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Stopping the dog (2 of 3)

Teach your sheepdog to stop on command – the second video in our series about getting the dog to stand still.

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Subtitles: French*, Spanish* or English, click CC on viewer (*translation errors).
Videos play best on CHROME, SAFARI, and EDGE (all devices) also FIREFOX and OPERA (mobile phone).

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Photo of a man teaching a sheepdog to stop on command

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Train a sheepdog to stand still

Progress checklist.
A dog which stops easily in early training.
Good stops in the early stages of training are rare.
Training sheepdogs involves compromise.
Over-strict training can damage the dog’s confidence.
Teach the dog to go around the sheep.
When pre-training begins to pay-off.
When you can’t catch the dog you’ll find that crouching down, as you call it, can often help.
Calling the dog away from sheep.
Some dogs get more aggressive as they tire.
Using the rope-chain will usually result in the dog working steadily.
Always try to maximise the dog’s confidence.
Blocking the dog will help to stop it as long as you block it effectively.
Once it stops, let the dog go again!
Once you can stop the dog on the far side of the sheep, the next stage is walking backwards, to improve many aspects of the dog’s training.
Stop the dog when it’s farther away.

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Teach your sheepdog to stop on command

PART 2 of our three video series, showing how to train your sheepdog to stop on command. We assume you’ve already watched part one, and hopefully, the tutorial “How can I slow the dog down?” because both of these videos show you ways to get your dog to work more calmly.

Now you need to get the dog to stand still.

The videos encourage you to look closely at your relationship with your dog, Especially the amount of respect the dog has for you as its leader, and whether your actions might be making the dog more excited.

WATCH NEXT…
Stopping the dog 3

Stopping the dog 1

Comments

2 responses to “Stopping the dog (2 of 3)”

  1. michael mcpolin avatar
    michael mcpolin

    Hi Andy the two year bitch that I was talking to you about has come on leap and bounds in the ring she was doing everything you said but when she is out the ring it is impossible to stop her taking of after one sheep some days she is worse than others I have her out twice most days

    Reply
    1. Andy avatar
      Andy

      It’s great to hear that your dog’s making good progress, Michael, but more details would have been useful!
      How big is the training ring, how many sheep, are the sheep steady, or do they panic when the dog’s around? I suspect they’ve learned to come into the centre of the ring by now, but when they’re not restricted, they’re “flighty” again..?
      Assuming the ring is about 16m diameter and you’re working with four or five fairly steady sheep, make sure the dog is working really well in both directions inside the ring, and make sure it will stop.
      If the dog’s going well inside the ring but not when the sheep are outside it, the dog isn’t ready to work (those) sheep unrestricted.
      I stress over and over again in the tutorials that the closer you are to the dog, the more control you have over it. This means, the FARTHER away it’s working, the LESS control you have.
      Training a dog (or child, or anything else) works best when you make things as simple as possible at first, and then GRADUALLY make the conditions more realistic, as the student (the dog in this case) improves.
      So the simple way to move the action outside the ring, is GRADUALLY.
      The problem is, the ring is small, and the field is HUGE (by comparison) – so to gradually move from one to the other, enlarge the ring!
      If you watch the “Training Ring” tutorials, you’ll see how I extend the ring, so that I can give the dog short outruns (it’s also useful for more advanced work such as shedding, and driving, but that’s for later).
      Making the ring longer, means the dog is working a little further away from you, but not too far.
      If you’re short of hurdles, you can use a wall, hedge or fence for one side of the ring, because the dog must be able to get the sheep away from the sides by now! It’s important to round any corners off though, so that the sheep can’t huddle in there.
      If you find you can’t control the dog in the bigger ring, you’ve probably increased the size a bit too much, so reduce it again so that it’s only a bit bigger than the original. Then as the dog improves, make the ring bigger and bigger, until you can move into a very small field or paddock (if you have one).
      If you think your dog might be flanking well enough to maintain control of the sheep as they run out of the pen (and they will run, believe me) watch the tutorial “Moving Out“. I suspect it won’t work for you though, because your dog has already got into the habit of singling a sheep and chasing it – but it might be worth a try – especially if you can keep the dog circling the sheep while a friend opens the hurdles. Watch the tutorial.
      Your best bet is probably to gradually enlarge the training ring though – please let me know how you get on!

      Reply

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