Uh Oh! Handler Dependency!

   This past Tuesday Diva and were back out to Chestnut Creek Farm to work. The lambs were going to get their 2nd official exposure to Diva and I wanted to practice some of my driving exercises on the older sheep. I am hoping that the new holding pens get finished soon because I think being able to have the lambs in a more uniform (in shape) pen will help this process go along better. For now we work them in their weaning field which is longer than wide and has one end that narrows down considerably right next to the gate. It is this area that I have to be most careful sending Diva into. What I don't want to do is to panic the lambs past the point of thinking and have them try and go through the fence or gate. This requires Diva to hug the fence line and proceed step by step while the lambs "think" it over. Once they decide they can move by her as she gets behind (the space is at most 4 feet wide) then they head up the field. I don't let Diva chase (not that she even tries) so within 10 or so feet the lambs slow right down and we all walk up the field. At the top of the field I alter her flanks and let her push them around a bit before they go back down to the small end and we repeat. Diva is great at this but because of the delicate nature I find myself really micro managing the process and asking Diva to be very specific. In short, I am talking to much and not letting her work!


   This may not have become that obvious to me except for the fact that after working the lambs we went out and trained on the older sheep. What I found was that Diva was suddenly looking to me more than usual for directions and she wasn't covering as well as she normally does on the fetch...hmmm. Definitely a problem! I seemed to have finally crossed that line between in control and over controlling. What I decided to do to start fixing this was leave Diva with the sheep in the field while I went outside and had a conversation :-). The look on her face was completely mystified and while I explained what I was doing to Jeff it took almost 5 minutes of Diva just staring at me and occasionally glancing at the sheep before she decide to go move them around herself. I was refusing to say anything to her at all because I wanted her to go do something independently and even more I wanted to see what that something was :-). When she finally started working it was calm and she gathered up the sheep and brought them to where I stood on the fence. Then she stared at me and waited. While she was staring the sheep saw their opportunity to escape and they did. I said nothing and in less time than the first she went back out and got her sheep again. We continued doing this with me saying nothing until Diva was bringing the sheep to me and then only watching them and adjusting to hold them there. When I was satisfied with her holding I made one comment "walk em' up" and she started driving them around the pen. Periodically she would stop and look at me but as long as I didn't say anything she continued working and watching the stock. In total we spent about 20 minutes doing this and I was pleased with the result. I will be doing this again with Diva the next time we work and also going back to some fetching and "fun" to refresh. 


   We have a little over a month until the next big trial and I want to bring our A game but not at the expense of having a flat dog. I need to be very careful that I am working with her instinct and not rushing things along for my own benefit! The really good news about Tuesday though was that Diva and I got back to agility class after our 3 week hiatus. It was fantastic to get to run and I loved the challenge that training courses brought. Diva's running A frame is holding good but I am at a cusp as far as making a decision on what I want the rest of contact criteria to be. The dog walk will remain 2o/2o but I am considering having the teeter be a 4 on contact with a quick release. The word of the day with agility is CONSISTENCY!