lot, this may not be a good idea. Using the fence and keeping him behind the stock works good but the sheep have a tendency to drift off the fence towards me so this will require some more finagling.

With the great winter-time weather down south, lots of people are visiting to train on our sheep and goats. Angus is getting lots of work-outs assisting the other dogs that come to train. Sometimes it seems that he’s with the stock from sun-up until sundown. This of course is fantastic for him, he’s very steady, very quiet and really enjoys himself, always ready to assist. Sometimes he’ll start working the stock on his own. I wonder if Aussies think they’re showing off when they’re working in front of a crowd.

Working Angus this much of course means he gets less training time in. He sorts, moves and watches the stock for other dogs. While this may not make him the greatest trial dog, his calm demeanor is wonderful for the work that needs to be done here.

Jubalee is being handled with kid gloves. We’re back to easy circles, short flanks with stops and no stick work – meaning I’m not putting any pressure on her with the crook. She’s coming around and when she’s “on” she’s still very stylish and can control the livestock nicely, probably better than Angus.

This chapter is called “The Final Chapter.” I called it this because in a month or so we’ll be off to our first trial. It’s really the beginning of the next chapter, or phase. It seems that training Aussies to work stock has three phases.

Phase one is when the dog circles the stock, somewhat wildly and, if you’re lucky, you get a couple of steps fetching and controlling the stock. During this phase you’re trying to make that flank bigger, get the dog to steady or rate the stock a little when the fetch starts and stop when you say stop. Once these things are accomplished it’s on to phase two.

The second phase is where the flanks are solid, meaning out of the pressure zone of the stock, the dog has a solid stop and steadies nicely when fetching. Your dog has actually started working the stock now and you’re beginning to label the actions of the dog with verbal commands.

The third phase is when you start working the dog off-balance, away from their instinct to be on the balance point all the time. Off-balance flanks, inside flanks, drives and cross-drives are all taught in the third phase. The dog is now responding to your verbal commands although likely not 100% of the time yet, you still need to reinforce the commands with appropriate pressure on the dog until the commands are solid.

Naturally there are lots of mini-steps and in-between steps here but I think these three phases pretty well sum up the progress. I would say that Jubalee is in-between the first and second phase and Angus is definitely into the third phase. Are they done? No, not by a long shot. First, there is no definition of being done. The dog (and you) will always be learning new things, it never ends. New situations arise, new livestock, different conditions, all will cause you and your dog to be pressed into reacting and hopefully learning how to deal with these new situations. That is one of the beauties of working stock with your dog, I think.

So it’s off to our first trial soon. Having fun and keeping the stress level low will be a high priority for us.

If you’ve enjoyed these training articles or have ideas for more, please feel free to drop me a line. My email address is: maartenwalter@hotmail.com. Thank you for all your positive comments I’ve gotten so far.