More Sheep herding and ob

Sheep herding

I have to start with our sheep herding. Freya went to second training last weekend. First we did some basic moving of sheep. Freya started to have nice tiptoe movement and waited the sheep to move. We started to name her movement straight to sheep to "walk on". I have decided to use English as my cue language. Freya also did some work off leash of finding of flight distance of sheep. She worked really well and Freya has been very light to control. This sport is really taking me to a new place and really like it.

Obedience

Freya has been working on her basics. We started to work on stand and laying down during heal work. I first have started to make stand and laying down separately around me. Now we work on these position while I walk. Next stage is to bring them to real heal work. I haven't still been happy with her stopping speed so we a big project on that.

Also I have started to do staying in a group. This has been a little challenge for us. I think one of the reasons is that Freya thinks she need to offer some thing new while I just stand and wait. So we need to built this behavior from very little pieces so it will calm and stands distractions.

I think our best ob moment so far was training at my friends training field. When we were training two boys came to play soccer at the same field. Freya worked super! She didn't pay any notice to the boys and even work on when they kicked a ball next to us. I can just say- super puppy!!!

Pixie and I have been working on our team spirit. I have done very short training and praising her all the time. My goal is to make us work better together and with higher drive. Our 30 sec training has already done miracles. Pixie still works like charm in the more difficult task. I hope that soon we make everything together and make us work us team even better. Short training has really give us both more energy and the precision has improved a lot. Will I compete in Ob... I don't know, but I see as project to improve my skills as a trainer and improve our team work.

Next time some our agility work!

MLPF

Sheep herding

Last weekend we spend a day in sheep herding school. This was Freya's first time doing sheep herding. I wanted to know how she would work and would herding be something that Freya would like to do. First round was just horrible. Freya just barked and jumped all over in the line. My thought was that this will be a horrible day. Kaisa Hilska ,our trainer, just told me that this is normal with young dogs. It still didn't make feeling any better at this point.

On the second round we started to see will Freya have natural flanks. First she tried to come close and took after that some distance and look away. After a little brake she started to found the flank in both directions. This was really exciting watch when Freya started to use her genetic skills. I was just amazed. At that point I really knew we people get to involved in sheep herding. This is the sport where dog need to have own ideas and skills.

Third round we started to see will she have natural way to find balance in when she controls the sheep. This was pretty wild. Freya kept going on flanks at first and didn't really find the balance point. When she founded the balance point she started come forward right away. This a little problem because Freya didn't have any control commands yet. So this was our homework for the next. We need get "lay down" command better before we can start practicing moving in a balance with the sheep. In the end this day was so super and learned so much about my border collie and I now could tell better why have certain abilities and habits. Super super day!!! Thanks Kaisa!! Herding will be something we will work on in the future.  

Some much more to tell.. Until next time.

MLPF

OB training boost

Agility seasons biggest competitions are over. As usual I get ob training boost. All my girls have been working to improve their ob. It has been nice to train something else than agility even though we have done that also. This has been time to also really take some extra time for Freya.

Freya has been working on her heal work. We have done simple few steps work in different places. She has done super work. I always super treats when we do heal work. I want to make sure Freya does her heal work in maximum drive. It has been working on really well. My plan is also to make all the basic work ready in different places before we start making duration.

Other thing we have been working on is retrieve. I begun the retrieve with shaping of the griping of the dumbbell. First stage was a nose touch of dumbbell and after that Freya started to open her mouth and lifting the dumbbell. Next stages was her gripping the dumbbell when I was holding it in front of her. At this point I started to say "thank you" as soon as she took a hold of the dumbbell. We did this few sessions. Then I wanted Freya to hold it for few seconds. This point it is important to make successful sessions. After few times she started to notice that she needed to hold the dumbbell until I said thank you. 

So now I had the holding and giving up the dumbbell ready. Next stage was to bring this all to my side as this is the right place where she need to give up the dumbbell. First I just give her dumbbell and as soon as she gripped it I said "than you". This I did few short session. Next I started to hold the dumbbell little bit lower so that Freya needed lift the dumbbell up to be in right position. Did this until the dumbbell was on the floor. Next was to put the dumbbell on the floor so far that she needed to lift of from my side and go and retrieve it and come back. This stage I needed few times wait awhile that she offered the right place but soon she got hang of it.

I have still started every training session with short retrieves so that she remember the right place. At this point I have made few throws. Freya has super but I always make sure she is in the right mood and doing basic training every time makes sure that Freya has the right idea. I have also started to work on the speed with separate exercise. Freya also lost a little bit of tight grip. To that I changed for heavier dumbbell and this has been working. If the problem comes back with lighter dumbbells, I just need to do some holding training again.

Pixie has also worked on hear retrieve. I have done 30 s - 1 min training session of her just lifting up the dumbbell. My hope is make her drive rise from lifting the dumbbell. Pixie has nice retrieve but she has little bit slower return than the retrieve speed to the dumbbell. After lifting training we have done retrieves from short distance so that dumbbell is between Pixie and I. My goal is to train the retrieve chains last part stronger than it is. We will see will this improve her whole chain in the retrieve.

That's a little bit of our ob training! Now we need to get going to herding training... Freya will meet sheep for the second time... I'm so excited!!!

MLPF

Here is a video of Freyas training 6 months old:



Here is also video of Pixie in national team tryout: