Dave Viklund from from Brigands Hideout in Battleground, WA was an instructor at Fido's Farm Sheep Camp last week. On the last day of instruction I asked him to test Brynn on sheep.
Brynn is showing signs of being very 'sticky' and eyeing up strongly on the sheep. She gets sucked into the heads of the sheep and sticks there. Dave's goal during this 'test' was to keep her moving. Dave is doing that by tapping the ground lightly with the flag to help 'break' her eye then to prompt her to circle around behind the sheep, rather than come right into their heads.
Due to Brynn's sticky tendency I have limited her exposure to sheep (other than a little teaser here or there) and will continue to do so until she is much older and ready for serious training.
Brynn's tail is consistently down. From the first moment she sees the sheep it is serious business. Occasionally her puppy brain kicks in and she gets a little goofy, especially when I talked from the side.
I have decided that I am going to send her to a trainer who can start her correctly. Now I just need to decide which trainer!
Decisions decisions... *sigh*
Foot Note: I am messing around with my blog lay out, colors & a new header photo. Things might be wonky until I get things just right. Sorry if it looks wierd right now. The creative process is never easy... :-)
Middle of Nowhere
2 hours ago
9 comments:
Dianne has done a fabulous job (IMHO) in helping Mo and I get to where we are because she was able to show me how to "break down" Mo's eye and how to see the signs when she is getting too eyed up.
Carolyn
She looks good. She needs a trainer who has experienced with heavier eyed dogs, and has the right sheep (lighter sheep will keep moving, and keep her moving). I like her a lot. She's a good one.
Jaenne - I am leaning toward Dianne (waving HI to DIANNE!).
Sheepkelpie - Thank you Julie! I she is pretty terrrific!
Brynn is looking good.. She reminds me a bit of my Brynn, when she was younger she would get real sticky, she'd hold the sheep onto the fences and i had a lot of trouble stopping her from doing that, but now she doesn't really show much eye at all..
I think your Brynn is going to make a fab little sheepdog.
Yes, I think Dianne would be a great choice!
Did Dave ask for a certain time limit on that because of the heat?
Maddie - My Brynn looks so much like your Brynn it is amazing! I hope she has half as much talent. I got the name Brynn from her litter mate in rescue. When I adopted my Brynn she was named Lyndie, but I fell in love with her littermate's name and since her adopter was changing it to Echo - I snatched up Brynn. I guess we both have excellent taste eh? Tri-Colored Brynn's half a world away ;-)
Jodi - I loved what I saw from the dog Dianne trained for that gentleman from Montana at the Patrick Shannahan clinic. I love the way Dianne is with her dogs, she is gentle and truly loves the dogs. That is what I want for Brynn. I need to email Dianne and check for availability.
Funny you should ask about the time limit. That was one of the students timing each person's session length so as to not 'go over'. We were alloted 12 minutes that time. I cut off the first portion of the video because I was in the pen and really screwing up the sheep and Brynn. I didnt think anyone needed to see me get taken out by a sheep crashing into me and then swearing. LOL
-Carolynn
I like your new layout. Love the photo at the top. Ranger looks like the star of the show!! (Can you tell Ranger is my favorite? Followed very closely by Brynn, Beth and Bonnie, not necessarily in that order!)
I like Dave for instinct testing, and he have done a lot of them. The two names that comes to mind are Dianne or Karen C
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