Herding Clinic - Day 1

On Saturday morning, Boris and I woke up at the ungodly hour of 6:00 am to pack up and get on the road for our herding clinic. The farm where we take herding lessons is about 60 miles from where we live in Jersey City. In driving time, that about an hour to an hour and a half away, depending if there are any detours. The clinic began at 8:00, so we needed to be on the road by 6:30.

I put his crate and the rest of our "stuff" such as towels (the forecast said rain; and it rained) water for both of us and treats for him, in the car the night before. All I needed to do was take a quick shower to wake me up, walk him, get us both in the car, then go. Besides both of us being sleepy, our departure went off without a hitch.

Boris passed his herding instinct test last April and it took us to now to find an instructor so we could continue developing his special instinct. This was our first experience with this instructor, so the drive there was full of anticipation. Well, I was full of anticipation; Boris sat the entire time in his crate with the "here I am with Mom and where going somewhere" expression on his face. Dogs live in the moment, and Boris doesn't process anything until he comes up in it. I, on the other hand, was both nervous and excited to see how he'd do and curious to see exactly what a "clinic" entailed. Soon I was to find out.

Passing a herding instinct test is only a crumb of information as to how your dog will react when actually tasked with herding. Boris during his test was able to move the sheep around, was completely interested in doing so, and displayed other behaviors that told us that he should continue to train in this event. Further, he had an absolute blast working these critters; it appeared he was born to do this.

When I arrived, I met the instructor of the clinic who is a woman with 30 years of herding experience. So, right off the bat, I trusted her. There were around 8 people attending the clinic this day. Boris wasn't scheduled to "work" until right before lunch, so I got to see a mix of different dogs and handlers at different experience levels work. The ranges were from around 5 years of experience to a 7 month old puppy.

All of the dogs showed a great interest and good potential as sheep herders. Even the 7 month old puppy calmly took to the ring and worked the sheep well. Then it came Boris' turn. Whatever good instinct shown during his test, wasn't coming out today. He was reactive (meaning barked at everything) to the sheep, people, other dogs, ducks and cows (in his defense, it was the first time he ever saw a cow; and he got to see one from about 5 feet. A pregnant cow at that. I imagine what went running through is head was "what the f@#k is that?"). Today was going to be a day of hard work.

Boris is good at getting the sheep moving, but there's more to it than that. The dog must be in complete control of himself to hear commands from the shepherd (me) to successfully move the sheep, or other stock, from point A to point B. Self-control is definitely not one of Mr. B's strong points, expecially when he's excited. And, as I learned this day, because of this I have to be A REALLY STRONG leader (this somewhat has to do with his breed; GSDs are known to be quite strong willed. As working dogs, they have to be, particularly in police work).

It took us FOREVER to get around the ring because each and every time Boris reacted I had to stop him, and when he calmed down begin again. Thankfully, the instructor was quite patient with us (she had seen this before) as were the other participants in the clinic. He was so bad, that he wasn't allowed off-lead to work the sheep. Disappointing for me because that's the fun part of it, and he just wasn't ready for that. I really felt bad for Boris because even the puppy could get a grip and work the sheep, and he just couldn't. Not today. However, the group sensed my disappointment (the tears welling up in my eyes could have been a clue) and all of the experienced handlers there said that their dogs didn't get it right away either. In fact, most of them said it had taken 6 months to a year before their dogs could go off leash. Herding dogs have STRONG drive so that they can herd and confidence and control has to be learned. I guess that made me feel better.

Our first go at the ring was a mess; the second wasn't much better. On the second turn the instructor did notice something that proved to be key. From my last round of obedience lessons, the instructors at the school we attended demanded that we use a gentle leader collar. A gentle leader collar wraps around the mouth of the dog and behind the ears so that the dog can be controlled (or, more to the point, not lunge) when something sets them off. GL collars are like horse halters. This day, Boris' gentle leader was really annoying him. The instructor noticed this and concluded that Boris may be reacting to the mostly to the collar. And, because I used the collar to pull him in a down, the collar was hurting his nose.

At the end of day the instructor told me that she wanted to try something different the next day: a prong collar along with a second leash attached to his regular collar. The prong collar would be used as a correction devise when Boris reacted, and the second leash would be what I used to lead him with. The theory behind this is that Boris would learn how to be on leash and we would use the prong only when he needed a correction. In time, the prong would be removed completely once he learned how to walk without needing a correction. As we would later find out, this worked brilliantly.

So, that was Boris' and my first day at the clinic. To tell you the truth, after the mess of our first day, and if there wasn't a plan b, I don't know if I would have returned.

Lessons learned: It's not enough to have natural talent, one must be disciplined to learn skill to make anything work. Also, an experienced teacher is invaluable.