I brought Bella out to see if Scott could help me with some "tension" issues. He knows her lines very well....and I love what that knowledge brings to the thoughts he shares. At the lesson, I could never get Bella to fire up but Scott pointed out some ways in which I was handling her that he could see were not helping resolve tension if it were there. Funny, exactly what I have been told before! My gray training.....allowing Bella too much thought for herself.....was not giving confidence. The good news...all the work Bella and I have been doing is paying off. She has not worked lambs for a long time and was having to work to read them....which created some confusion...but not tension. Atta girl! One note to myself, besides a stop being a stop...is to put her back where she needs to be after the correction. By this I mean....on a drive away...Bella was attempting to flank off to create a fetch. I was stopping her, giving a correction so she would not flank off to the sheep heads....but never put her back where she needed to be with a counter flank. I've been letting her try to sort that on her own. That created a bit of missing clarity and difficulty driving as she was out of position. I needed to step up and give her some of the answer to have her be correct.....which could allow for some tension when I don't.
Scott asked me to take the sheep up the field a ways to the fence and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to show off my finger whistles. Oh dear.....pride cometh before a fall. So I'm finger whistling and Bella is doing what she thinks she should do...walking on from every whistle. I would blow a come bye....Bella would walk on.....I would blow a steady....Bella would walk on. She would take the stop whistle and then...yep next whistle walk on. So I started blowing the whistle and then giving her the verbal command because Scott was not getting the fact I was showing off my finger whistles. He finally said, "you need to get after her for not taking your whistles!" That is when I confessed that I had not used finger whistles on Bella before...and he started.....LAUGHING! That explains it! He told me "they were coming along but were not quiet there....lacking crispness. So maybe I should practice some more before applying them!" Okie dokie!
Nell and I shed...or tried to shed. I felt better but it was good to get input on my shedding. Note to self....move, get out of her way! Darn it...same song next verse! I'm going to get that tattooed...and somewhere I can see it!!! I'm still on my Shedding with the Stars daily meditation....I will get this!
Last but not least, I brought out Miss Gyp for her debut at Fido's Farm. She was really cute, not really knowing who to hold the sheep to....me or Scott. What I loved best about Gyp's lesson was the discussion that happened about dogs, training, reading, changing. All that was shared in that one little go on sheep applied to all that I had done the entire lesson with each dog. Stop means stop, give one correction to get what you want, experience is the mother of training as long as the dog learned, sometimes putting a dog up is what they need. It's funny, how different training methods ...at the end of the day.... are not so far apart on what the outcome is.
I now get to sort through all that was presented in my lesson. Thinking about how it all works for me and my dogs and how I train. I've got some "black and white" work to continue with Bella. I'm still sorting through my finger whistles.....I understand all the nuances that come with using them......its just that my brass whistle is my good friend! Now there is one for the Rocking Dog Excuse book!
Seize the Day!
Look at you go girl. Love your blog. Finger whisles? Not happening in my lifetime, but whoo hoo to you. :0)
ReplyDeleteJealous. I'm dying that you can finger whistle. DYING.
ReplyDeleteFinger whistles...so jealous.....
ReplyDelete