Will and Jim wait in the hangar while Emma has her lesson

More herding training

Learning how to herd is a long, slow process, even for border collies. Especially border collies that don't get to work with sheep every day. We live in a semi rural area, not a farm, so it would be impossible for us to have sheep at home. We can have chickens, according to our zoning, but they draw the line at any other fowl or four legged farm creatures. Even geese are out of the question. So for now, we are limited to taking Will and Emma for their almost weekly sessions to become familiar with the animals, and to learn how to do what supposedly comes naturally to them.

We have always thought that Will would be the one to pick it up quickly, since he really likes to herd Emma. He also tends to go out wide around us and Emma, and will stand or lie there and watch what we're doing. If we move, he moves. If he gets bored in one spot, he moves around to the opposite side of his imaginary circle around us, and lies there watching everything we do. He can do this for quite a long time. And he really does herd Emma, especially when we're on a walk.He makes sure she stays on the path, or if she goes off the path, he will chase her down and bring her back, or will stand and watch that she doesn't go too far.

Emma has a knack at herding behavior too, but in a different way than Will does. She is obsessed with anything that moves, as I've mentioned before. She monitors the outdoors through the windows for all moving creatures or things, like squirrels, birds, even blowing leaves. She is getting better at controlling this behavior (or we are, I should say), but it could become a real problem. Border collies can be quite obsessive-compulsive in certain behaviors, and this is definitely one of them. We really want to keep this one at bay, and are learning how to handle it. This is one reason we really thought that if Emma had a job to do, she wouldn't continue to do this. We're working on it!

Emma is also good at herding her brother, Will. As I said, Will likes to lay at a distance and watch the action. We can tell Emma to go get Will, and she will go out to bring him in. This is usually successful, not always.

Well, about this training we are involved in. It is a slow, slow process and we began with learning how to give the dogs a good warm-up before they work. This is similar to how a person would warm up before doing some sort of physical exercise. The sequence begins with neck flexes, to the left and right. One side seems stiffer, but that is common, and it is now not as stiff as it was a few weeks ago when we began. The next is to stretch all four legs, and this is the part that always makes me laugh because it looks so funny. Working with one leg at a time, you hold it straight out for a few seconds, then to one side, then the other. We bought a DVD that Lynnette recommended by an animal physical therapist to understand some of this. She demonstrates with different dogs, and they really are quite agreeable to all of this. Besides being a good warm-up, this is all supposed to make it easier for you to handle the dog, and have them get used to being handled.

The warm-up continues with some 'yielding' exercises. You are supposed to get the dogs to go in a circle, first rotating around their front legs and then the back legs. They are learning how to make turns by crossing their legs at the ankle, rather than just moving to the side. It is much more efficient to turn this way, and it does not just happen. The latest exercise we have added is to move sideways, each way and to back up. This is getting easier, and they really don't seem to mind working at it. It's just trying to incorporate it into our daily routine is the difficult part.

Once we do all these steps at each lesson, the dogs are then given some lunging work. This is most similar to the way that horses trained. Using a long line (our teacher Lynnette, at Nutmeg Farm, recommends marine rope for it's 'life') she walks them first one way, then another, in big circles. This is done in a big structure she has on her property that resembles an airplane hangar.She will work each dog separately without animals, then will do the same thing with sheep or geese. Back and forth, back and forth, getting used to the movement, and to being in the pen with the animals.

Here's a few photos with a family of geese, father and his babies, from a few weeks ago. As you can see, neither Will nor Emma are too excited about being in with the geese. I worried they would just chase, but they are quite calm about the whole idea of being near them.

Will with the geese and Lynnette at Nutmeg Farm

Emma with the geese

Big daddy goose and his four 'babies'

Emma again, not wanting to get too close

Will in Herding Training

It's been a pretty packed summer with lots of travel and training and fun in this the hot and humid weather. A few weeks ago, we started Will and Emma in some sheep herding training, something that Jim has really been anxious to do. He found a trainer in Portland, CT, who does one on one training, and we've had a few sessions with her. She has shown us some warm-up exercises that we should do with them, and says that dogs, just like humans, need to stretch and tone their muscles to prepare for exercise. It's also a way to get accustomed to handling your dog, and for them to get used to being handled and manipulated physically. They both really struggled against it at first, but now they know what it's all about, they don't seem to mind being pushed and pulled, and having legs stretched one way and head stretched back and forth.

Will doesn't seem to be very interested in the sheep at all, while Emma is pretty good at the herding. We thought she might just chase them once she got into the pen with them, but on the contrary, she seems to have a second sense about what she needs to do. What they are learning now is to be comfortable with the sheep, to figure out how to move in tandem with the handle, and to figure out how the sheep move when they move. It's one step at a time.

Here's just a few shots of Will in training. More with Emma later.

Lunging practice (just like training a horse)

Is it done yet?

Not my turn yet

Father and Grandfather sheep