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Hi all,

I know we have a herding thread already but the title is misleading, so I thought I'd start another one to chat about herding, training and trialling - and brags of course :thumbsup:

Since retiring my agilty dog recently, I have decided to get Cash (4.5 yr old working kelpie) back into herding and we are having a ball!

We've mostly been working on ducks as I find he is much softer and kinder to his ducks than he is to sheep.

I've been having a lot of success getting him to yield/stay out of the flight zone. I have found that he works with me more than he used to, which might be due to the work I do with him from day to day (he has issues, to put it nicely :laugh: ) and also through me being much quieter when I train i.e. I am trying not to yell at him when a mistake is made, because I realise that I am usually the one whose fault it is :)

Here is a recent video. We were just working on getting him to yield when he moves off, and keeping out of the flight zone.

Edited by superminty
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That was some very nice work :D & I've just turned a very nasty green colour :laugh: watching that, might get my lot to watch & learn from it. I've just brought Delta back into training, she's only 1 y/o, & decided to skip teaching fetch & go straight to driving, she naturally fetches & I'll have to change everything once she gets to intermediate anyway. She had her first go on Thursday & I was so pleased, she's a bit unsure about walking up with me behind but did ok, even started to understand 1/2 flanks, so all up I was a pretty happy camper. Izzi will take a lot longer to learn driving, but she's only ever done fetching & I can't start Pebbles till after the MVA next weekend because I don't want to confuse her. Was going to watch your video again superminty but think it will make me :o, Cash looked great out there :D.

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Thanks Dova, he has been off stock for almost a year so I am really pleased with how he is coming along.

We have done almost exclusively fetching up to this point so have some driving practice to do but I find that he is happier to drive ducks away from me than sheep, probably because it's so much easier :D He really does have a hard time letting them "get away" though, he is a natural heading dog so we struggle with obstacles sometimes - he just doesn't want to let them go through and "escape"!

My next task is to teach a solid stop and down...

And I must remember to work on ONE THING AT A TIME! Not 5 different things and risk confusing the poor dog like I used to. Need to keep my dog trainer hat on.

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We just got back into herding after about a year off. Unfortunately we won't have much to report because it's now getting too hot for our guys! :laugh: We were out at herding today and the heat was making it really difficult for them. I wish herding training started at 6am instead so it was cooler! :D

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My Finnish Lapphund, Demi, has just started and I have to say I am sooooo proud of her. I have done herding with the kelpies which is fun, but I am enjoying working with a more laid back breed!! She has only been in the round yard thus far but is moving nicely in both directions now (she was refusing to go anti-clockwise the first few sessions), did a little driving and stopped reasonably well.

You know when she is working because they are a barking breed!!! And boy does she do a good job of that!!!!

Just wondering if anyone had suggestions for either workshops to attend that might be on next yr, or private lessons in NSW. I would just love to get some one on one attention with her!!!

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Wow, is he 4.5yrs already? How time flys!

He is a very laid back worker!

Tell me about it, I can't believe it myself. He has really started to mature of late (and about time!) and I feel like we are finally getting along - I'm not battling with him so much and he is becoming quite responsive to my pressure, which is nice.

He is much more intense on sheep, no video to show because all our recent sheep work has been pretty ordinary :D so I'm keeping those videos a secret.

He did do some beautiful sheep work the other day but of course, no video! Finally got him to yield properly, I think it is really sinking in that I want him to go around the flight zone, not cut in.

My Finnish Lapphund, Demi, has just started and I have to say I am sooooo proud of her. I have done herding with the kelpies which is fun, but I am enjoying working with a more laid back breed!! She has only been in the round yard thus far but is moving nicely in both directions now (she was refusing to go anti-clockwise the first few sessions), did a little driving and stopped reasonably well.

You know when she is working because they are a barking breed!!! And boy does she do a good job of that!!!!

Haven't seen many Lappies down here, I did see a couple when I started with my first dog, but that was years ago. Be great to see some video if you can manage it, I love watching other breeds working.

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Wow, is he 4.5yrs already? How time flys!

He is a very laid back worker!

Tell me about it, I can't believe it myself. He has really started to mature of late (and about time!) and I feel like we are finally getting along - I'm not battling with him so much and he is becoming quite responsive to my pressure, which is nice.

He is much more intense on sheep, no video to show because all our recent sheep work has been pretty ordinary :D so I'm keeping those videos a secret.

He did do some beautiful sheep work the other day but of course, no video! Finally got him to yield properly, I think it is really sinking in that I want him to go around the flight zone, not cut in.

