Gotta have a few of those light bulb moments to make your effort worth while. This morning was one of those mornings. Thirty degrees in the desert, nary a breath of wind, and all I needed was a sweatshirt on. My type of morning. My dogs and the sheep liked it, too.
In an earlier post, I said I would like a lesson or two to help me work on some glitches with Yoko and Kilt. I think I solved one of our problems this morning with Yoko. It all boils down to "timing" and being "consistent."
Thankfully, Yoko is willing to stand on her head for me. So, whatever problems I am running into are MY problems. I'm not getting the message across to my pup. Yo has a medium to loose eye, but if she doesn't square off her flank she will catch the eye of the lead sheep and nail it (as in bite it). Most of the time she does this at a distance from me. Sometimes I get off my butt and go to her; other times I have just growled at her. I need to be with her or go to her EVERY single time to make sure those flanks are correct. You have to be quick with the smart ones. They pattern train really fast. You can't be lazy. That's something I have never been accused of, but I can see I have fallen into a complacent mode.
Why does she bite? My friend asked me if it was due to a lack of confidence? I had to think about that for a moment. I'm thinking that any bite other than to a heel to push or to a head that is confronting is a bite out of lack of confidence or out of frustration. Probably means we just need more work, working different sheep, and working different environments. Do you think?
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