Does Your Dog
    Do This?

Do You Feel
    Like This?

Dear Trainers,

Let me begin with two underlying axioms:

1. With rare exceptions, well trained dogs are happier and better off than poorly or untrained dogs.

2. To a dog, pain is kinder than terror or chaos.

Neglect is often mistaken for outright abuse and indeed, can be
more harmful than abuse. Neglect can range from my wife's greeting arriving
friends while ignoring our dogs who are taking advantage of the hub-hub to
settle their bitchy scores, to an elderly neighbor's forgetting her dog was
locked in the root cellar.

Troubled dogs - the problem dogs you trainers see - are more likely
to suffer from neglect than outright abuse.

• If they aren't trained at all that's neglect.

• If they're allowed to persist in wrong doing, that's neglect.

• If they're unsocialized, that's neglect.

• Neglect is a failure of attention: for a time - long or short -
• the dog stops existing for the human.

Abuse can be as mild as ineffectual training or my neighbor's boot
when his dog tries to bolt ahead through the door. Abuse can be the angry
man who beats a confused dog until it yelps or sets the shock collar to MAX
and stays on the button.

There may be more hope for the abusive human than the neglectful
one. At least the abusive human SEES the dog - however imperfectly.
Abuse is a failure of perception. The dog the abusive human sees is
not the dog in front of him.

Cruelty can be as mild as the fellow who accustoms a dog to taking
treats from his hand to feed it a cigarette at a party. Some joke. Cruelty

collapses the world into the human ego. The dog exists only as the cruel

man imagines him.Cruelty has no top limit except what the dog can survive.

Dogs and humans learn first from corrections. One has to be part
educated by corrections before rewards are useful. (It's easier/quicker to
teach a cow to avoid an electric fence (one experience/1/100th of a second)
than to teach it to come in for grain). Some phenomenologists claim the
infant first learns who he/she is by learning what he/she is not: the
infant bumps into a world that isn't the infant.

Proper corrections are the cornerstone of traditional dog training
and today the most sophisticated forms of dog training - training that
literally expands the dog's brain - depends on them.

But the effectiveness of correction training depends absolutely on
the trainer: his timing, experience and gifts. If the correction trainer
can do great good, an ignorant, inept or careless traditional trainer can
do more harm than if he used less powerful tools.

No genius sees anything unusual in his accomplishments but we
non-geniuses can spot the difference. The commonest mistake traditional
trainers make is to underrate their own experience. Many times they speak
of a "method" when the "method" is that impressive trainer with perfect
timing and the ability to read any dog instanter.

Thats why new trainers apprentice - because it is easier to learn
the dance than the steps.

Donald McCaig Yucatec Farm Williamsville, Virginia 24487 USA

=======================================================================

Dear Trainers,

M. wrote: " I know there are times when I just plain won't give up until the dog gets it
right and there are times when if the dog doesn't get it after the second
try, I quickly change what I am doing. More often than not the change is
brought about by my feeling that the dog doesn't have a solid enough foundation
for what I now want them to do. So I stop, back-track to a point where I
can achieve a success and begin to rebuild."

Different skills are inherently more or less difficult and
different dogs have different strengths, weaknesses and hopes.

At last weeks trial, I saw a young dog fail to control his tough
sheep because he was inexperienced; another failed because he'd been
badly rolled the week before. The remedies are different.
Most sheepdog training - whether by a dog's owner or a
professional - is board and train. Consequently, I have great power to
adjust a dog's circumstances, diet, pack interactions, freedom.
adventure, peace and quiet.

When one of my trial dogs repeatedly falls below expectations, I
ask myself if the dog lacks a particular skill, if the dog and I - as a
team - lack a particular skill or do we have a "relationship" problem:
for instance - am I disappointed in the dog?, does my physical presence
worry the dog?, am I keying the dog up? is the dog listening to me when he
must?

I've a 3? year old stray rescue in the house twelve hours. She's
sane and calm. I expect her to sometimes answer to her (new) name. This
morning I will chain her to a gate while I work the other dogs and see
if she has any interest in sheep. If so, there's one strategy, if not,
another. If I can't find her owner quickly, mostly I'll pack train her
for mannerliness. She should be able to come, walk on or off leash,crate,
lie down and stay for a few minutes in a couple weeks: then I'll find her a
pet home.

If she is interested in the sheep, things get more complicated
because it is unlikely starting so late she could ever be a trial dog
but I might be able to train her in six months or so as a routine farm dog.
The more skills she has, the more power she has, the more valuable
she is, the better her chances for a decent life.

In contrast there's Luke who is a brilliant shedder. That task is
splitting off one or more sheep from the 3,4 or 5 trial sheep who,
usually, are stuck together by velcro. Creating/finding a four inch space
between the buttocks of one whirling sheep and the nose of the next, calling
the dog through that hole, indicating which sheep you want held and turning
the dog onto it -often in his own body length - is the most difficult task
at a sheepdog trial.

Not the most important but very often the tie breaker.
Handler-sheep-dog.

Since the dog is charging them, often the sheep break behind the
handler. Luke remembers which sheep I wanted and will stop and hold
that one sheep for five seconds or so - then - unless I regain control,
he'll bite her.

Normally, judges ask the dog/handler to shed the last sheep on the
head. She is the most difficult because she can see her pals escaping.
In some circumstances the shed is so difficult nobody completes it.
Not one handler has finished the International shed (a more complex
version of this) at the 2003 or 2004 National Finals.

But usually, when nobody or very few complete the shed the judge is
likely to think that that puts too much value on that one task and he
makes it easier. He may allow dog and handller to take any single sheep or -
if there are four or more sheep - he may allow a split - two and two, two
and three, etc.

The judge at the Bloomfield trial last weekend did and that
(slightly) easier shed was Luke's downfall.

He understands shedding as "I take one sheep" and after an
excellent run to that point, twice he did so: good single, behind me,
on the head. But the judge was asking for a split.

Training problem is to get him to focus slightly more on my hand -
with which I indicate the sheep I want, where he should come through
and -should she break behind me - which sheep I want him to take and hold.
The danger - and probable effect - is that for a time I will lose his great
ability while he establishes a new understanding of the task.

So I will go back to the foundation, shedding a flock of sheep
against a fence where they cannot break back behind me. All I want is
slightly more focus on my hand so I'm jiggering Luke's foundation (and
our relationship) cautiously - very cautiously.

Donald McCaig
==========================================================================================

Dear Trainers,

I do Mr. N a disservice by adumbrating his thorough, sensible post but
his core is:

"When training for command response once the dog knows the desired
response for a given cue; the word "sit" for instance, if there is
no undesirable consequence for failure to sit on cue it becomes less
likely that the dog will sit when he hears the cue in the future."

As I've said, I believe that insistence on a single command will help
beginners reorder their desires. Further, in my experience with our
informal dog boarders, when they come back to us they are nowhere near as
mannerly as they were when they left. Their mannerliness has been partially
extinguished, not deliberately, but by low expectations.

And I can understand how, in obedience trials, which prize one-command/one
response that "training for command response" is the way to go.

And I am grateful to those who have advanced this discussion.

I guess I'd have to say that sheepdoggers don't train for command response;
we train for sheep work.

In early training, if the young sheepdog fails to
take a command, he usually isn't reprimanded, often (not always),

“The command is changed to fit what the dog is doing.”

When an experienced dog’s work is done properly , the dog's failure

to take commands is inconsequential. In sheepdog work, the end

justifies the means. This is a little different than "intelligent disobedience".

Let me give you two examples.

If I'm at the pen and the sheep are reluctant and I say "Go right" and the
sheep break and he moves left to cover them, this is admirable on his part
and may even get a praise tone because the dog judged the work better than
I have.

If on the other hand, the sheep are very difficult, so difficult
that the dog is afraid he'll lose them by doing anything but fetching them
straight to me and I tell the dog to "go right" and he refuses, I will
correct him because I have determined that the risk is worth taking and my
judgment is, if not better, superior to the dog's.

Novice sheepdoggers often confuse these two occasions and you'll watch
some novice yelling at his dog,":Didn't I tell you to LIE DOWN!" while the
sheep are heading for the south forty.

Like the pet dogs that board with us, a sheepdog's useful skills can
deteriorate for many reasons. Some sheepdogs declare a voluntary retirement
in old age. A very few have been put on shock collars. But invariably,
skills deteriorate when the dog is sold to a less able handler.

Sheepdogging is a team effort and no team can better than its

weakest link. It is common to watch a trained open dog ignoring

a novice's commands - and often as not, the dog is right to do so.

If you put that dog with a skilled handler, suddenly - and without
corrections - the dog remembers what he's supposed to do.
J.M. Wilson once attended a Scottish trial where a dog he'd sold
two years previously was running. "Oh," the new owner said, "Can't do a
thing with him. He can't even get around the course. I've even changed his
whistles, but that did no good."

"Mind if I try?" Wilson not only took that dog around the course, he won the it -
using whistles the dog hadn't heard in two years.
I'm not sure that well taught sheepdog skills are easily
extinguished. Certainly there's no need to drill them (and drill may be counterproductive).
Yes, failure to correct for poor work can be a mistake.

But sometimes - when the dog's been cranked down too tight -

the best cure for poor work is asking for worse work. There are times

when repeating commands makes no difference to the
work or repeats may even be called for and times when the dog must take the
first command instantly. Fortunately, the dogs seem to understand the
difference.

Donald McCaig Yucatec FarmWilliamsville, Virginia 24487USA

===================================================================================

Dear Trainers,

Since I've never trained anything but sheepdogs, this may not
be applicable to other breeds and other work. You may wish to skip
this post.

I've had my bitch June since she was a year old. I've trained
her. Though there's no doubt who's Boss, from June's point of view,
our relationship is fluid. At one extreme is our lover-like intimacy
when the work is good and my nearly inaudible whistles are caresses.

The other extreme is June's Yahweh who casts thunderbolts and crooks
and looms very large in the universe. In between is Old Dunderhead
who insists on the wrong moves at critical moments or doesn't see
what is perfectly visible to any sane sheepdog - which June thinks
she is. She is a top gyp and thinks highly of herself.

