12-26-09
Acton
MO
She did two runs today and both were of her new better style – not 100% focused, but darn near 85% and between double or triple the amount of time in the arena without losing interest. There’s still an obvious head-turn as she comes by the fence where people are gathered but instead of coming off the stock she turns her head and then turns it back and goes back to work. She had a bit of trouble getting the sheep out of the sticky corner but a leg-lift assist (mmmm, mutton leg!) did the trick and she was doing her best they just happened to be very heavy sheep today.
Everyone agrees that she’s come a long way already and each time out she’s making tons of progress, it’s just a matter of time before it all falls together and then we’ll see about giving her some direction.
Paul’s assessment, paraphrasing John Wooden: Hurry less and be quicker which somehow became have the handler work less as the dog works more.
Stevie Mac
We worked more on keeping her on balance (not going in circles, but enforcing a better position with body weight) and she took the corrections really well which turned into wearing and driving – so we went from just working out to developing a new skill in a very organic sort of way. We also practiced a few outruns (always come-bye for some reason, should change that – probably because of the heavy draw to the arena corner and sheep pen) and got her to stay wide by running up and forcing her out which worked each time it was enforced but when I hung back to see if she would do it right it never worked. Without trying too hard she took all the sheep off the fence and we tried practicing a “look back” by intentionally splitting the sheep and letting one drift back then bringing the two over and lying down between the one and the two then giving a “look back – come bye.” She didn’t quite get what was going on but somehow the sheep always drifted back together anyway – more to work on. The big lesson was how important body language can be, it’s the same lesson every time really, but it’s good to be reminded.
