We're just back from the Nippersink Sink or Swim Sheepdog Trial, and I'm still glowing over Maggie's work. Don't get me wrong here--we neither won nor came close to it, but my goal has been to progress in the Open class such that I felt we belonged there, and it is starting to feel like we do. Last season, we ran 4 trials on an Open course, had a few great moments, but lots of, uh, learning experiences. But we both did indeed learn a lot, and Maggie and I got used to barely being able to see each other when working 350 or 500 yards apart. A few weeks ago we had our first competition of the season, and we again had some ups and downs. I made several mistakes, Maggie got overwhelmed by testy sheep, and but she also did some really good work and I made some good decisions. (Full Read More
Archives for 2020
Why Aren’t Dogs Bothered More By Masks?
Friend and colleague Chelse Wagner of Dog's Best Friend and I were talking a few days ago about what life is like in the dog training world, and Chelse commented about her surprise that so few dogs were bothered by people wearing masks. She works with a lot of reactive dogs, and not only were few dogs bothered by half of her face being covered up, some dogs seemed to be more comfortable if she had a mask on. More comfortable? Now, that's interesting. Remember when masks became prevalent and articles appeared with concerns that dogs would freak out when confronted by mask wearers? In June, Gene Weingarten wrote in the Washington Post that several dogs had reacted fearfully to his mask, including one who "nearly took my hand off." Curious about the issue, I asked my Facebook readers on Read More
Placebos and Dogs Revisited
Getting stung by wasps led me to learn about all kinds of "non-traditional" treatments, including an application of the common weed, plantain. (I wish I'd tried it; one of our readers swore by it, and later I learned about its medicinal properties. Impressive.) We have plantain everywhere here on the farm, and next time I get stung I'm chewing up some leaves to release the tannins that draw out the venom and compress tissues to decrease pain and swelling. One thing led to another, and down the rabbit hole I went, until I found this post I wrote in 2015 about placebos and dogs. I still find the issue fascinating, and would love to hear your thoughts on the issue. But first, read about the research that reminds us of the power of the environment on even our body's internal Read More
Maggie, Sheepdog Training, and Melanie the Hummingbird
I thought I'd share some videos and photos this week. First, here is Maggie and I practicing driving last week for the season's first sheepdog trial. I'm standing on the left, out of sight, and have sent Maggie to pick up sheep in a corner of a friend's field. She does a beautiful "lift" (getting the sheep to move forward), starting them moving without startling them. She's responding perfectly to my whistles, and moving them at a perfect pace. However, at second 44 she makes her most common mistake, "overflanking." I wanted her to stop after a quarter turn, but she continues around to the back side, all the better to bring the sheep back to me. It's what she (and many other dogs) do when she is confused or nervous. "I'm going to default, which is to bring the sheep back to my human." Read More
Luring, Prompting and Shaping
I'm going to be taking things a bit slow for the rest of August during my Official Summer Slow Down, and so will repeat a few of the posts from past years that are evergreen. I was reminded of this post while reading Ken Ramirez's great new book, The Eye of the Trainer. One of the many things I loved about it was his thoughtful and objective discussion of luring, prompting and shaping. Here's what I wrote about it in 2015, still highly relevant I think. (And I should mention that you can still treat yourself to a workshop at Natural Encounters with Susan and Steve, or (and!) go to Ken's Ranch Camp.) How sweet it is. Last week I spent five days at Natural Encounters in their Professional Training Workshop hosted and run by Steve Martin and Dr. Susan Friedman. I watched crows and Read More
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