June would work for any handler and during my 16 year old
niece Rachael's brief visits from Los Angeles June works for her.
They have won a novice/novice trial but aren't doing terribly well in
Pro/novice because in P/N, the dog can't win it for you.

June's once terrible outrun is still a little tight. She
likes to bump and buzz sheep - probably a residue of her early
dislike of walking into a defiant sheep's face. If she hits sheep
hard and fast, she can get them moving without mastering them. It's
an unfortunate shortcut.

June is marvelously biddable and though I was able to buy her
because she "had a wee bit too much eye" (i.e. was mesmerized by her
sheep, was too clappy (went off her feet easily and stayed down))
that problem has matured/been trained out of her.

She has moderate power and until yesterday she has never been
able to do the most difficult shed (dog on one side of five sheep,
you on the other. You indicate which sheep you want and the six inch
space you want the dog to come through. But as the dog comes through,
the sheep break BEHIND YOU and the shed sheep is trying to rejoin her
pals as you're turning to see what the HELL is going on back there.
An exceptional shedding dog will head that sheep and turn it.)

Yesterday, June did it twice.

Both my trial dogs are four years old. Just coming into their
best years. I bought Luke at 2 1/2, already trained. His whistle commands
were stupid and I had to change them and (unusually) he prefers voice
to whistles.

Although Luke is a more talented dog than June - I could have
sold him to top handlers for very good money - June has been running
better in difficult trials than Luke .

What's good about Luke is his natural abilities. He's
determined and brooks no nonsense from sheep. He has exceptional
balance, reads sheep brilliantly, has a natural outrun, natural
square flanks (June's aren't square) and loves to shed (most
sheepdogs dislike forcing their way between sheep that might run over
them).

Re mannerliness: When chained or crated Luke is space
protective with strangers as are his litter mates. He can make a
fairly convincing lunge to the end of his chain but has never nipped
anyone and unless chained or confined he's unaggressive. The space
protective stuff isn't severe. I can fly with him as luggage and it
is nice knowing that I can leave the car windows down while I'm
inside at some convenience store in Hazard, Kentucky. I could change
this behavior but have more important fish to fry.

Oh, I should add that Luke had his hip dislocated by a steer
last year and knows - as most dogs do not - that he can be very badly
hurt. At first, after recovery, he was much confident on sheep. He's
regained most of his former chutzpah but there's a flavor there that
wasn't present before his injury.

Luke has trouble finding his sheep (dogs don't distinguish
still objects as well as we do and they're only two feet off the
ground and even for humans it can be hard to pick out three grayish
sheep in tall yellowish broomsedge a quarter mile away.
So the handler cues the dog where the sheep are and how far
away they are and, if the dog gets lost, redirects him (points off
but necessary).

I trust that experience (and trust) will cure this.
While a sheepdog must be able to think for himself, must be
able to read sheep, must be able to fetch in dark or blizzard or fog,
he also must be able to take rapid whistle commands - sometimes two
or three a second. Since every command asks a dog to do something
different than he is already doing, at first each command is both
correction and reproach and stressful. In time, of course, the
commands become music and the stress diminishes/disappears - as it
has with June. Not with Luke.

Luke is extremely focused and it can be hard to get his attention.
Since Luke was working well on voice and I had to change his
original whistles, I kept him on voice longer than I should have.
Voice is slower, cruder and very much less precise than whistles. You
can wrestle a sheepdog around a trial course with voice. You cannot
place without subtlety.

Luke is a submissive small (38 pounds) male whose attachment
to me is almost neediness. He sees me as the sun moon and stars, the
God whose every gesture is meaningful and requires his
interpretation.

My mildest correction is a thunderbolt. When he hears the thunder,

Luke often panics. He wants so badly to do what I am asking that

he can't decide what to do. His is what Kent Kuykendahl called:

"The panic of failing to please."

Luke'll throw himself off contact: (do run, run run) or think,
"Since I can't do anything right, I'll just bring the sheep. That's
what my instincts are telling me. Everything I've been taught is now
Greek to me."

Although a sheepdog certainly should be mature at four, Luke
seems awfully immature to me.

I am hoping that frequent working with soft whistles in-by
alternating with periods of silent work and occasionally egging Luke
into the sheep (fun for the dog/ no fun for the sheep) will help our
working relationship mature ao Luke can realize his full potential.

If Luke and I can get things right, I believe we can get into
the top twenty at the National Finals. If I screw it up, Luke will be
a mediocre sheepdog all his days.

Donald McCaig

===================================================

Dear Trainers,

Ms. M. writes: "I make it a rule to train until the dog has

learned all or part of what I am teaching . . ."

And Ms. D. adds: "This is pretty much what I do, too.

I want the dog to leave the session with a coherent message

and I'm more interested in that than in precision . . ."

I suspect this is where companion dog and sheepdog training
differ and hope

(a) I can articulate the difference and
(b) that you will correct my misapprehensions of what you do.

