Leadership

And yet some more thoughts on Mark Rashid's book.

Quote:
"It dawned on me pretty quickly why I hadn't seen much of thie behavior from a horse in the past. In the background I came from, we used our horses to do a job, whether that job was gathering and working cattle and horses, guiding trailer rides, giving riding lessons, packing and outfitting, or any number of other very specific tasks, where the horse and rider needed to work together for a common goal. Whatever the job, the riding we did was always done with a purpose, giving the horse the direction it needed to get the job done.
This particular rider didn't seem to be giving his horse much direction at all. He got him headed in the general direction he wanted to go, then just sort of stopped riding and let the horse wander. While the rider sat, pretty much just staring at the back of the horse's head, the horse himself seemed totally uninterested in what was going on and barely put one foot in front of the other as the two of them meandered aimlessly across the arena and back."

We need to give our animals some direction and not just assume that they know what we want them to do. I remember Carol C. telling me this once at a trial where I was running Jag. She told me that I was leaving him alone at the top too much, that I needed to take control of the reins. She also told me to be more proactive instead of reactive. That is something that is difficult for me to do. I still continue to work on this.

Quote:

"Even though I would come across this particular issue with horses and riders on numerous occasions, what I didn't know at the time was in nearly each case the issue seemed to stem from the same origins: one of three, or a combination of all three, separate but very distinct miscommunications between the person and the horse.
Put simply, what these three miscommunications boil down to is the rider not presenting the horse with enough information for it to properly perform whatever task is being asked of it. In other words, the rider or handler doesn't supply the horse with the speed, direction and/or destination for what they are doing or doing to do."

Once again, we need to give our dogs enough information to help them learn to do what we ask of them.

In reference to Carol telling me to be more proactive and not reactive I can use another quote, "An ounce of prevention instead of having to use a pound of cure."

Quote:
"The horse is expected to do wonderful things for us, but we often don't get involved enough to help bring those wonderful things out. We give a cue or aid and then we sit back and wait for the magic to happen. As a result, we tend to leave gaps, and sometimes evening gaping holes, in our communication, and that causes the horse to have to make decisions without us."

And yet another quote:
"Getting involved in our horse's training is easy. Heck, we get involved as soon as we put the halter on. Staying involved...not that's another story. As I mentioned, most of the problems we see boil down to simple miscommunication between the horse and rider. And the vast majority of those miscommunications often boils down to the rider not giving the horse the direction that it needs to perform the task properly, or inadvertently taking a little mental break while the horse is still working."

We need to keep ourselves focused on what we are doing with our dogs in training. We don't want to lose our focus and not be there to help our dogs and to guide them in what we want them to do. We don't want to drop the ball.

I have watched one of my dogs while holding sheep off of the feeders while I fill them, start doing the job just fine as she knows what is expected of her. But if the sheep move very far from where she was holding them, I can see her floundering as she needs direction(help) in what she needs to do to complete the job for me. If I leave her be you can see her get really hesitant and look almost lost, as soon as I give her a command, you can see her relax, the tension go out of her body, as she goes okay, that is what you want me to do.

Just some more food for thought.