He's not "Farty Pants" Anymore

August 2008. Bond had been mine for almost 3 weeks making him 11 weeks old. I had already dubbed him ‘Farty Pants’. He was as cute as a button and was really rolling with his new life living in a van. For all he knew he DID live in a van.

We were at the Grass Creek Sheepdog trial and there is always a puppy demonstration as part of the attractions at this wonderful trial. Most of the puppies in this demonstration are a little bit older than Bond was then. Most of the puppies had at least seen sheep before. I was curious about the degree of instinct Bond might have at that age, so I decided to give him a go on sheep in this demonstration. I had no idea what to expect from him. Would he just wander around and sniff? Would he bite them? Would he bark? Would he go around them? I took him into the pen and with some encouragement from me, he noticed the sheep and was off. No barking, no tail flying in the air, just a little puppy keen to catch the sheep. The second day at the demo was even more fun. Bond actually went around the sheep once. Only a minute or so and I knew he was keen to work sheep. Bond was the star of the show. I suppose that cute little black face and his tiny legs propelling him toward the sheep as fast as they could go, made him look that much cuter.

I put him away for the remainder of the summer . Let him grow up some more. Mature and be ready to actually learn. Late fall rolls around. Bond was about 6 months old and I thought I’d give him a try to see what he was like. He was barking and biting and chasing. I caught him and put him up for another month. Try again, same result although it looked a little more like a football game - there was tackling involved. My instinct told me he was ready to take a bit of pressure from me in order to stop this. I decided I would go to Virginia, back to Bond’s birthplace, and get the advice of Craig.

We put Bond in the round pen, saw the silliness and Craig instructed me, then showed me how to put an end to that. A little bit of pressure, some guidance on how to do it right and Bond was going around the sheep as nice as the nicest 8 month old pups. I had to do a double take a couple of times to make sure that was actually my little farty pants looking like a real sheepdog.

I have worked him a couple more times on sheep, each time we get better at going around them, changing directions and stopping. With Bond, I decided to dust of Vergil Holland's book "Herding Dogs. Progressive Training" and follow the steps there, at least as well as I am able to comprehend what Vergil is trying to communicate.

Quoting Vergil's book:
"... Start these next lessons with the dog circling the stock. You will try to change the direction of the circle after you dog has gone around two or three times in one direction. At this point, it is very important to get the dog to start working on you, holding the sheep to the handler, rather than all of your directions being focused on keeping the dog away from them. In order to do this, keep the sheep between you and the dog. You should gradually begin to stop the dog more frequently, remembering to ask her to drop only when on balance. You will ask your dog to circle most often in her non-preferred or uncomfortable direction. "

So Bond and I are circling and circling and stopping. Once I feel that Bond is comfortable going around both directions I will start working on getting him to walk up a couple of steps.

Bond looks like a proper dog now. I can't call him Farty Pants anymore.