It seems to me that the foundation of companion dog training
is a number of fairly simple skills which are elaborated in different
venues. Thus the "fetch" might vary in competition obedience, hunt
tests and assistance dog work, but the basic skill is unchanged.

Most owners don't want and/or need more than these basic
skills plus personal variants ("Get off the sofa", "Get in the car")
and these skills can be taught in fairly short order with a variety
of methods: shock collar, treats, traditional obedience training or
some combination.

These skills - and the dog's understanding that WORK is to be
done, his acceptance of that work as his own and eventually his pride
in doing it forms the foundation of a more complex and less well
defined role - what I'll call - for lack of a better term - the
Trainer's Dog.

Whereas the companion dog can be trained in weeks, the
Trainer's Dog takes months and even years and at some point much of
the training conversation passes to the dog.

I am reasonably certain that neither M. with Rover nor T. with Dawg

"taught" their helpers everything they know how to do. Building on

the simple foundation, these dogs have learned and in some ways

coinvented their life's work. I admire these dogs and see in them

what I want in my sheepdogs: These dog’s UNDERSTAND.

Sheepdoggers don't teach building blocks. Although there is a
normal progression to training, (gathering to driving, inbye to far
away) any time there's a chance to jump the queue, the sensible
trainer does so. It the dog finds himself driving before he can
fetch, take advantage of it, if a young dog makes an opportunistic
shed or five hundred yard gather, make much of it.

We want the dog to grow to understand his work and finally to
coinvent it.

Consequently, there are many, many training days when a young
dog makes no progress at all, doesn't seem to "get it", will not
understand that it must keep off its sheep or learn to drive them
away when previously it was fetching. Indeed, when the dog's under
two years of age there are very few training days with much sense of
progress and insisting on progress would, in many cases, overface the
young dog just when you least want to do so.

Most days when I leave the training field the dog knows I'm
satisfied with what we've accomplished that day - even though we may
not have made progress and may indeed have responded to the dog's bad
hair day by asking easier work or retreating to simple, commandless
balance work or if the dog is really stressed, encouraging him to
dive in and break up the sheep and bite like a silly puppy.

The other day I was loading sheep with D.; one of the best young handlers.
D. had his three year old McCloud. "He's the best dog I've ever had,"
D. said. "I really like him. He's a little too eager to bite but he'll grow out of that."
I should note that any bite at a sheepdog trial results in an instant DQ.

Now there are ways D.could stop this behavior: NOW. But
to do so would alter all the rest of McCloud's work and McCloud's
understanding of his work. McCloud will move sheep, no matter what
- and his total commitment is the core of what is best about the dog.

So D. will admonish McCloud, change McCloud's focus when David
sees a bite coming and wait for McCloud to mature into understanding
that yes, there are times he should bite a sheep but no, there are
other times he shouldn't. Patience, patience, patience.

Donald McCaig Yucatec Farm Williamsville, Virginia 24487 USA
=====================================================================

Dear Trainers,

Although I think their work is generally harder than sheepdog
training, in one respect pet/companion dog trainers have it easier. For
nearly sixty years the basic tasks have had the same names and those names
don't sound remotely like one another. "Sit" cannot be confused with
"heel", nor "stay" with "fetch".

Since sheepdoggers may define their dog's tasks indeosyncratically
- I've seen dogs that wouldn't run out to the left and others that would
NOT lie down - and sheepdoggers ask the dog however they wish to,
similarities - sometimes devastating similarities occur.

If you use "Back" for get off your sheep and buy a dog named "Mack"
you must change one or the other. Similarly with "Way to Me" and "Ray."

Your mannerliness commands cannot blur into your stockwork
commands. "If you say" "Come here" or "Common" to your dog - instead of the
customary: "That'll do, here" you risk confusing with "Come bye" (go
clockwise) and the shed command "In here."

If you buy a Midge and already own a Midge, one must become Maid.
Some british dogs are trained for brace work and their voice
commands are reversed. Any new dog's whistles is likely to be different
than the ones you generally use and may be their complete opposite and you
must decide whether to change the dog's commands or adapt to them.

Each sheepdog learns a voice and whistle command for the same
movement. And both voice and whistle must be adjustable and good command
syntax.

The first syllable/ first whistle tone should announce the main
feature of the command. Thus "Away"/"Twee" tells the dog he's to go
counterclockwise. If you say no more the dog knows he's to go slightly
clockwise.

If you put urgency into the command, or repeat the first
syllable "Waywayway"/"tweetweetwee" the dog knows to move fast.
The second syllable can be drawn out " . .to meeee"/"oooooo" to set
the dog off wider (there are specific commands for "wider" too but these
are generally used only near at hand). If a dog is given the wide command
and cuts his corners he will be corrected.

Commands may be combined in a string - usually in a whistle so a
single command might be "Go clockwise quickquickDOWN).

These commands are peculiar to each handler and dog. If I buy a dog
from someone whose lie down is "LA DINN!" my "LIE!" is a new command to the
dog and we have some adjusting to do. And though every dog comes with a
tape of its whistles, no two whistles are exactly the same and again,
there's adjusting to do.

