Educating Gloria! A typical sheepdog training session

Watch a typical sheepdog training session, full of valuable lessons. It also shows the wrong way to take sheep out of the training ring, into the open field!

Subtitles: French*, Spanish* or English, click CC on viewer (*translation errors).

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A typical sheepdog training session - Educating Gloria

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VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

A useful training session to learn from!

Educating Gloria is a typical sheepdog training session, and also full of valuable lessons.
Gloria is nine months old, very keen, and with a determined nature. This is her 4th sheepdog training session. First of all, we run the clip at half-speed so that we don’t miss any action. Later, we’ll watch the training session at full speed which will of course give a more realistic view.

There are examples of setting the dog up for a short outrun in the training ring, as well as using the training stick and ‘Out’ command to ‘push’ the dog out wider.
We’ll see examples of the dog flanking nicely around the sheep, how to use your body position to keep the dog out wider, and also change its direction.

Don’t do this with your farm dog at home!

When it’s time to take the sheep out of the training ring, as an illustration, we do it the wrong way!
Even so, as the sheep run out of the ring, the dog keeps them under control.
Next we see an example of why we train on 3 or 4 sheep at first. Sheep running into your legs can be a big probem, so take care.
It’s important to use a calm voice when training your dog. In fact, excited behaviour and commands, are probably the most common fault with new trainers.

How to keep the dog on the opposite side of the sheep from the handler is of great importance when training a farm dog to work sheep or cattle. “Backwards is the way forward” will show you exactly how important it is, and how to do it.
We also see examples of keeping the effect of the training stick to a minimum so the dog will eventually work without training aids.
Building the dog’s skill and confidence, using the tone of your voice is also shown, and by contrast, using the training stick, and tone of your voice, to enforce the stop command. Harsher commands increase the pressure on the dog.

This sheepdog’s smart!

While she’s getting the sheep back into the training ring, Gloria uses an unusual tactic, as she tries to keep the sheep out in the open field.
Gloria clearly preferred to keep the sheep outside in the open field. Once they were back in the ring, she vented her frustration by gripping. We see attempts to stop her.
Successfully calling the dog to you, close to the sheep will reinforce your authority over the dog.

A summary of this training lesson.

Setting the dog up for a short outrun in the training ring.
Dealing with a dog which doesn’t want to flank the way you want it to.
Controlling the dog with the training stick.
Signs which show when the dog’s not happy at the moment.
The importance of not alternating flank commands.
Making a sound to speed the dog up.
Keeping use of the stick to a minimum.
Calling the dog to you when close to sheep.
Now it’s time to watch the same training session, at normal speed.

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