Herding

I won a free herding lesson from an agility trial raffle a while back and finally got to use it today!  It was about an hour and a half drive (plus some from getting a little lost) to get there.  The drive was beautiful and exactly what I needed today, but not something I could do on a regular basis.

The trainer took the girls (one at a time) in a round pen with three sheep.  She worked them since I know nothing about herding and sheep and injuring myself would be likely.  They were attached to a long rope.  For Gracie it was attached to her collar then wrapped around her chest.  For Gidget it was just attached to her harness.  Both girls were rather concerned about where I was when they went into the ring, but the trainer was able to get them to focus on the task some.  Gidget actually showed more interest than Gracie I thought.  The trainer did have me come inside the ring and glue myself to the fence so the girls could see me better.  They both enjoyed some time chasing the sheep in circles around the trainer.  I didn't have the camera with me for Gracie's turn, but here's some video of Gidget's turn. Gidget Herding!  Of course Gidget started doing better after I stopped filming. 

Gracie enjoyed being there.  She got to roll in and eat a fair amount of sheep/duck poop.  She's getting a bath tomorrow.  On our way back to the car after her turn, we walked past a woman and her dog and Gracie didn't even look their direction!

There were a few things I found interesting, and didn't necessarily like.  The trainer told me that the stick they use is a visual for the dog and provides pressure to change the dog's direction (doesn't have to touch the dog to do this).  She used a rake with my dogs which would be easier to see.  Of course my dogs were a bit scared of it.  She said she'd only actually hit the dog with it if the dog was attacking the sheep.  I watch some handlers that had been herding for a while.  I saw at least one tap their dog with their stick when not out on the field.  Several of the handlers would throw their sticks at the dogs (without hitting them).  Now I don't know much about herding, but I would think you could be kinder with the use of that stick.  I also saw several of the handlers using leash corrections while waiting for their turn or while walking out to the sheep.  Once was when there was excessive tension between two dogs to correct one dog from growling at the other.  The growling dog just didn't want to share his person with this strange new dog.  Not nice behavior but certainly manageable, avoidable, and likely not helped by physical corrections.

So if I'm going to get into herding (and the budget- both time and money- says I probably won't, though I'd like to) I'd need to find a place that better fits into my line of thinking.  Minimal physical corrections and lots of positive reinforcement!