On a sheepdog list this week a novice had bought a metal whistle

and was going to a trial this weekend. Experienced trailers told

him to stick with his old whistle until he'd been working his dog

on the new one for at least three weeks. The sound a metal whistle

makes is not the sound a plastic whistle makes - even with the

same handler using the same whistles.

The most difficult task at most trials is the shed where handler
and dog attempt to shed off one sheep from its mates. The sheep bunch
together for protection (aka "teflon sheep) and close up the smallest gap
as soon as it develops.

If you walk the dog up on the sheep they'll break behind the
handler who has to regroup and start again - while the clock is ticking
away.

Alastair MacRae has won the National Finals more times than anyone.
He sets his Star gyp up on the far side of teflon sheep and uses
the command "WayCome"- that fast. Star no more than gets started on "Away
to me" before she's told "Come by" and consequently she merely turns her
head from "Way" to "Come". This peculiar movement startles the sheep
slightly but doesn't really threaten them and with their attention on the
dog, they may drift far enough to give Alastair and Star the six inch gap
they need for Star to come through and shed off the last sheep.

I'm starting to train Luke and June to this new command. On eastern
sheep, especially on Dorpers, it may be useful.

Donald McCaig Yucatec Farm Williamsville, Virginia 24487 USA

========================================================================
Dear Trainers,

I can't quite picture the precision required in Mr. N. first
paragraphs but the tasks certainly sound difficult and precise. It's
hard to compare with the precision of a top trial sheepdog because
sheepdogs are usually moving and (with exceptions) where the dog is
doesn't concern the handler or the judge. The sheep draw the lines.

Different dogs work nearer or farther off the sheep, so a powerful
dog might need to be thirty-thirty five feet off light sheep a sheep
kindly dog would be working five to seven feet away. I will say that
when I ask for a full stop at 500 yards, I want a full stop within
one to three body lengths depending on how fast the dog is running.

I am generally unhappy with competitions that award points for
"style" or "attitude": there are dour workers, easy-going workers and
frantic workers. Practically, what counts at a sheep gather or a duck
hunt is THAT the dog gets the job done, not what's on his mind as
he's doing it.

Although I hate to see a sheepdog lope or trot on his outrun and
believe he is a less good dog than one who goes out in a more
businesslike fashion, I won't deduct for it when judging. Usually
such a dog will run afoul somewhere later and if not, I won't fault
him. As Tommy Wilson once said, "You canna like it, but you canna
point it either!"

Finally, and - to me - most interesting point, Mr. N. raises:

(I quote his conclusion again):" I don't think the fine control required
in retriever competition is possible without stopping the dog to direct. "

Every stop, particularly a stop that requires the dog to look back at
the handler, breaks the dog's focus.

Every stop is an implied reproach: "No! You're not doing it right!"

(In sheepdog work, too many downs suck confidence out of a dog.

On the other hand, we may need those stops for control - it's a delicate balance.

The flying redirect when the sheepdog is going away is difficult
enough so that those with novice dogs are advised to down the dog,
then redirect and even when an open dog is confused, the down/redirect is best.

But the down/look back at the handler and redirect is not
recommended. Any redirect on the outrun is penalized usually, one
point for the necessity, one for the redirect. A stop, redirect would
usually cost three points. A stop, look back at the handler and
redirect would cost four to five points because the dog had no
contact with his sheep. On the drive away, redirects aren't penalized
but a stop, look back and redirect would cost a point or two for out
of contact.

Sometimes, when the dog is taking an inside flank (between you and
the sheep) it behooves the handler to break concentration and recall
him a bit on the fly but if the handler cries "That'l do here" most
judges will deduct points for out of contact (The judge won't deduct
for a whistled recall because it may mean anything.)

I've watched the Canadian retriever demonstrations on two subsequent
years. It looked to my uneducated eyes like the dogs resented the
stop, turn and redirect. Several seemed quite sulky about having
their focus broken.

I hope Mr. N. will get down to my trial April 16th. There's a nice
river behind the trial field where he can exercise his dogs. One day
I hope to see a top retriever trial or perhaps he can suggest a video.

The difficulty with campaigning dogs is when I do get a weekend off I
like to work my dogs and don't see as many other dog sports as I'd
like to. Parallel universes.

Donald McCaig Yucatec Farm Williamsville, Virginia 24487 USA

==============================================================

THE REWARD FOR THE DOG WHEN SHEEPDOGGING

Dear Trainers,

The sheepdog has an inchoate genetic need to do
something about sheep which it expresses when it "sees" sheep and
starts holding them to the shepherd/trainer.

Over time the dog learns to express its genetic need
in "work" those skills, reactions and responses which help the herd
to do his work: dipping, shearing, lambing, weaning etc. The dog will
do this work so long as it is physically able: usually until death.

In the beginning, the dog understands commands as
corrections: if I say "down" the dog is doing something wrong and must
go to plan B.

If I say nothing when it gets to its feet again (I hope without a command)

it will resume its work - whatever that work was at the time: driving,

fetching, penning, etc. Sheepdoggers call that reward "letting the dog have its sheep".

