Last week I had my first Super Duper Big Hat lessons with none other than Alasdair. I am very fortunate to work closely with plenty of immensely knowledgeable and successful handlers, but this was the first time I've gone to a lesson held in conjunction with a professional clinic. There are others who must have much more time and money to invest than I, so this being my first time and possible only time for the year, I was pretty excited.
Alasdair knows of me through a close mutual friend, and we've chit-chatted a time or two, but I've never worked dogs in front of him. I was kinda nervous, how dumb! Anyway, Gabe was first up, and I went over my brief intro of what I wanted to work on with him: not feeling his sheep at the top end, tension after the lift, and not feeling his sheep on the fetch. I sent him on a PN-ish sized outrun to pickup off his "other mother" and his real canine mother...and he was lovely. Downed, took his flanks, walked on straight without flip-flopping, just a nice fetch. We did a little driveaway and then had a timeout to talk. Alasdair was quick to note that Gabe needs to take a "steady." Ok, we sent him again, another textbook outrun and lift, and he was taking all of my down whistles (to my surprise). We worked on him pacing himself and walking sheep down the fetch instead of bullying them on. This was hard for Gabe, but after a few more fetches he was starting to get it. At first, not knowing what "steady" meant, he actually *sped up* when I talked to him. Alasdair thought he was just responding to my voice, my saying anything at all to him. But he was getting it, and we will continue to work it at home.
The other thing Alasdair noticed on Gabe was that he had a poor away flank. This was actually rather shocking to me, as I'd not picked up on that before. It is not that he slices it, just that it is uncomfortable to him and puts him in a bad place mentally. So we worked some exercises to make him more comfortable. Gabe can be super nice and fluid, but when he blows up, teeth come out, so we need to get that flank cleaned up now. Additionally, his short flanks need work, as his fast-flanking style leads to big, sweeping flanks. As Alasdair said, "Big flanks save you from trouble, but small flanks win trials."
Livy also had a turn, and honestly I was fairly worried about her being a wild child.
Demonstrating a zoom-flank at home.
Prior to the clinic, the biggest thing I worked on with my dogs is "you better lie your butts down when I tell you to!" I don't need to spend my lesson time and money on obedience issues, so I made sure those stinkers would listen :P
Well, again with the preamble: her outrun is not good, she is tight and slices because my sheep at home run and I have no one to hold...but in cases where sheep are standing still or being set, she does cast pretty well. I also cautioned him that her away flank was going to be worse than Gabe's, seeing as for the last several months we've been in a funk where she dives and bites on almost every away flank at hand (it is better at a distance, but still not good). Aaaand again, the squirt goes out to get her sheep very nicely, downs every time I ask her, never slices or grips, and takes off driving. How about that. She was a little keyed up, yes, and did like to hustle the light sheep, but it was a pretty good representation of what we normally see out of her (minus the outruns and away flanks). He said at this point, she is like a brand new 1 ton truck with all the bells and whistles...but lacks steering! It's true, when put in situations that tested her knowledge of verbal flank commands, she always responded with what made sense to her based on the context of me and the sheep. So we worked some exercises to get her *thinking* instead of just reacting. A bit mechanical, but I know it is absolutely needed to solidify her flanks. He also showed me how he teaches driving, and I will be working on that in conjunction with just letting her get behind them and go.
It was a very productive morning for me and my dogs and we have lots to think about and practice. Both of them made liars out of me, how nice, but maybe it means that the areas we've been focusing on for the last 2 months are improving. Either that, or the magic of Alasdair's presence was in effect.
