Clicker Training for Dogs

Herding Clinic Report

O.C. Herding Clinic by Helix Fairweather

Day #1 - Friday Afternoon

What a FAR CRY from the class I took some time ago!!!

My, oh, my! I actually *understand* now what the heck the dog is supposed to do.

This afternoon was the first part of Lana's Herding clinic. It is a 'classroom' session so to speak. Lana went over the common herding terms and what they mean, then went over terms specific to her type of training and what they mean. So now we humans understand, intellectually, the concepts of "there" (stop, turn towards the sheep), "walk on" (move towards the sheep), "go bye" (turn left, go clockwise) and "away to me" (turn right, go counter clockwise).

Then we did Lana's white board exercises. This was soooooo cool!!! She has little white board, message boards, one for each set of two people. She uses lids to represent the sheep (large lid = light sheep, small lid = heavy sheep). If you tip the board, the lid slides around. You could say the lid is *drawn* to one corner of the board. The sheep are *drawn* to one part of the working area - drawn to the gate (get away), drawn to the food bucket (want to eat), drawn to the trainer (know they can be protected), drawn away from a dog outside the fence. So the sliding lid is an approximation to the sheep and their draw.

One person of the duo is the dog and that is the person with the dri-erase marker pen. The other is the shepherd. It helps to start off with an experienced person as the shepherd. You are to take the lid around the outside of the arena, pushing it with the pen, leaving a trail on the white board, following the commands of your shepherd. The shepherd has you walk on towards the sheep and you leave a nice straight line. Cool. But then here comes a corner, the dog has to change tactics and so the shepherd cues you to 'go bye' to go in towards the wall, to get behind the sheep. And so on. If you go too far, you have to fix it. Then your path around the arena is a mess <grin> But you can SEE exactly how many things you had to do to fix it. It was very cool!!

THEN we did the same thing with the board tilted to the corner (the draw). Now the lid wants to slide quickly into the downside corner. One had to get the dog out there and get those sheep back properly. It was so enlightening to be able to look down on the arena and see the whole process and what was supposed to be happening.

Lana talked about corrections. She has never yet used a rock jug (whew! Happy to hear that.) She does not use PVC poles smacked down in front of a dog (good, glad to hear that). She uses a short staff which she taps on the ground in front of a dog as a block. Now you might think this is nothing new, everyone does this. I haven't much experience in herding, but in the lessons I had this was NOT how it was done. That pole was smacked HARD in front of the dog. Lana does it with no force on the staff; she literally lets it drop from her fingertips in just a tap. Hitting the ground is threatening. Just putting the block out there is not (per Lana). What I saw today was something I could live with.

Blocking is her most useful form of correction. But more importantly her training is entirely operant. Lana believes that dogs ought to be able to eat their dinner in the presence of sheep, play Frisbee in the presence of sheep, do obedience in the presence of sheep, play tug in the presence of sheep. You name it; they ought to be able to do it. The name of the game for Lana is self-control. She trains herding *entirely* with a clicker or any other kind of marker. The dogs are allowed to be operant and are rewarded with food, toys, tug, cuddles and play with mum, access to the sheep - a mixed bag of rewards.

Lana trains the dogs to understand beyond a shadow of a doubt: just because you are near sheep does not mean you will work them; just because sheep move does not mean you can move them. Playing Frisbee, eating treats, tugging are all ways to teach just because we are near sheep does not mean we are working them. For the first time for me, I can see that herding can be something other than a correction-filled time of total stress.

Lana also talks about the 'logical path', that a dog is instinctivelygoing to want to be on the balance point (which we are now clear aboutfrom our whiteboard work - and it is NOT the point opposite the handler!). So Lana will move, and have the sheep move with her, in such a way, that the "logical path" for the dog is a successful move. He naturally takes the balance point and gets rewarded for it. She calls it 'enabling the dog'. When she needs to block, she calls that 'disabling the dog'.

She then took dogs that were not the participating dogs and introduced them to sheep. These were dogs that were just along with their owners - a couple of Bouv puppies (adorable!), a 15-year-old rescue Beardie owned by a friend of mine. She showed us how these dogs "seemed" to not be interested in sheep but were in fact well aware of the sheep, aware that they moved when the dog did, and aware of the handler as needing to be part of the flock. We got to see exactly how the dogs cautiously became more and more aware of the sheep and the connection between their movement and the sheep's movement.

Then she brought in seminar dogs who were new to sheep or hadn't seen them much or who had bad experiences. Lana uses the same techniques we all use for teaching loose-leash walking (Walking With a Goal) for teaching self-control around sheep. We had one dog that lunged at the sheep, one that barked. Same thing for both of them. While you are not barking, dear, we will walk s-l-o-w-l-y towards the sheep. When you bark, we dance back to the start and start all over. Each time the dog reached his previous threshold line, the handler would reward big time by calling him to her, playing, hugging, dancing around = yes, indeed. Just because there are sheep there doesn't' mean they are always your reward. Can you tell that I simply LOVE something that makes so much sense???!!!

And the lunging dog quit lunging. And the barking dog quit barking. Eventually. Every single movement Lana makes is slow, quiet. She has ZERO urgency, ZERO yelling, no adrenaline rush whatsoever. The dogs take this on from her and calm down. That, and the dance back to the start line. They are allowed to be operant, to choose the behavior that will get them closer to the sheep. And if they are very, very good, Lana will move the sheep so they are just a tad off balance and the dog is *allowed* to move them.

Lana has excellent skill at reading the stock and moving them herself. I've been to one herding clinic, a couple of instinct tests, and one set of herding lessons and I've never seen anyone have their own personal control of the flock like this. To where, the trainer can move the sheep, just a nudge, so that the dog can do a TINY bit of work. Lana is in complete control of the whole situation so the dog gets exactly what he needs.

All of this in 4 hours!!!! And to think, we have all of Saturday and Sunday to go.