<\/p>\n
\u201cIllusions of Control\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Control – just how much is enough? When does enough become too much. This is a common novice query. As usual, a problematic question to answer \u201con paper\u201d. The first supposition most make is – \u201ctoo much is when the dog quits\u201d (but that \u201cbegs the question\u201d \u2026 how did they quit – mentally or physically?) Actually there are circumstances and dogs that need to be pushed to \u201cthe quitting point\u201d in order to get a message across. This is why it\u2019s difficult to answer any question \u201cin one dimension\u201d – you can’t see the dog\/handler interaction while attempting to \u201cfix\u201d a problem on paper. I’ve pushed dogs to the \u201cquitting point\u201d and they ended up \u201cthe better\u201d. BUT, I also know WHY I’m doing it \u2026 \u201ctaking into account\u201d when to do it, how far to push, and when to stop. This is the dilemma for novices – knowing when they should \u201cpush\u201d an issue and when they should \u201cback off\u201d. Usually the dogs that benefited from being pushed to \u201cthe quitting point\u201d were ones that had consistently \u201cgotten the better of\u201d their owners (usually novice) and needed to understand they couldn’t have their sheep until the trainer allowed it. Nevertheless \u2026 \u201cas a rule\u201d putting that much pressure on a dog is not useful. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to understand the \u201cfundamentals\u201d of control \u2013 how much is needed and what you are trying to achieve while applying it. To use control as \u201ca power trip\u201d will benefit neither you nor your dog.<\/p>\n I’ll give an example (that occurred years ago) of being \u201cright but ending up wrong\u201d. I typically work my dogs \u201cfree flowing\u201d meaning I try not to down them incessantly but instead teach them to rate themselves with the sheep while working. Unexpectedly, I was noticing when I said \u201clie down\u201d the dog would quit working. At first, I would \u201cget after him\u201d and send him back \u201conto\u201d his sheep \u2026 but after it happened a few times (and \u201ca big clue\u201d \u2026 with different dogs) I decided that I must be communicating something unintended. So, instead of just \u201cblaming the dog\u201d I spent time trying to grasp exactly what message I was conveying.<\/p>\n The end result was a \u201ctwo fold\u201d. First, since I didn’t routinely use a down while working, when I did say it usually it was in context of calling them off (either to set up another outrun or to quit all together). However, the second reason was more important. When I did down them \u201con stock\u201d it was usually an intense down. When calling them off I used a different tone \u2013 so in essence they heard it as \u201cthat’ll do\u201d. If I wasn’t \u201cin tune\u201d with the dogs I might have punished them for something I was causing. By saying \u2013 \u201clie down\u201d (in a softer tone than the usual down) and then saying \u201cthat’ll do\u201d \u2026 they soon learned that the soft down was a precursor to a call off. So, to solve the problem I started using softer lie downs during the work session. A simple solution \u2026 which could have easily been made into a \u201cconfrontation for control\u201d.<\/p>\n Not being in control is obviously non-constructive. However, not being in \u201ctotal\u201d control isn’t always a negative thing. With some dogs there are advantages to not expecting every move to be perfect. Novices do not have a preconceived \u201cpicture\u201d of what they want a dog to work like \u2013 so they don’t have the desire to \u201chandle\u201d a dogs every step. They’re usually hesitant to \u201cmake\u201d a dog do something and are more inclined to just let a dog \u201cjust work\u201d. Where an open handler knowing exactly what they want would \u201cdemand\u201d specific moves. . There are a number of dogs that are natural with a soft nature \u2026 good dogs but aren’t able take a lot of \u201ccranking on\u201d. These types of dogs usually work better with out a lot of \u201ccontrol\u201d and since the novice isn\u2019t continually demanding perfection \u2013 they are well suited for each other. I’ve seen dogs that didn’t run well in the hands of some top handlers become good dogs when handled by a novice. Why? The novice, not knowing enough to \u201cget on them\u201d made the dog more relaxed without all that \u201cprecision pressure\u201d.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more detrimental to a dog than too much control is too much control combined with bad timing. The dog never feels comfortable with himself, the handler or the stock. Dogs characteristically react to \u201cbad handling\u201d in two different ways. Some loose \u201cheart\u201d just going through the motions \u2026 obeying every command but not REALLY working stock. Some get so tense they run through every command (instead of turning off \u2013 they just go faster). Both \u201ctypes\u201d may have started out trying to comply with the trainer – but when the conflict between what their instincts were telling them to do and what the trainer was making them do – they lost trust. In essence it\u2019s the same problem but due to the nature of the dogs you end up with two entirely different results. Fundamentally both were taught that nothing they did was right \u2026 some lost \u201ctheir drive\u201d and waited to be told what to do (or some just wouldn\u2019t work). Others (usually the \u201chigh drive\u201d kind) listened to the livestock more than the handler and started running through commands trying to keep control of their stock.<\/p>\n In conclusion: Dogs do need to have someone in control but the \u201ccontroller\u201d needs to understand this breeds amazing intelligence and instincts and work with these attributes not against it.<\/p>\n So the question Novices need to ask themselves – – – do you want to view \u201ccontrol\u201d as management or power?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cIllusions of Control\u201d Control – just how much is enough? When does enough become too much. This is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10],"tags":[122,35,29,28,37,27,32],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-training","tag-articles","tag-how-to-train-a-border-collie-to-herd","tag-training-articles","tag-working-border-collie","tag-working-border-collies","tag-working-dog","tag-working-livestock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abcollie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abcollie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abcollie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abcollie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abcollie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.abcollie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4238,"href":"https:\/\/www.abcollie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions\/4238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abcollie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abcollie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abcollie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abcollie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}