By Dorothy DeLisle
Never enter if you are only marginally ready. Be fully ready and then some. A dog will be several orders of magnitude worse at events than at training. He will be way more excited than at home. Start off at informal matches where on course training is allowed. Only if things go really well there should you even think about the real thing. Expect stock in a real event to be much more difficult that what you work at home. This holds true even if they are the same animals you work during practice. Stock get much more excited at trials too.
Before you enter a real trial, get a hold of the rules and study them. Handler’s Meetings should only be for rule clarifications and learning judges’ preferences, not to teach you what the course is. You’ll do much better, if you have a clear idea of what you should be doing well ahead of the event. You can get the rules on the web: AHBA, AKC, ASCA, USBCHA, ISDS, RRCDA, SV , WASDA, WCDA .
Things to try to remember when you are
in a competition (test or started levels):
1) KEEP MOVING, # one rookie mistake is to stall.
2) Don't block entrance to obstacles, even standing next to it can be a block
for some people wary livestock and if you're doing this, it means you aren't
following #1. Keep moving along the obstacle, and stock will follow your
lead. If you stand still at an obstacle
your dog may think he should be holding the stock to you rather than putting
them through. But what you are actually
doing is asking your dog to drive the stock into the obstacle. And you’re dog doesn’t even know how to
drive yet.
3) KEEP MOVING!
4) If sheep escape
A) Tests
Escape with them. That is, make every effort to keep up with your sheep. Immediately run after and catch up to escaped test sheep. Don’t let your dog beat you to them. And definitely don’t stay where you are while your dog goes after them. Keep yourself in the picture.
B) Trials (started
or level I)
a) If your dog is good at distance work (most beginning dogs aren't,
only
those with exceptional balance and natural wideness) - don't let dog go
after them until they have come to a stop, to do otherwise will invite a
chase and fence crashing.
b) If your dog is not good at distance work (i.e. most dogs) - don't ask
him to distance work (don't ask a beginning dog to do advanced work). Go
WITH your dog to get the livestock.
5) KEEP MOVING!
6) If dog goes up middle on outrun our otherwise really blows it – RETIRE
immediately! Never let him get away with any shit at a trial or it will
quickly become a bad habit.
7 ) KEEP MOVING!
8) If you survive the outrun, but run breaks down later, chasing etc. RETIRE
immediately. Never let him get
away with any shit at a trial, or it will quickly become a bad habit.
9) KEEP MOVING!
10) In general, try to keep ahead of your stock. This serves as a brake to the sheep. If you aren’t in front, the sheep have nothing to counter the
pressure of the dog. They see a wide
open escape route, so they take it.
11) KEEP MOVING!
12) Be careful about setting up off balance work, i.e. you standing not
directly a head of stock but off to side toward center of arena. This will cause dogs with balance to go
between stock and fence (to point directly opposite you) and cause
escapes. It is much better to be
directly ahead or slightly offset with your body along side the fence. (Unless
you have stock that don’t like people.
Then, you need to get out of blocking position.).
13) KEEP MOVING!
14) Don't be afraid to turn your back on your dog and hustle through the course. Sometimes, this is the best way to get through tests because it is the handler's slowness that sets up many problems. Too many runs have gone to pot because the handler stopped to argue with the dog when the handler’s slowness was the cause of the dog’s seeming misbehavior.
15) KEEP MOVING!
16) If you have to give your dog constant stop commands to
keep him off the stock, do it! Your dog doesn't have to keep moving, only
you.
17) Don’t forget to KEEP MOVING!
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