The weather held well for us this weekend. Only a slight bit of rain on the Saturday afternoon which was just enough to cool thing’s down.
We had a totally new group of people this time. A couple city slickers with their dogs wanting to give them what they are breed for and learn more. The rest where stock people all at early stages of their dog handling journey. Some had been working dogs for a while but had never really understood the fundamentals of starting a dog well. Some had done a couple of schools and started trailing and wanted to get better. Regardless of at what stage, level and background everyone was very supportive and interested in each person’s experience.
One thing that really stood out this time and some time was spent on this, was lead work. Most had dogs that never walked on lead or pulled and were disrespectful. It was interesting to see how the dog’s changed once they started to walk nicely on lead. They were better in tuned with their owner and worked much better. Having a dog respond to you at the other end of the lead puts you as the handler into the dog’s head before they even go to stock.
Take away’s this time.
- Sheep stopped dog has right to move forward.
- Sheep moving dog stop’s.
- Sheep facing dog, dog has right to move forward.
- Sheep rare to dog and moving dog stops.
- Lead work is fundamental to dog relationship with handler.
- Make the work fun, however if the dog is being naughty deal with it quickly, effectively without anger and move on.
Thank you David for coming again. And thank you to Di, James, Mel, Jess, Ash, Jamie, Jack, George, Sofie, Erin & Laura for being great students.
DCs Madra 