When a dog is fully trained, although every command still bears the

hint of a reprimand, that hint is absorbed in the dog's desire to co-create

efficient, elegant and beautiful work.

Sheepdogs become artists and it will take a better thinker than I am
to uncover the 'click and treat' rewards in artistry.

Donald McCaig
=========================================================================
PRAISE AND SHEEPDOGGING

Dear Trainers,

Ms. G.writes: "When using the KMODT, praise usually comes
through more sincerely, rather than the monotone, "good, dog, good dog,
good dog. Hyper dogs and shy dogs may receive praise that is different
from each other, but they DO get praise."

I used to think praise had no place in sheepdog work. You never see
it at an open trial except after the run when the tradition is to give your
dog a pat and if the run has been very good, perhaps dog and handler have a
modest Calvinist celebration.

Praise of the "Good dog" sort breaks the sheepdog's concentration
and changes his focus from his work to you.

I like to tell about Jim Wilson, a scottish shepherd whose work on the hill meant
that every day Jim spent more time with his gyp Peg than with his wife.
Peg ran well at the trials, twice a finalist at the
International, the biggest toughest sheepdog trial in the UK.

Jim is a gentle man but other handlers noticed that Jim never gave
Peg a pat after a run and they started ragging him in the beer tent, "Ah,
Jim. Peg's such a grand bitch, why do you never tell her so."
To which Jim WIlson replied, "Why do you think Peg doesna ken what
I think of her?"

Praise as information is sometimes used when teaching a young dog:
"Good dog, now you've got it right," but even this kind of praise is a
distraction from the work and the training.

Since sheepdoggers don't believe in the "one command equals one
obedient response"paradigm (followed often by much "good dog" blether), we
talk constantly to our dogs, early on with body language and voice, later
with whistle.

I am presently changing four year old Luke's right flank
whistle and reinforce his new command with voice and posture to make it as
easy for him as I can.

I don't say, "Good dog."

But I do say, "Away to me," in a soft, pleasant inviting voice and
give the new whistle and if Luke reponds properly I'll say "Away to Me"
with a happy chuckle in my voice. If he doesn't take the new whistle, my
voice becomes more insistent, until he takes the new whistle, upon which
voice and whistle become more gentle again.

That is the praise the sheepdog needs. After all - Luke already
kens what I think of him.

Donald MCCAIG

==========================================================================

Dear Trainers,

This was a straight impersonal correction - very unlike what I'm
used to in sheepdog training where every correction is personal. (Since the
dog and I are working in a common enterprise, he lets me know when I'm
making mistakes (the dog "corrects" me if you will) and I let him know when
he is getting it wrong.

The sheep correct us both. If the dog fails to run wide enough to
gather them all, he'll have to go back a second time. By the end of a long
day gathering, the dog will have learned to run wide enough. If he misreads
a ewe with newborn lamb and crowds her into the fight range, he might get a
cracked rib and the brawl will disrupt their proper relationship.

If I alarm sheep during some delicate piece of sheepwork, they'll
bolt or jam together or panic. There is nothing quite as irritating as
getting a new mother in the gateway of the barn, spooking her with an
impatient move and while Mama is booking back to the main flock half a mile
away you're standing there with two newborn lambs. That's a correction, son.

The only reward we give sheepdogs is allowing them to do their work
and this isn't, I think, what operant conditioners usually mean by a
reward. If sheepdogs weren't desperate to do the work and to learn how to
do the work more elegantly, the methods we sheepdog trainers use would
fail. That's why we can't train non-sheepdogs to be sheepdogs.

Jack Knox, the dean of North American sheepdog trainers described
sheepdog training in a nutshell: "Allow the right; correct the wrong."
Donald McCaig

============================================================

Dear Trainers,

In an interesting post about moral training, Ms. N. asks:
"Faced with a failing dog and the imperative to improve oneself, the
sheepdog person's evasion is to sell the dog?"

Sheepdog culture does not view sheepdogs as "fur-people", nor as
pets nor as "kids" nor as "Dogs one belongs to." They are seen as a special
sort of livestock. Think horses.

This view has many consequences, some good some bad. They are less
valuable as puppies than as grown dogs, both as work partners and in cold
cash. The most desirable pups might bring $6-700. After Sturgis, one
nursery dog (2 years old) sold for $10,000 and while this figure brought
gasps from sheepdoggers, a middle aged open dog should fetch $5000 and a
well regarded dog up to $15,000.

Sheepdogs need work or they deteriorate mentally and working them
takes time. For those of us who aren't western ranchers (Some of whom have
so much work their dogs are rotated every other day) or professional
trainers probably can't work more than three or four sheepdogs - top. (My
limit is probably two). It is better to sell the unworked dogs than keep
them languishing in a kennel.

Most sheepdogs adapt easily to a change in owners. Most trial dogs
will have had three or four and I've known dogs who've had twelve.
If a sheepdog has been ill-trained, his price drops but there's
money to be made rehabilitating that dog and selling it to a farmer or as a
goose dog and there are trainers doing just that.

