Friday afternoon, I took Fate out alone, left Red in the house, he was tired. I set myself – training should be happy and relaxed, although I am not always either when training a young border collie.  I want to focus on Fate paying more attention to the sheep, less to me and Red. I wait until she is looking at the sheep before giving her a command, this will reinforce her focus, which is generally very good.

I took a video of this training work. I like Fate’s manner a lot. She is responsive, paying close attention to me. She is appropriate, moving to keep the sheep together, but never rushing them or charging at them. She is young, so has not yet developed a strong eye or the authority to move them.

Zelda and Susie keep trying to push her back, they are teaching her to stay out, which is good. I am trying to do the same thing.

Training for me is about one thing at a time. I stop, take a deep breath, make sure I am calm,  relaxed, that I have a clear training goal in mind. In this case, it was to reinforce looking at the sheep, and also walking up slowly to them. She has made amazing progress in just a couple of months, she is teaching me a lot.

I made few mistakes today, my commands were short, clear and focused. She understood each one of them. I didn’t use too many words. Hope you enjoy it, am liking taking the videos.