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

Obsessive-compulsive border collies

If you know anything about border collies, you know that they can be quite obsessive-compulsive about things. They are herders, and herding dogs can get quite focused on the task at hand, whether it is herding sheep, chasing geese from parks and golf courses, or even ‘herding’ little children. Our first border collie, Tobie, had a terrible habit of wanting to herd anything that moved, and since we didn’t have any sheep or geese, or even young children, she would ‘herd’ the vacuum cleaner, the lawn mower, the wheel barrow, or just about anything that had wheels on it and moved!

We have witnessed this behaviour starting to exhibit itself in Will, but not Emma. She seems to be more cautious and moves away from moving things, like the vacuum cleaner. I think it’s more that she doesn’t like the loud noise and feels safer running away from it rather than at it. Will, on the other hand, wants to bark at the vacuum cleaner, and follows its movement. He doesn’t nip at it like Tobie used to, but it’s probably only a matter of time before he would.

After having lived with a dog whose behavior we were unable to control, we are determined to be better owners this time. We didn’t know how to break Tobie of these habits that had become so entrenched. We hope we can learn how to prevent this from happening in our two new puppies.

Conditioning

Jim noticed that Will seems to be better with the vacuum when he is not confined in his pen or crate. He was vacuuming out the pellet stove last weekend (his weekly chore) and had Will lie down, just a few feet away from him, while he did his vacuuming. Will was well-behaved and just lay there and watched, not barking.

We have learned that dogs learn best from repetition and conditioning. The more recent method of teaching dogs is known as the ‘lure and reward’ method, described very well in a book by Dr. Ian Dunbar, Before and After You Get A Puppy. I thought I would draw from this method to train Will to accept being near the noisy vacuum cleaner without barking at it or biting it.

You can download a free version of 'After You Get Your Puppy' here: http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/after-you-get-your-puppy

and you can also download a free version of 'Before You Get Your Puppy' here:

http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/you-get-your-puppy

I got the vacuum out to clean up the furry mess in the family room, and had Will stay in the room with me. As usual, his first reaction was to bark at the noisy contraption. For his reward, I used one of the really tasty chicken-flavoured treats that he loves (a Newman’s Own product that my thoughtful friend, Rosemary, gave me). I left the vacuum running in the room, and coaxed him closer to it, praising him for not barking, while telling him to 'leave it' and giving him one of the tasty treats. I repeated this a couple of times, until he seemed pretty comfortable with it running noisily beside him. I then got up and started to move it, slowly at first, not too close, but close enough for him to see it and react if he was going to. He moved around, and away, watching it all the time, but not barking at it, and not chasing it. Each time it came close to him, I told him to 'leave it', praised him and gave him a generous portion of the tasty treat. He was great with it! He still did not take his eyes off it, but did not bark and did not chase it. We will try this again, and next time I will have him lay down while it moves around him.

I feel like I made a major break-through today! This behavior is definitely not cured yet, but he has started on the road to being able to live with moving, noisy objects. We will have to repeat this again and again, and with patience, we may have a dog that does not behave in such an obsessive-compulsive manner. We can only hope!

Will and Emma are 3 months (13 weeks) old today. They are coming along quite nicely with their training, especially considering that they are just 3 months old. We’ve been practicing the things we learned at class last Monday, even though the class was a bit frustrating, especially for Will. Both pups had their first visit to the vet that afternoon, and were definitely not feeling their best afterwards. I wish I had known there would be side effects of the shots, for I would have scheduled their vet visit for a non-class day.

They had a whole series of shots, including their first rabies shot, boosters of leptospira, parvovirus, distemper and a deworming pill. It is interesting to note that the first rabies vaccine is given here at 12 weeks, while in Canada it is not done until 16 weeks of age. Poor little Emma didn’t even make it home before she vomitted up her lunch, and big Will had the unfortunate experience of doing it in the middle of the puppy class. I didn’t even realize it was him at first, thinking it was one of the other pups that was closeby. Poor Will couldn’t keep anything down, and had to suffer through the rest of the class, mostly watching but did try to do a some of the lessons. There were no treats for rewards, though, since he had no interest at all in food, and he would not have kept them down anyway.

They actually quite liked the vet, Dr. Goldman, and his assistant, though. The ride to the office went well, and they didn’t seem to mind the crate quite as much as before. According to the advice we have had, I made separate appointments and took each one separately. We are determined to have these pups become as independent as two sibling pups raised together can be. I think Dr. Goldman thought I was a little eccentric, but I am going to do this since I have the time right now. Maybe when they are older it will be different, but for now, I will make this effort to separate them whenever possible.

Homework exercises for the class have included practicing sit and down, sit-stays, leave it (with food), and even a down-stay. Jim has been working with Emma on a down-stay and she is doing quite well. He walks around the room, leaves the room and returns and she is still waiting in her ‘stay’ position. I have not been practicing this quite as much with Will, but he is really getting the hang of it too.

A little fresh air and play

We took the pups to the golf course again both yesterday and today for a good run outdoors. It was tricky with the two of them, but we practiced the recall with them and they both loved to run to my call ‘come’. It is amazing that the old school of thought was that a puppy could not learn these things until about six months of age, but these two are just like sponges for any new challenge. They love to learn new things, and of course, this breed loves to have a job to do. Right now, their job is to learn.

Jim was testing their ‘herding’ instinct a bit today at the golf course. He would run a little from one side to the other, and they both would run with him. Each time he turned a different way, they would immediately follow, back and forth, and back and forth. No nipping, either!

For a change, Jim took a turn with Will and I walked with Emma today. Will is very possessive of me already, so it’s a good idea for us to trade-off once in a while. He doesn’t like it if I am too close to Emma, so we will have to work on this before it gets out of control.