ONTARIO BORDER COLLIE CLUB

1. What do you want to see in your young dog before entering him in a trial
2. What trial characteristics are you looking for (length of outrun, type of sheep, etc...)
3. What adjustments do you make in terms of handling to help your young dog
4. Any other relevant information on the topic.
    

Trialing a Young Dog 2

By Patrick Gosselin
(photo credit Patrick Gosselin)

Whenever I introduce something new to a young dog, I do everything I can to make it fun and easy. I want my dog to enjoy the new task and desire to do it again and again and again.  I also want him to have success, no matter how small the challenge is at first.  When my ¨prodigy¨ is having fun and feels confident in his abilities, I gradually start asking a bit more with care to keep things casual. I have the same mindset when it comes to introducing my youngster to trialing or moving him up to the next category.  I want to avoid overwhelming him with too many difficult tasks at first.  I find the best way to do this is to prepare adequately at home to higher standards than what is expected at the trial.  As one of my mentors would say “Only when my dog can complete an Open run, will I consider entering him in PN”.  If the outrun at the trial is 400’, I want my dog to be comfortable with 600’ uphill, downhill, in the rain, in the wind, in the heat with a lie down and redirect just in case.  Ultimately, I want my young dog to finish his first run with a ¨that was easy, can we do a real trial this time? ¨ expression on his face. If things don’t go as planned, I must be ready to withdraw my dog from the field, train some more at home and try again.  At the end of the day, if the dog isn’t ready, it’s my fault so I don’t leave him on the field potentially hurting himself or the sheep.

As far as trial selection goes, I look for fields with little or no draw.  I think we often underestimate the pressure a young dog can feel when the flock wants to head back to the set-out pens or to one side of the field on the fetch, drive and pen.  Some young dogs won’t take a walk up or flank to avoid being positioned between the flock and the draw while others will head the sheep when they become anxious of losing them, ignoring your commands in the process.  I also look for dog-broke sheep that are more than willing to play along if the dog is right.  Compliant sheep that aren’t prone to run away or confront the young dog will help make the first experience positive.  Of course, the dog will have to become familiar with all those challenges one day but gathering the sheep, moving them around the course and penning them is plenty to ask for the first time around.

With regards to handling, there shouldn’t be major changes if your young dog is ready, the field has little pressure and the sheep are good.  The little adjustments I make are mostly to reduce my dog’s level of stress and keep things simple for him.  If my young dog is agitated at the post, I use verbal and non-verbal cues to calm things down and let him know I’m there with him.  I will be intentional about turning his head before sending him on the outrun to promote width.  I will lie him down at the top to give him a chance to settle from the outrun.  If my dog doesn’t have a nice pace yet, I keep him at a distance by stopping him before the sheep speed up.  If the flanks aren’t as clean as they should be, I create some distance with the sheep and flank him from a lie down position rather than on the go.  If my dog is still a little shy when facing the sheep at the pen, I help him out a bit more than I usually would.  Again, the goal is to avoid overwhelming my young dog by putting him in a situation he is not ready to deal with.

Building confidence

In conclusion, my decision to start trialing a young dog or to move him up a category is not based on his age but rather his capability in executing fundamentals correctly (balance, lie down, that’ll do, walk up and flanks).  I try to bring those fundamentals to a higher standard than what is expected at the trial, select fields and sheep that will give him a fair chance of succeeding and handle him with care to keep things simple.  While I’m initially overprotective at trials, I continue to improve my dog’s abilities to work independently at home with the intent of giving him more responsibility in the future.  For example, I might stop my dog at the end of the outrun and prevent him from fetching the sheep too fast at a trial but will work on silent gathers to let the dog find balance, lift quietly and fetch with a nice pace while holding the line by himself at home. When I feel my dog has met the standard, I will trust him with that section of the trial and let him work the sheep with little intervention.  It can be tempting to stay in a lower category, choose easier trials and cover your dog’s faults but if you want to improve, you must minimize the areas your young dog is struggling with (fundamentals) and gradually test him in more challenging situations.  Trials don’t lie and will expose your young dog’s capabilities or lack of. Take the feedback for what it is, a report card of the things that are going well and the things that need improvement to help you identify where to focus your time and energy in training.  No dog is perfect but fewer the flaws, better are your chances of being successful weekend after weekend regardless of the sheep and field.  In my view, trialing experience will definitely help with performance but it should never substitute for training.  For instance, I have never been a fan of leaving the post immediately after sending my dog because I know he can’t gather correctly.  I’d much rather help him with multiple gathers in my backyard or at friend’s places until he is ready.  Finally, when I’m in a hurry and tempted to take shortcuts, I remind myself that most dogs peak around eight or nine years old so if I start my pup at one, I got plenty of time to do things right the first time and help him reach his full potential.  

I live with my beautiful wife Véronique and two daughters in Spencerville Ontario where I operate the Tribute Sheep Dog Academy. I started working dogs in 2016 and it has since become an integral part of my life.  This year, I will trial Kina (5) in Open and Sage (2) in Open/Nursery as well as Twm (1) in Pro-Novice/Nursery.