If you have a sheepdog that for one reason or another you aren't
getting along with, are you doing the dog a favor keeping it?

Do you think the dog doesn't know you're not getting on?

What about that ten year old dog - a little too slow to catch the sheep

on a big open course but the best training tool in the world to teach a

novice handler on smaller easier courses.

Should that dog spend the rest of his life in your kennel?

I know people who love to train young dogs but are entirely
indifferent to competition.

Why shouldn't they train them up, sell them and start a new class?

Because they are valuable I have never heard of a trained sheepdog
ending up in the pound. Doubtless there have been some but they are
extremely rare.

I have kept dogs I should have sold and I can't think my
sentimentality did them any favors.

Donald McCaig
===========================================================================

Dear Trainers,

Sheepdog trainers start by walking the pup towards some sheep and
turning the dog loose. Most will start the pup in a small ring (100 foot
diameter) in the interest of some control but other trainers go into the
field with the pup (as I did at the Hutto demo)

The dog starts working without any commands except its name. From

there we refine its work. The dog's initial primary focus must be on the

sheep, not the trainer and the trainer uses the sheep as a kind of

bait/desired object until finally the dog understands that the work goes

better, makes more sense, if he listens to what the trainer/handler is saying.

We try to give the young dog as much routine work as he can do -
and most sheepdogs can do chore work before they're a year old. That's what
we're hoping for Nell. Real work relaxes the dog and teaches him - more
quickly than training can - what works and what doesn't with sheep.

We don't start with any command strictly enforced. We'll be
teaching basic commands all at once until gradually the dog starts to
understand their meanings.

There is a general sequence: first keeping the dog off the sheep to
the zone where he can think, then short outrun and fetch, then flanks (go
left and right) then a drive away and finally a shed - but if we're
presented with a training opportunity - say a space opens up in the sheep
inviting an easy shed - we'll take it and hope the pup integrates that
experience later; if a dog is driving before he has his flanks we'll
encourage that too.

I've seen Ralph Pulfer work a very young dog around a small trial
course with no verbal commands except an "AH" and the dog's name.

I knew a woman who had put several OTCH's on her dogs before she
got fascinated with stockwork. She actually kept four sheep on the back
patio of her suburban home to practice. But she never quite GOT IT.

One day we were walking our dogs in Ethel Conrad's back pasture and
spotted a group of sheep on a nearby hill. I suggested she turn her dog
loose and see what he'd do.

"But what if . . ."
"Gail, exactly what harm do you think your dog can do?"

We aren't particularly brilliant trainers - certainly I'm not - but
we have dogs that yearn to do this work and are hardwired with the skills
to do it.

"It's all there in their little brain box. It's our job to get it out."

Donald McCaig
======================================================
Dear Trainers,

Ms. W also asked: "What is it in Nell's previous work or her
general life-background that will give her the information she needs on how
to visually recognize that 90 white objects at 200 yards are the same thing
as she knows how to circle up close? Or will she be learning this for the
first time, too? Is this fundamental perception issue ever a problem for
sheepdog training?"

Although 90 sheep at 200 yards is a piece of cake, many young dogs
have difficulty "seeing sheep" at a distance. Sheep are more gray than
white and unless they're moving, they can blend in with landscape.Plus, we
see more from six feet in the air than the dog does from twenty inches.
Not seeing sheep was Luke's greatest fault and working on that was
why I wasn't improving his down. Luke's problem was exaggerated by too much
bonding with me - unlike June, he adores me. Which means that when we walk
onto the field, he's searching my face for instructions instead of
searching the field for sheep. Probably would have made a hellova whiplash
obedience dog.

I haven't really taught Luke to "identify" distant sheep, so much
as I've taught him that when I say "see sheep" he's to look for them as I
walk straight toward them for ten steps or so with Luke on the side I
intend to send him. He's learned to trust that there will be sheep out
there somewhere. (Of course I would never,never,never send him unless I was
sure there were sheep for him to find.)

Luke's no better at spotting sheep than he was a year ago but
usually that improves with experience.

At this year's Leatherstocking Trial for some weird reason in the
afternoon, almost all the young dogs would run about half way up the hill
then veer sharply right as if they had spotted the sheep - which were in
fact another hundred yards further up. Did they think the white crossdrive
panels were sheep, did the scent of sheep drift down the slope to that
spot?

Was it echoes off the woods beside the course? Nobody knew. Only the
most experienced dogs keep right on booking up the hill until they found
their sheep. Why wasn't it a problem in the morning? Dunno.

June needed a redirect (whistled command for which points are
deducted) at that danger point but although Luke hesitated he sailed right
on up the hill.

Donald McCaig Yucatec Farm
Williamsville, Virginia

==================================================================

Subject: Dogs and Boots

Dear Trainers,
Margot wrote: "In theory, the owner/handler is not supposed to do anything
unless the judge
says for them to, so most people remain frozen in place
hoping/praying/believing that the judge and stewards will take care of the
problem. It just ain't necessarily so."

