Walking Backward

So lots of videos of me walking backward, right? What’s the point?

Stage 1:

Walking backward allows me to see exactly what’s happening while I lead Rippa by leading the sheep. She is looking at the sheep (and that’s why the stick needs to be a strong visual, she’s not looking at me) and I should ONLY be looking at the sheep. I watch where they walk and walk away from that spot to teach my dog to turn them back in the direction I want to go. My job is to hold the sheep on my end. This is actually kind of hard with heavy sheep. Soon you’ll see what it looks like with light sheep.

Stage 2:

This is what I had to do last lesson, but it’s not really a stage: walking backward and following Rippa – she leads the sheep and I go where I need to be to let Rippa put them where she wants to (essentially the reverse). It keeps worried dogs interested. I never had to do this with other dogs I’ve trained, even less keen ones. It’s new. I actually think this would be a good teaching aid – Kathy is always asking where the dog should be of me, and I know, but newbs wouldn’t, and if you put a good, seasoned dog on the sheep, that would teach people right quick.

Stage 3:

Walking backward and leading. By now the dog has learned how to stay an appropriate distance away and that the object is to keep the sheep between person and dog. You walk backward to ensure the dog doesn’t learn any bad habits.

Stage 4:

Turning around and walking. Trusting the dog to do its job. It also tends to relax the dog because it’s not thinking too hard about what you’re doing in response to what you’re doing.

Side note: This steps before the last are pointless if you’re working a LOT of livestock. This is sort of a fine-tuning trialing thing we got going here. Aussies want to work tight and they’ll do just fine on a big flock of sheep or herd of cattle, the instinct is already there. We’re just teaching dogs to do fine work with small numbers of sheep. Ranchers don’t need to work too hard at this if they work huge heads only.