Welcome to The Real Time Canine, Part Two



Welcome to part two of The Real Time Canine. In this edition, I will describe the daily life of a Border Collie sheepdog prospect. In weekly posts using words and pictures, I will describe what they learn and how they learn it. Each pup imparts knowledge in their own special way, and through them I will give you insight into how I train a Border Collie Sheepdog from beginning to success.

As with Kensmuir Star in the original
Real Time Canine, you will be with us every step of the way as these talented youngsters acquire the confidence, willingness and skills necessary to attain my goal for them to become a useful working sheepdog and successful trial competitor. I hope you will join us and find useful tips and technique on how to train a sheepdog.


After a lifetime with animals, dogs, horses and livestock, I am happy to share my expertise with you. I have found success at sheepdog trials at home and abroad, and have trained dogs that went on to find success with others. To learn more about me and my dogs, please visit my BorderSmith website, and my BorderSmith Blog!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Big Day in the Big Field

Boy, that was fun!
If you look closely at my right pant leg, you'll see a stain on my thigh. That's blood...Tam's blood from biting his tongue when he dove in and grabbed hold of a ewe. He has the exuberance of youth going for him, and I'm OK with that for now. Yes, he's disobedient on stock to an extent. Yes, he's messy. Yes, he's eratic, but that's all part of being a 9 months old. Be it far from me to take that out of him, but I always let him know with a growl that it's not my preference. I just don't put any teeth in it.

You know, this little dog is starting to internalize his whistles, and I'm glad to see it. Some hands don't put whistles on their dogs until they're solid on voice commands, but I am teaching them at the same time, and it's working well. I use my whistle and my voice intermittently so Tam learns both at the same time. I blow the whistle first, then give the same flank using my voice. This is the second dog I've done this with. Star was the first, and it worked so well on him, that I'm doing it again.

This was a day of small outruns, and fetching as quietly and as straight as possible. I don't expect much feel at Tam's age, and he's not showing me any at all. After he comes around at the top, he wants to run and flank around again, and he's not very willing to stop and steady on balance. I pressed him for it a bit today, but it's such a balancing act with a youngster. I want him to mind me when I ask him to steady up, but I don't want to diminish his cha-cha in any way.

It was when I made him apply pressure on his sheep without flanking off that he dashed in and took hold. I'll work on this more in the small field at home by flanking him around sheep on the fence, and making him stop on balance and walk up on the sheep that are now against the fence. That way the sheep can't escape, and I'm in position so he can't avoid the pressure by flanking.

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