I thought this was really cool. A friend and Open handler suggested on the Border Collie Boards this interesting way to help a dog learn the point of a nice, even paced fetch.
My sheep have drawn my dog into a cycle of fetch, push past me, and then circle around to head them off. This is so wonderful and reinforcing that each time it happens, if I'm not riding Ted's rear end with corrections, Ted will speed up even more so the sheep will go farther than the last time!
In this video you can see in the beginning where the sheep are galloping way down the field at the end of the fetch, forcing me to send Ted around. At the end I try to correct this with downs and scolding. This works okay but it does increase the tension.
In the next video, I'm following Denise's advice to try to settle the sheep and let Ted hold them quietly. Her idea is that if you reinforce the end behavior that you want, that's what will be strongest. It's good learning theory! And it fits well with Ted, my task-oriented dog. There's nothing he likes better than to be shown the job and then figure out his own way to do it.
In this video I'm not succeeding 100%, but it's hard to teach these sheep to stand still. The last time I got closest. I have been working hard at this and it's been an eye-opening lesson in itself! I use a different set of sheep every time so they are fresh. Gradually pretty much everyone will be broken, and they will be willing participants in training rather than nervous and looking to beat the dog all the time. Ted is teaching them to trust dogs, and in the future they will teach dogs to be good.
We're also continuing work on those off-balance flanks. Today I got Ted to confidently flank inside for the first time - that's more than half the battle on driving!
My sheep have drawn my dog into a cycle of fetch, push past me, and then circle around to head them off. This is so wonderful and reinforcing that each time it happens, if I'm not riding Ted's rear end with corrections, Ted will speed up even more so the sheep will go farther than the last time!
In this video you can see in the beginning where the sheep are galloping way down the field at the end of the fetch, forcing me to send Ted around. At the end I try to correct this with downs and scolding. This works okay but it does increase the tension.
In the next video, I'm following Denise's advice to try to settle the sheep and let Ted hold them quietly. Her idea is that if you reinforce the end behavior that you want, that's what will be strongest. It's good learning theory! And it fits well with Ted, my task-oriented dog. There's nothing he likes better than to be shown the job and then figure out his own way to do it.
In this video I'm not succeeding 100%, but it's hard to teach these sheep to stand still. The last time I got closest. I have been working hard at this and it's been an eye-opening lesson in itself! I use a different set of sheep every time so they are fresh. Gradually pretty much everyone will be broken, and they will be willing participants in training rather than nervous and looking to beat the dog all the time. Ted is teaching them to trust dogs, and in the future they will teach dogs to be good.
We're also continuing work on those off-balance flanks. Today I got Ted to confidently flank inside for the first time - that's more than half the battle on driving!
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