Once we were done doing agility we took a break in the car until it was our time to work sheep. I stopped to take a few cell phone pics of the ewes with lambs on our way up the field. They are growing like crazy and still very cute! Forgive the poor quality. I didn't bring my big camera with me today because I knew I intended to video our sheep work instead.
Once the lamb viewing was over Diva and I set out into the big pasture to go find the sheep. They were over the hill (I know because I saw them on my drive into the farm) and normally I would send Diva on a blind outrun to go get them but today I wanted to stay out in the pasture and work the group so that I could get some nice wide flanks without the boundary of the fences to restrict Diva. I only took 4 videos and I am going to share each on it's entirety...unedited. I suggest turning your volume down some as there are a few points that I repeat a command rather loudly, especially as she goes out on the first outrun which was easily 600'+. Overall I was pleased with Diva today. Her "go by" was now broken so you will see us struggle with that a few times but towards the end I felt things were coming together and she was taking it more reliably. I think the main issue is that I need to be consistent with what I say (shocker, right?!). I have always just said go by but to Diva that means kick way out and do a go by flank which is annoying and not what I want when she is working close in. What I plan on doing is retraining this part to have a small motion on cue to "by" and also of course to "way". This is a gap I missed and one I think will help us communicate much better.
So on this first video you can see I send her away. The sheep are not really in her sight at that point so she kicks out nice however once she catches sight of them she tries to cut in and take a much more direct approach. Truthfully this only matters because I want to be pretty but ultimately I know Diva and if it were just me getting chores done I wouldn't correct it because she is never cheap and she settles the sheep really well once she has them picked up. For today's practice though I end up having to stop her and get after her to really get "out" away which she then does beautifully and we carry on.
The next 3 videos are other parts of our field work and don't really need an explanation. You will see where the "go by" is an issue and I have to correct her more than once each time to fix it. Unfortunately as soon as I start correcting her the flood gates open and I say to much. I do encourage her a few times on her flanks to keep going. It may not be apparent in the video as the indicators are subtle but each time I could see her just about to pick her own "there" and stop so to prevent this I gave the flank command again and pushed her on until I said "there". On the last video near the end there is a point where she brings the sheep to me and I say nothing. You will see Diva peek around a sheep at the back to see look for instruction. As she does so the sheep decide to walk off as she is no longer controlling the moment. I really wanted to say nothing but I lacked the patience so I gave her a command, away get around (I think, lol), and she brought them back to me. Everything had been so quiet and nice that I wanted to end on a good moment instead of nitpicking and possibly causing things to deteriorate. Say less and let the dog do more is always a work in progress.
It was one of those days where Diva and I really got to enjoy each other and that is a blessing. Diva is 7 now and she is in what I consider her prime but according competition rules she is a veteran. I suppose some of the early signs are there like a few white hairs on her muzzle and around her eyes. One day I will have to think about her cutting back but for now we are still moving forward with a can do attitude!
No comments:
Post a Comment