For a couple of years now I have done some contract work during harvest time. I operated a combine for a rather big outfit. We would normally take two months to harvest more or less 3000ha. The machine I worked on was a 2388 Case International. It was very advanced hi-tech machine. It had a harvesting capacity of about 20 - 25 tons per hour. This specific combine also has a leveling system called a hill-co set. This enabled the machine to stay level even on the steepest hills. It had an air conditioned cab with a very impressive computer.

However this past season things were a bit different. I worked on a 25 year old 80/50 Clayson machine - . This machine’s capacity is about 3-5 tons per hour. No air conditioning or yield monitor to tell you what the moisture is or what the yield per hectare is.

Now you must be thinking what on earth has this to do with sheepdogs. After many hours combining I realized something. The basics of this old machine are exactly the same as the new and advanced Case I used to drive. There were some principles that could not be changed in 25 years, and not even with the advance in technology.

This got me thinking, as the one thing you have when operating a combine is time to think. What it is the most important thing in training your dog? Basics.
Everything comes back to this. Just about every person I have helped over the years with his or her dog had problems rooted in the basics.

Now the question can be asked, “What are basics?” So many times I have heard people talk about good flanks , pacing , singling or swallow tail look backs. All these things are very popular topics and hours can be spent discussing them, but it is not possible to execute any of these actions correctly if your dog does not have good basic training.

The two aspects of basic training I want to talk about are balancing and stopping.
Some dogs have a lot of natural balance and some don’t. For me the term balance means the following. The dogs’ ability to keep sheep together and bring them straight to his handler. This means that the dog must always keep the handler in mind and try to read its sheep.

With those dogs that do not have natural balance you will have to work harder to teach them to balance properly. When I talk about good balance I am talking about the dog that can cover his sheep as he goes around them on the top and not cut in. So he must cover his sheep completely, but he must also be deep enough to come in and lift them properly. I am talking about a dog that will be cautious on the lift to see where the correct balance is.

The problem is we all start out by doing some balancing in the initial training, but as soon as the training progresses we forget all about balancing. As soon as you start training flanks and driving you will have problems with your dogs balance because it works against the natural balance. It is easy to test, next time you go out to train, send your dog and keep quiet. If that dog does not bring the sheep in a straight line to you, something is wrong. But there is more, when the sheep arrive at your feet don’t say a word and see if the dog can keep the sheep at your feet on his own without commands. Nine out of ten trained dogs I have tested this way have failed. Fortunately it is something that can be corrected easily. I never do a training session without doing some balance work, it does not matter how old or experienced the dog is.

At the Soldier Hollow Trial as well as Meeker the sheep were extremely tough on the lift. Something that I have noticed was that the dogs that did not take control of the sheep on the lift had big problems. Some dogs seemed to wait for a command on the lift and did not react immediately when the sheep took off, then it was too late and they had to play catch up the whole time. Others just had the balance wrong and when those crazy sheep leave they go flat out. The dogs that had the correct balance could anticipate the break coming and were ready to counter it before it was too late.

When I train my dogs to lift sheep I make sure that they go wide and deep enough around them. You don’t have to do long out runs for this. As soon as they come in for the lift I will tell the dog to steady and as soon as the sheep move I will really ask him to take it slowly. If it is a really pushy dog I will stop him, but only after the sheep have moved off. By doing this he will get used to seeing the sheep move away from him, most younger dogs go into a little panic when they see the sheep going away from them, often resulting in a chase down the field. You cannot however have a good lift if you dog does not find the correct balance point, so we are back to balancing.

The second aspect of basic training is the ‘’ stop ‘’ command. I’m not going to say too much about this. If you tell your dog to stop he must stop. Good handlers can get away with a dog not stopping completely, just slowing down, but not everyone is so fortunate to have good timing. It comes down to this - make sure your dog stops and that your ‘ lie down’ command and’ steady’ command are two different things. So many times we let the dog get away without stopping completely. This is something that must be fixed in the early stages of training. If your dog is not stopping 20m away from you, how will he stop 200m away?

Next time you go and train, make sure your dog does the basics correctly. This will lay the foundation for more advanced training in the future, and it will certainly give you a lot more satisfaction and an enjoyable time with your dog.