Not wearing our boots are we? Usually a shout and/or swift kick
discourages the offender BEFORE THINGS GET SERIOUS. I cannot imagine any
circumstance on or off the course where I would wait for any judge,
clinician, trial host, steward, instructor, Godlike Authority Figure to
stop a dog pestering my dog. That's why we have brains (and boots). It's my
dog. It's my dog Period.

I've seen sheep dive into the St. Lawrence pursued by swimming sheepdogs
(and an anxious handler in a rowboat), I've seen lone sheep stranded high
on a cliff, I've seen dogs put sheep through the judge's tent and into five
thousand spectators, I have seen sheep collapse and die on the course.
I've seen sheepdogs collapse from heatstroke moments after they came off
the course but in 22 years of sheepdog trials I have seen bitch snaps and
raised ruffs but I have yet to see a dog fight off the course, let alone on.

At the Rural Hill trial this fall a spectator's Australian Shepherd broke
his flexilead and dashed onto the course after the outrunning sheepdog.
First time I ever saw an Australian Shepherd make a decent outrun. The set
out crew was radioed, the Aussie was pounced upon. It and owner were
ejected from the trial and the outrunning sheepdog was given a rerun.

Everybody (except the Aussie's owner) got a kick out of it.

Donald McCaig

==================================================================

Example: My pup was zooming through agility, conquering each obstacle
> with joy and verve, happily hitting the contacts, grinning all over
> as she performed complicated jump courses, working ahead of me and
> loving it. Then she met the teeter. The first couple of times were
> no problem and she gamboled over, pausing for praise on the down
> contact then blazing on, then something snapped on the inside of her
> head and she decided this was just too scary. She trembled, she
> jammed on the brakes, she refused all sorts of delicious bribes a few
> inches in front of the forepaws apparently glued in place."

This fall at a big sheepdog trial I took June to the agility demo to
try it out.They asked me to put her on a lead for the first jump and I
did. They asked which sort of treats she preferred. I said, "Treats?"
After the first jump I unhooked the leash: it wasn't necessary. June
continued through the course (including the teeter-totter) not because
it was fun or exciting or rewarding but because I asked her to.

Her reward is her life of sheepwork and walks and exploring and being
a dog. Once a day (twice since she's due to whelp in a few days) she's
fed. She's fed if she's good or bad, obedient or not. She's fed
because she's a dog. All the dogs get bones when I'm butchering or for
Thanksgiving or Christmas. The treats are disconnected from anything
they have done. They do soldify my role as benificient pack leader (as
do the adventure walks, the going to strange places and bringing them
home safely etc.)

My dogs are mannerly because their life makes dog-sense. June went
onto the teeter-totter because her leader asked her to. Why wouldn't she?
Donald McCaig
Dear Trainers,
Ms. L. wrote:
>
> Some dogs are just plain afraid of the teeter totter. They are
> afraid of the movement under their feet. They are afraid of the
> sound that the teeter makes when it crashes to the ground.

Sure. June didn't like it either. June also doesn't like to cross the
grates under which the Hudson River rushes in Manhattens West Side
Park. She doesn't like the noise in airplane cargo holds. She doesn't
like gunshots during hunting season. There's lots of things June
doesn't like. That doesn't mean she won't put up with them if I ask
her to.
Donald McCaig

=============================================================
Dear Trainers,
I am grateful to H. for her thoughtful reply to my inquiry
about the malapropism "showing in obedience". She wrote (in part):

" Dog shows come directly from this social space. This may have been
clearer in the era of the "benched" show. The human participants are
displaying their stuff. The canines present are not participants, they
are objects presented for display and evaluation of the readily
observable parts. Hence the name."

Some may think I persist in these inquiries because I can't resist
any chance to take a jab at the dog fancy. Not true. If I wanted giggles
the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show would giggle me for a lifetime.
I believe that because the dog is so wonderfully malleable, he has
allowed very different cultures to see him in different ways.

Our dogs try to become our beliefs.

Clicker trainers, dog show handlers, Keohler Trainers, shock collar trainers,

sheepdoggers, cattledoggers and shutzchund trainers have different beliefs

about dogs and none of these beliefs is "right" because the dog can adapt

to any of them.

These beliefs are revealed in language: "e-collar", "drives", "the
sport of dogs", "humaniac","behaviors" are all bad language and each
reveals its underlying belief system. That's what interests me.

Let me give you an example from my own culture. In Scotland the
highest possible praise for a sheepdog is "Aye, yin's a useful beast." The
first time I heard it I thought: "That's awfully dour". The expression
reveals a culture that sees dogs as livestock: sheep, cattle, goats, pigs
and dogs are "beasts". Secondly it sees dogs as utilitarian: "useful"
tools. The phrase has unsentimental overtones. Clearly, if a "beast"
becomes "useless" one would discard it.

People who come out of other cultures value their dogs as much as
I do. But I'll bet they value them differently.

Recently, no doubt unwittingly, Ms. H. cued me about another
dog fancy malapropism: "Temperment". I'll ask about that in the New Year.
Meanwhile, I hope you and yours are healthy and that you enjoy a
doggy, sometimes funny New Year.

Donald McCaig

Copyright Donald McCaig 2005 to infinity.

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