My Finnish Lapphund, Demi, has just started and I have to say I am sooooo proud of her. I have done herding with the kelpies which is fun, but I am enjoying working with a more laid back breed!! She has only been in the round yard thus far but is moving nicely in both directions now (she was refusing to go anti-clockwise the first few sessions), did a little driving and stopped reasonably well.

You know when she is working because they are a barking breed!!! And boy does she do a good job of that!!!!

Haven't seen many Lappies down here, I did see a couple when I started with my first dog, but that was years ago. Be great to see some video if you can manage it, I love watching other breeds working.

I know TerraNik got some footage of her having fun!

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Haven't seen many Lappies down here, I did see a couple when I started with my first dog, but that was years ago. Be great to see some video if you can manage it, I love watching other breeds working.

It is almost finished uploading :laugh:

ETA - Here we go. Demi herding (with additional soundtrack by Soaks :D )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvWwXqvCOvI

Edited by TerraNik
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I have no brags other tham my dog di a really good advanced cross drive today and his daughter saw sheep for the first time and was pretty impressive.

The most impressive thing from todays training was a 2 yr old kelpie that the owner rescued from the pound. He had seen sheep once before but only in the round yard. We put him in the round yard then straight in the square yards. That dog did everything right just by instinct. The second go we started in the square yard and he was doing a HT so took him to the PT arena and he managed a PT that would have passed. He is a dog to die for.

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Hi guys, I havent been on DOL for awhile but a friend sent me this Topic and I thought I would share what I am doing with Jasper. I think most of you will remember him as my gorgeous singleton pup born Easter last year... He is excelling in the showring and is now 18 months old!! Well at 14 months I introduced him to sheep, not expecting him to do much. He is very well known for his power naps at shows... everytime you look at him he is asleep!! LOL Well, he nearly left me speechless... he is so keen and confident with the sheep.

He got his PT title easily after a couple of months training.. with comments from judges about how well he naturally rates stock for such a novice dog, and my trainer says he is the best bench bred kelpie he has seen work stock !!! Im so happy with this boy and Im having heaps of fun with him... Here are a couple of pics of him the first time he saw sheep! :rofl:

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Edited by kelpiesrule
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:rofl: The other herding thread was mine, it sort of grew from when I was fretting about doing HT :rofl:

I'm having a herding break at the moment. Not sure what I want to do next with Poppy. Am letting Amber grow a bit more as she is only a little girl.

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I am getting up at 4am tomorrow to take Quinn south of Beaudesert for a beginners clinic. Havn't had a chance to have much to do with herding and I really can't wait to see what she thinks. There shall be pictures.

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I am getting up at 4am tomorrow to take Quinn south of Beaudesert for a beginners clinic. Havn't had a chance to have much to do with herding and I really can't wait to see what she thinks. There shall be pictures.

Good luck ! I hope you and Quinn have heaps of fun!

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Hi JulesP :rofl:

kelpiesrule - Jasper is a lovely looking dog, really stunning :rofl: And I am usually a working kelpie fan through and through but golly I like him :o

He has lovely distance off his stock but I would say you need to work on getting him to hold balance rather than covering all the time. He is only young though and holding balance is a lot of pressure. My boy is only really starting to do it now, mainly coz I have started insisting he do so :rofl:

I have issues going in off lead - only on sheep though, he seems ok on ducks. Although his last duck trial (12 months ago at least) he took off, jumped the back barrier and went looking for the ducks there :rofl: He is a bit of a goose.

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Good topic:)

I had decided Piper was retired with intermediate titles on A course for sheep and ducks. We hardly get any stock time so I decided increasing the drive to advanced level was not going to happen. Well, she is still retired from sheep but she has 1 advanced pass from her 1 attempt on ducks. SO next year at 10 years of age we will try and finish that off.

Jazz has started A sheep and duck titles with 1 leg of intermediate ducks. We are still working on driving and ducks are easier as they do it more naturally plus the area is smaller. She is my freak of a dog, she really is barely trained and just goes out there and does things. Everytime I have entered her in the next class up I have said she is not ready and she blown me away. Her first trial run was a 99 and we had not trained a cast or penning. She is a nice wide worker and I am hanging out for a chance to do B course with her. Hopefully next year we will get more than 2 days of training (all we managed this year) so we can move up to intermediate in sheep as well.

THis is a recent video of Jazz on ducks - it was just mucking around at a demo day and I think she knew there was no pressure as the cheeky little bugger decided to grab a feather or two. Normally I struggle to get her to come in off the fenceline she is so far away.

And this is Jazz in Started A course:

I kind of hate it but like it. It looks like the sheep are following through lots of it but I know they weren't for other dogs. Unfortunately I dont have a lot of Piper working but this is an old 1 of her:
She is so much nicer now.

Training question: How do people start to teach a drive and do you put a different command on for inside flanks?

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