Rocking the Stockdog GoPro Camera: also–squaring those flanks

So I got a new little toy for my work, a GoPro camera. They’re HD camcorders in bullet proof mounts that stabilize so action stuff becomes actually watchable. Since I am an outdoor competitive event planner, we needed video footage of rides and such so I got one for marketing.

But it has an obvious use in that I can take really interesting perspectives with it. I’m still working out the kinks, though, so the quality’s kind of bad this first go round. Sorry. Kathy was pretty amused at my idea, and that made me pretty happy, too. I actually think it may help me see my mistakes.

She whipped out her own little pocket camera and got a couple shots of me:

What, I am totally normal with my bike helmet while handling in a giant stick. What about it?

Any how, here is a little of the footage from the first day of lessons:

I saved this clip specifically because I told you last time that we were working on pulling her off the top on a go-by both to prepare her for driving and also to fix her tendency to overflank on the way-to and shorten the go-by. Here is me doing that.

I came to lessons the next day and she was like, “NO WONDER RIPPA SNARLS AT THE STICK! LOOK AT YOU WHACKING IT AT HER! NO MORE WHACKING!” Oops. I think I learned that form moving the stick up and down in front of the sheep to build my flight zone.

Anyway, it does provide a neat perspective because you’re really only seeing one thing – how the sheep are reacting to things. You REALLY see them bank off me and the dog. Also, you can see Rippa does actually GET OUT even though I think she’s right up their butts.

So today we went back to work on that “get out” and also her total lack of stopping when I ask. Since we saw this particular perspective, I was easily reminded that I need to really push through the sheep and reinforce the get out with my body. Which totally worked.

I tried a different setting on the camera and obviously I need to go back to the first one because you mostly see sheep. Sorry.

I’ll let you watch the next video. If you don’t find yourself craning to see past the screen, I’d be surprised. Sorry. In this you’ll see how I’m working on getting Rippa to frickin’ reliably take her stop command, how I pull her off the top,how I get her get OUT really nicely, and how I read and react to her.

Though the sheep look like knee-knockers, they’re actually a mix of light and heavy. Kathy says at one point that Rippa must be doing something to them and I say “sending evil thoughts” – not entirely wrong. She’s feisty, but it’s good.

My main thought watching this is how much time we poor Aussie handlers spend going, “Out, out, out.” But remember, they’re not meant to work four sheep in a pen – they’re meant to work many thousands. A little push is a good thing in that case.