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We’re excited to have you as part of our community! This is the place for Premium members to post your comments and questions. We look forward to hearing from you. If you’re a premium member and have any trouble posting to the forum, please email us at macraesheepdogs@gmail.com
We try to answer all general questions Monday-Friday within 48 hrs. and are happy to help. If you’re looking for specific content, we’ll try to direct you towards it on the site or create a video or article to help with your topic of interest!
Additionally, we’ve created a short tutorial to show you how to access your favorite content.
Access your video in just 2 ClicksWe take the responsibility of advising handlers with their dogs very seriously, as helping dogs and handlers is our priority! To that end, we only can only advise on a specific question about your dog when we can see him or her and we have a visual as a basis for one on one discussion (i.e a video of your dog and a real time lesson ). If you’d like to up a virtual lesson, details for those can be found here, https://macraeway.com/online-lessons-with-your-dog/
Why?
Without video if you ask a question based on a description of what your dog is doing, it’s your impression of the circumstance and further subject to our interpretation of your account. If you, or we, are incorrect,the recommendation will not be accurate.
For example, if your dog had a great deal of eye and we (and you) did not know this and it was not evident from your assessment and we then advised that you stopped your dog more frequently that advice may actually exacerbate the eye in your dog, making for a greater problem. Yet for the dog without a great deal of eye it might be very sound advice. This applies not just to eye but to all different types of problems and different types of dogs. Dogs that are very flanky require a different approach than the line dog, the excitable dog versus the cautious dog, the confident dog compared to the dog that needs confidence built, etc. Additionally, many words have different meaning to different people. The definition is vast for: forward, square flanks, straight lines, tight turns, feel, power, honest attempt and the list continues.You can see the concern in providing advice without absolutely seeing your dog, the situation and having that as a point of reference in a one on one discussion. If we have a video we can reference, we can absolutely set up a lesson!
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This topic was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by .
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This topic was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by .
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This topic was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by .
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This topic was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by .
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This topic was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by .
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This topic was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by .
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This topic was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by .
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This topic was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by .
This is really great with a forum! One question I have right now is if I should start using “stand”? Or should I continue with lie down for some time? I have a keen 1,5 years old border collie with some eye. She loves to work the sheep, so pressure release really works well on her. She has a good lie down. As her pace is often a little bit too high when following the sheep, I have to use the lie down command quite often. I vary with flanks and outruns etc. She knows the command stand from other training with no sheep.
All the best, HelĂ©nHi Helen, Thanks for writing! This forum is actually not live yet, but we wanted to give Platinum members a sneak peak of what’s to come :-). While I couldn’t speak to your individual dog without seeing her, a stand can be especially useful for dogs with a lot of eye as lying your dog down frequently can exacerbate eye. We always teach a lie down first and then transfer to a stand (as opposed to training the stand first). Some dogs with eye are more suited to working on pace, such that you don’t need to stop your dog as often. 2 questions we ask we assessing if a stand is needed is : 1. will it help prevent exacerbating my dogs ‘eye’ 2. is my dog enough of a team player and cool headed enough to accept a reliable stand. Some dogs, because of their excitability, how they’ve been trained, etc. will take many extra steps on a stand command, minimizing it’s effectiveness. It really depends on the individual dog as to when we introduce a stand and I’ll put together an article that expounds on this a bit including pros and cons. I’ll follow up with as soon as that’s available and when we’re live on the forum!….cheers,
Now that you are live, are you taking questions? if so could you address dropping a shoulder and what you might do about teaching your dog to maintain the proper arc around the sheep and not come in on the circle too prematurely? thanks for the great outlet for questions.
Hello! The Link can be found on the main Academy page, here, https://macraeway.com/academy/
The link itself is,https://macraeway.com/forums/forum/sample/
cheers
Hi Victoria, Absolutely, the forum link is live and questions are welcome, thanks for asking!
In terms of shaping flanks, how we maintain the proper arc with a trained dog can be found in Squaring Flanks here,https://macraeway.com/academy/sheepdog-training/the-triangle-a-driving-exercise/
With dogs learning to drive, we only employ a gentle opening of the flanks as we don’t want to risk opening them too quickly (lest their natural width kicks in and it makes them too wide).
By using The Circle,https://macraeway.com/academy/sheepdog-training/the-circle-a-versatile-and-excellent-driving-exercise/, it allows us to gently suggest how to maintain the arc if our dog is slicing, as we are in a position to always help our dogs. We simply step forward from the center cone towards our dog, to help and return to the center cone as soon as our dogs opens up. We don’t shape flanks until 16 months or so, once our dogs have come with their natural width, but we do discourage slicing.If your dog is further forward you can use the same method in “Squaring Flanks” for the circle exercise, if you’re shaping flanks in earnest. It’s important to follow the same premise as The Triangle, only opening flanks in the direction of the outside of the Circle.For young dogs just starting in the round pen, we are not too fussed about being tight, however, if they are slicing you can see how we address that with several different types of dogs in the Course, Starting Dogs.Please let me know if you meant something different with your question, cheers,
Hi Geri, you’re post came through perfectly, thanks! Just write here if you have any questions or comments. Im working on “training Scot, Part 1”, should have that out soon 🙂
This is perfect timing ! I have a question that I have been debating with myself for a week or so. I have an 11 month old just started puppy, she goes around sheep both ways, stops and calls off (most of the time). She has quite a bit of eye, it’s not bad once she is around the sheep. However, walking onto the field, she will get her eye on the sheep and left to her own devices it would just pull her straight toward the sheep, she rarely looks away. Would you do something to break her eye off the sheep at this point ? I don’t want a bigger problem later on by not addressing it but also it feels wrong to possibly discourage a young dog at this stage. Once I let her go, she does go around the sheep, although it’s tight she doesn’t seem to want to dive in. If this is better suited to a video lesson, I understand completely ! I can’t remember if it is addressed in the starting dogs course.
Thank you !
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