Walk Up
I've been working on Rory learning her Walk Up command. Some people say it's really early for her to be learning this, but it seems like a good time? So far for herding we're working on Walk Up, Away to Me, Go Bye, Lie Down, There, and Out. I also need to decide if I want to call a less-than-warp-speed-but-faster-than-a-Walk-Up approach Steady or Easy. I seem to be using both which may muddle things.
With Rory I may have to put biting on cue pretty quickly, too. When she dives in (usually behind me at 5-7 o'clock where I can't see her as easily), I need to help her understand she's being corrected for diving in rather than being corrected for biting. Or how to tell her that Out means move away from the stock rather than Drop that disgusting chunk of wool you have in your mouth. :-) I'm more worried about losing her bite than I am about her damaging the stock. My Malinois Lucy would have only been too happy to take down a sheep or goat and eat it. Rory likes to bite them, but she doesn't have the same type of predatory drive that Lucy did so it is a very different type of bite.
Anyway, back to Walk Up. This seems to be closely paired with Lie Down as one tends to ask the dog to Lie Down if they start going a bit faster than a walk. As noted in an earlier post, one of Rory's weaknesses is that she believes she needs to face me when I tell her to do something. We've been working on that. I've asked her to Walk Up on her food bowl. Well, she's kind of confused on the whole walking thing means. Should it be toward me, which is comfortable for her? Should it be walking parallel to me as I walk? Why am I behind her and asking her to walk when this is uncomfortable for her. Much easier to walk toward me so she can see my face and judge my reactions to what she's doing that way. So with walking up to the food bowl, she was a bit hesitant to walk and turned toward me when I asked her to lie down. Last night I asked my friend Penny to help. Penny is high on Rory's list of favorite people, and she was "armed" with great treats and a tuggy. Also, Rory hadn't seen Penny for a few weeks. I put Rory on leash for this and started asking for a Walk Up toward Penny who was waving treats and toy. Rory was still not quite sure what I wanted, but she figured out that Penny was a good thing. She started getting the hang of going toward Penny, enough to where we had to make sure she didn't get the idea that Walk means Run. I also got some of the straightest pointing-away-from-me downs I've ever gotten from Rory. This was a pretty successful lesson, I think.
This morning Rory got to Walk Up to her food bowl again. The behavior wasn't quite as strong as with Penny, but she still showed improvement over previous sashays to the food bowl. We'll try this again!