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!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Hiatus

In repose
I didn't like what I saw today, so I've made the executive decision to give Tam a month off. It's easiest to keep track if I start now. He'll go back to work March 1. I'm laying him off, because I saw a behavior that I attribute to training pressure, and if there's any dog who doesn't need to be pressured, it's a 10 month old pup.

What did I see? Tam turned away from me, and from his sheep when I walked towards him to call him off. It was an "uh oh" moment if I ever had one. Keen youngsters with lots of enthusiasm should never do that, no matter what, and I didn't like it.

When I started Tam, I had the happiest little worker you could ever imagine. He started happy, he stayed happy, and he was happy afterward. I even strive for this with the big dogs, but I definitely want to see it in the young ones. What's the hurry? He's a baby!

This is a good stopping place any way. Tam knows his flanks, both whistles and voice, he has a pretty good lie down on stock, and a fair recall, but that's where we got in to trouble. I would lie him down, then walk towards him saying "that'll do, here." But sometimes he would get up and beat me around the sheep, too quick for me to stop. I started voicing a correction for this, and it was too much for him. It chilled him. The last thing I want!

So, what will we do to fill the white space while Tammie gets a break? Well, I have another youngster named Nell in training, and I have Spot, an 8 week old puppy. I figure between those two, we can find something to write about.


Nell - 2 years old

Spot - 8 Weeks
Check back for more on these two...

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