So, a lot of what Miss Chunky has been working on has been mostly cattle. But, we don’t always have access to cattle, so we really need to start developing brakes and self control. So, at the Cathy Hartley clinic, we really wanted to focus on stopping, a with me command, and trying to get an out command.
We, over the course of the 4 days, were able to work on flanking, gathering, got a semblance of a stop, a pretty good with me, and started to develop a bit of distance. I at least trust her enough to attempt a PT in June!
One of my biggest issues with her is the out, getting her to give up control of the sheep to go to the opposite end of the pen. This exercise, as well as the stop, generally involved me blocking her left and right, keeping her away from sheep until she stopped.
Things that the video said that I struggled with:
I was putting on pressure and getting the dog to stop, but I didn’t release pressure, quickly. And this implied that “motion is permission”, and she would flank back and forth, away from my body pressure, rather than relax into a stop.
As Dave Vickland says, stopping actually gives the dog permission to go.
Clarjo Farms 