Balance..What's in it for Ewe..

Balance in life is a must..Balance on sheep is a must..so how do we create it.

First off I think the number 1 mistake in thinking we have balance is dog broke sheep. The falsify the whole concept from start to finish.

If dog broke sheep are always wandering around with their nose in our pocket we cannot achieve this.. we achieve a nice ability to follow. (not gonna cut it if you work wool sheep)

Balance is the ability to bring sheep straight...BUT where is the dog?? The dog is where it needs to be to achieve this goal. At the last trial the lambs leaned hard on the dogs..the dogs that followed and never reached for balance were offline. The dogs that through themselves into the point of balance on the pressure succeeded at the fetch.

In starting many young dogs these days (and days past) I have dogs that balance better on the left or the right..you see them reach over to correct the sheep and stay there until the heads turn, then they go back to the point of balance on the other side...Some reach good one way and some come up short the other way..leaving the sheep "not quite covered". I will make sure that this is fixed before going on with training.

I will take large groups of wool sheep out and just wander around and make sure the pups are reaching. When I think they are even on both sides of balance, I change the sheep! I go from not so dogged yearling wool sheep (20) or so to 7 undogged wool sheep...(they don't come to me, the pups have to balance well to bring them!)

Today was that day..(now obviously I wouldn't take an out of control pup to the pasture on this type of sheep) These pups I speak of are yearlings that have had farm flock experience. They are getting "command" ready, so I though I would check their "Balance". I so often see people just rushing through the training process, getting command on, whipping grip out, instead of working grip out, and stopping the dog constantly never letting them get a feel for the sheep. I am just the opposite. I like a natural dog (almost to a fault) I admire good work, and I am not controlling (enough maybe for some) I like free moving..but anyway..that's me.

So what happened on the 7 wild woolies?? Both pups littermates did a great job (keeping the sheep on the field) both pups developed better flanks (they had to open otherwise the sheep felt they were being chased) One reaches great comebye and 1 reaches great away. What I mean by reach is if I am backing around a corner did they turn nicely and hit that balance or did they drop a shoulder and flush the sheep passed me...both had a shoulder drop on opposite sides!. I wandered and worked it for 15 minutes, not saying much just cruising around the field! So the lesson did 2 things...help them understand balance and help them open their flanks naturally.

It is ideal if you can keep a few unbroke sheep because it is always nice to get a young dog on real sheep that have to be told where to go and see if they have what it takes!! (These sheep do not fight, I wouldn't use fighting sheep) but nice light fresh (non-cheater ) sheep!! Afterall when the dogs get into the big leagues we cannot tell them where to be at 600-700 yards when the sheep are hassling them.

In conclusion don't forget the remedial importance of the beginning stages of the young pups career! Lay off the command sometimes and just wander it's quite enjoyable!

Happy Herding..