Time & Distance

I am not sure I have had a dog with the presence that Dot has.  Maybe Bella, but I don't remember this phase as her tension release was a grip and that consumed me. I'm also wondering out loud about Dot's presence and the fact she needs to be off her sheep to settle everything.  Being close to the sheep, she creates a lot of tension in them while this creates more tension in her and so we have the cause and effect creating more cause.  She is looking good in the comfort of her own home; fields she knows and sheep she has seen before.  Even when I mix it up with lambs or katahdins, she is adjusting and sorting.

I worked Dot at a friend's place yesterday; fresh sheep, new field.  Needless to say, Dot was too close to the sheep.  He suggested I try laying her down, but with her distance from the sheep wrong...I could not.  I felt like she was trying to be good, but  the reaction she was causing in the sheep was making her reactionary and so I called her off and we called it a day. Now there was a lot I loved about her little session on the sheep but my thoughts drift to presence, distance and time. After a brief chat about the amount of presence Dot appears to have, we both agreed, what might be a good distance for some dogs was way too close for Dot; at least for today.  The discussion, post go on sheep, was about the two ways to get distance. 1) lay the dog down and drift the sheep to show the dog the correct distance or 2) opening the dog up with pressure to get the proper distance with an open flank. 

I am preferring the third way with Dot: Time.  A really good dog trainer friend of mine has talked endless hours with me about "latent learning".  My version of latent learning is that while on sheep the dog might not change or show learning and adjust, but after putting the dog away it demonstrates what it learned and sorted the next time out.  Maybe this is not the best of definitions but it is how I see it.  To my knowledge, I have not experienced latent learning to its fullest......until Dot. 

Another interesting Dot phenomenon is that, at this time, when I put pressure on her, she puts pressure back; speeding up and trying to beat it. That is not exactly what I want to do when she is creating tension in the sheep and all the side effects from that.  Also, a trainer friend has told me that it is hard to lay a young, inexperienced dog down when their distance is wrong.  I fight myself minute by minute wanting understanding for distance and not creating a "lie down war". I've had enough warring to last a life time...and paid for far too many "lie down" lessons to not be able to get one myself.  I'm sorting being fair with this young dog, three months new to me, not forcing a lie down or taking a stand just yet on "do what I say darn you".  I'll earn that right down the road....until then I don't want to ask until I know the distance is right and I will get lie down.  The real issue is the distance.....at least for now.....and then I can see if there is a lie down issue.  Or so I hope.

So time it is.....time and miles and time and miles.  I've said that before...and had it said to me so many times its become mine with no care of plagiarism.  Those words do not bother me as they did the first time I heard them.  Now I see that the dog will tell me what the day should bring: if I'm willing that is. "There is a time to plant...and a time to sow."  Time.

Oh how I love the gift of starting a new dog.....so much good over-thinking!

Seize the Day!