Ha!!! Who's thinking Now!!!

Jay working at the last years Sheep Festival Trial

It's a funny thing how the right information whaps you right up side the head at the right times every now and then. Today while reading some training advice I ran acrossed a post about stopping a dog and making it think while it was fetching the stock. I filed the information in my memory banks thinking that next time I work Jake and if he drops part of the flock I will make him work his way through is debacle rather then redirecting him. Well, I didn't have to wait, Jay, Sharon's dog brought that information back to front and center.

Good old Jay is a tough dog to work. Many handlers have suggested that Sharon go out and get a different, easier dog to work with. But Sharon will have none of it, she is either going to succeed with Jay, or die trying. I mentioned yesterday that I am taking care of him while she is on vacation and using the opportunity to work through some of his issues.

One of the most annoying things he does is just roll mindlessly around the stock, sometimes flanking around, sometimes through. When he walks up he sometimes drives the stock, sometimes drive a hole through the flock and then flanks around when he finds himself on the other side. All these little antics are allowed, not because Sharon thinks they are right, but because she can't stop him.

Well, I think today might be the beginning of the end. I got the bugger to think!!! He was walking up and getting ready to make a mess of it, I got on his case for the mistake and stopped him. We repeated the same situation a couple more times. Then, all of a sudden before he got to the point of the indiscretion he stopped released a little pressure and honored the sheep. OMG, Jay made an adjustment based on the sheep!!! Stop the presses, new headline for the Sunday News!!!

I'm not saying that the dog is fixed, no way, but I think we may have found a path through a thick overgrown forest, hopefully he and I can find our way through together....before he goes home next week...now that's wishful thinking.

I used Jake today to tend sheep down the driveway, next to the cornfields. He did something that I have never seen him do, he flanked out a few rows deep into the cornfield to get around the sheep, typically he treats the corn rows as if they are a fence. I think this was a good thing.