How long does it take to “Get it”
I watched my young puppy in the barn circling the sheep, quite often going low to sneak a hock bite or air snap in excitement. My trainer whipped the long stock flag at her shoulder, causing her to circle in a wider radius, and then positioned it near the rumps of the sheep as if to say “stop your snappy nonsense!”. It seemed totally chaotic yet nothing was really happening. Then, much to my chagrin, I was asked to “come on in.” It was inevitable, I mean — I did pay for a lesson, and.. well.. eventually I’d have to be the one waving the flag around, so, in I went. Immediately, things went to hell in a hand basket.
Willow at a Herding Test after 4 days of training
Willow at her Pre-trial Test after 4 months of intermittent training…. The only thing missing from this photo are the sounds of me screaming “DOWN!”
The dog began zipping around frantically. I had a hard time making out her whereabouts, the only evidence of her having passes an area being a wafty cloud of barn dust and the occassional sheep butt grazing my leg. The area we were in was rather small and the sheep were quickly pushed from one end only for the dog to circle to turn them right back towards me in a stampede.
"What the hell are you doing?!" my trainer shouted out after nearly being knocked over by the small herd. "I HAVE NO IDEA," I hollered back, eyes closed and flag stationary. That was pretty much my experience with herding the first 20 times I walked into a pen or field with my young dog and stock of varying degrees of compliance.
In fact, our second lesson involved a soured ewe. In hind sight, allowing a soured ewe to attack a new young dog is not adviseable but having no barometer for what's right or wrong I took the advice of the more experience stockman attending and encouraged my dog to "handle it" on her own. WHOOPS!
I made so many mistakes in those early days and was given a lot of contradictory instruction (or no instruction at all). It was like being tossed out into the Colorado wilderness without a backpack or a guide and told to make it to NYC and while I often saw my dog do amazingly intuitive things all on her own, I also spent a fair amount of time hollering my lungs out while our “sessions” descended into pure chaos and madness (something one should expect when thrown into situations beyond both dog and handler’s skill level).
I went to my first clinic (an excellent clinician) after having bumbled about irregularly for a few months. I walked out of there in many ways more confused than I arrived (how?! How is that possible?! 😆). My dog made great progress! Unfortunately, we both soon reverted to where we started. I didnt have regular access to stock to continue training with nor did I comprehend the nuiance of what I was doing to make the improvement as a handler. By the end of the first year of working my dog (maybe stock time once per month or so) things suddenly started to kind of make sense, although by the time they did my dog developed a whole host of bad habits that made things more difficult and confusing. One such habit involved blowing me off and diving straight in for a bite whenever stock split off or sometimes just for the hell of it…. Nice... By the second clinic (a year after the first) everything suddenly became clear and my dog’s attitude towards the activity saw major improvement. One month after owning my own stock it’s almost unbelievable it’s the same dog.
How long does it take? Well, I’m still figuring that out myself. I am so grateful for having a forgiving dog that is keen despite my many mistakes (a lot of which could easily turn a dog off from the activity altogether). Not everyone is so lucky. The best advice I can give (and what I wish I did myself) is to find a good trainer and go REGULARLY. If you arent feeling good about what you are doing and your dog isnt progressing GO ELSEWHERE IMMEDIATELY!!! Find the trainer that works with you and your dog and go regularly, ideally weekly. You will progress much faster and see more long term success.
