Zen sheep herding.

Had a good session sheep herding last Friday. and Monday about 5 of us are all going to spend the afternoon taking lessons and watching each other. Can't think of a BETTER way of celebrating Labor Day!

Some notes here to remember what we learned on Friday:
1 - Default action is to fetch those sheep. Fly and I have learned this pretty well. She balances nicely to me and amazingly doesn't push them too hard any more! I'm able to zig-zag about and she follows nicely! So, when things aren't working out well, FETCH!

2 - We want to teach Fly that she doesn't need to BAM into the sheep. There are other ways of approach. So, to teach this, during a fetch I would ask her to 'Lie Down'. At this point I want a good stop. I keep moving away with the sheep. Then I can ask her to 'walk' and to start walking again. Getting her to start walking during all this nice calm time will encourage her to be gentle.

3 - Get Fly to have a wider outrun. While we are fetching, I can ask Fly to 'Lie Down'. This time she doesn't have to stop but a hesitation would be good enough at this point. This gives me a moment or two to come round the sheep so we are only about 3 hours apart on the clock with the sheep in the middle. Then I use the 'shhhhoe sssshoe' sound (which means go round the sheep) to get her to balance to me on the opposite side of the sheep. If Fly is cutting in straight at the sheep instead of nice and round and wide, I can say 'HEY YOU' to get her to go wider.

4 - We also want a calmer pickup at the beginning. I need to be calmer myself. I need to get closer to the sheep, put fly on a stay, and then get between her and the sheep.. Then ask her to 'shhoe, sshhoe' and only HEY if she is too straight. One thing Laurie said is 'there is no emotion in herding'. I don't need to get angry with Fly , just let her know she should stop doing whatever it is she is doing. All the while, keeping calm.

Would that be Zen sheep herding?