We all have a comfort zone, as do our dogs. A place or a limit where we feel comfortable and don’t want to venture out of.
For ourselves, we make decisions about what we want to do, but maybe we limit our progress because we fear failure and criticism
Of course, some people are fine where they are. However, by taking a few small steps forward to start, we can slowly get out of that comfort zone.
Perhaps a longer than usual drive, a speech in front of a small crowd, speaking up for something we feel passionate about, and trying something new even if we fail. Although I dislike the word fail, not failing means we haven't tried.
What we deem as failure may be something amazing for some other person. We should celebrate our achievements, no matter how small and how insignificant others might think they are. Our feelings are what matter most.
With trialling, just getting out on the trial ground can be a major achievement for some, and can take some time to work up the courage take that step. As we get more comfortable, and start to make progress, we can then celebrate when we gain our first score or our first pen.
In this way we stretch ourselves further and further, leaving our comfort zone a little at a time.
There is always the risk of getting out of our depth occasionally, but this is part of learning and growing
It is the same with our kids. If we never allowed them new experiences they would struggle in this world. Some experiences can be alarming, some enlightening, but all helpful.
It can be easier for us to just keep those dogs where they are comfortable and nothing worries them, but life can be tough and we all need to learn to cope with strange situations.
Dogs are fairly adaptable, but we need to read the situation and never throw them in at the deep end without our support.
I start almost all dogs in a round yard. This is so I can safely assess dog and handler in a controlled environment, and deal with any early issues. Plus the handler is close by and we can work through some steps where they can hear clearly and dont have to worry about the sheep or dog getting out of control.
Once they are settled and balancing up well, I move them to a larger yard, usually after only a few goes. Spending more time than that in the round yard is of no benefit. Allowing the dog to stay in the round yard too long can cause all sorts of problems later on. Dogs that wont come off the head, dogs that dont know how to take sheep in a straight line, dogs that simply haven’t learnt how to work any other way other than going around in circles. They never experience all the different situations that can arise from doing stock work and basically they never progress. And neither do the handlers.
If we have tricky issues to fix or we want to cement commands, we will return to the round yard.
As soon as things are going well in a larger area and they have mastered the recall, and have good control, we will move to a small paddock.
Moving to a bigger area usually worries the handler more then the dog. Everything is much the same but bigger and more spread out. Sometimes the dog panics a little if the sheep get too far away, so its important to keep him in contact with the sheep so he feels in control. Sometimes the dog and handler are not quite ready so we go back a step. But not for too long. We have to bite the bullet and get out of the comfort zone.
Its the same when doing farm work with a young dog. If we have a job to do on the farm its probably easier to get an experienced dog but we have to bite the bullet and put our trust in the young one. It may be stressful and take twice as long but it is essential that we do it.
Some people dont trust the dog, panicking and yelling when things get a bit fast or the sheep run. Trying to stop the dog while the sheep are running will only teach him to lose faith in you. Trust him and let him work it out. If there is a bit of a train wreck we have all learnt something.
The worst that can happen is that the dog splits the sheep, puts one over the fence, or wont come back. This happens to all of us at some point, its almost always fixable and the dog needs to know this is what sheep do, we cannot keep things neatly controlled all the time, this is unrealistic.
By allowing different situations to happen, we get ourselves and our dog out of the comfort zone and realize its not the end of the earth, and we also learn to put more trust in our dog.
