15/09/2025
This is a good read and spot on.
Confidence is all you have: Be aware of Your Dog’s Mind
I’ve been thinking a lot about stockdogs and the confidence with which they go about their work. After sitting and watching about 30 hours straight of dog work at the Meeker Classic sheepdog trial, it was very obvious to me how the top handlers value this trait, and even how it’s been honed and refined in the top dogs. It is a beautiful thing to watch. Anyone who wants to be good at dogwork absolutely knows how precious confidence is. The dogs don’t stay constant in this trait - you’re either building confidence (in themselves, and in you) or you’re losing it.
It isn’t something that we, as handlers, have the luxury of ignoring if we want to be good as trainers. I view all handlers as trainers, even those who don’t think of themselves that way because any time you’re interacting with a dog, you’re training. It doesnt matter to me so much if the dog is “fully trained” or not - no one is exempt. Confidence in dogs has a huge genetic component…but I’ve seen even the most confident dog lose some confidence when someone who is running them puts them in a bad spot, or consistently makes their job harder. Conversely, I’ve had the privilege of watching some dogs who aren’t really naturally confident blossom in the hands of a master trainer who shows them how to interact with sheep in a way where they feel they are always winning, and sheep move easier when they take direction from the person they trust. Trust and confidence is built this way.
So what happens for the rest of us if we aren’t “Master Trainers” yet? Does that mean we’re doomed to always lower our dog’s confidence every time we handle them? Not necessarily - but we do need to become more aware of this aspect of training and have it in the back of our minds, so that, even if we don’t know what to do about it at that exact moment, we can think on it and work out what to change, or have enough awareness to get help. A big milestone is knowing when to quit so that you can figure something out - sometimes stubbornly bulling through something can actually cause more harm than good, even if you “get to a good place to stop”.
Dogs show that their confidence is lessening in a variety of ways. One of the main ones is slowing down on flanks, becoming too methodical, avoiding the pressure, or looking at you. Others actually become more frenetic and faster, begin to dive in at the sheep, or ignore you. Dogs can be trying to tell you you’re putting too much pressure on, or correcting too much if you see them hesitating before doing something that they have previously learned, that should be easy, or waiting for you to tell them everything to do. Sometimes it looks like they are worrying about being wrong. If you see these warning signs in a training session, you had better take a good look at what you’re asking from the dog day to day and whether you’re happy with how the dog is developing mentally. Changes like this start out small but turn into big problems down the road, so recognition of the small signs and changing your strategy can pay big in your dog’s development.
This lessening of confidence, if not acknowledged and addressed, can begin to trickle over into the dog’s confidence when being faced with harder stock. It takes a huge amount of confidence for a dog to go out and find sheep, and stay mentally sharp enough to listen to a handler about where to move, especially if the sheep are very challenging like at Meeker. Even a slight lapse in confidence can mean the difference between getting through a course and having the sheep run off the field. The top handlers have built up reserves of resilience in their dogs through carefully nurturing their dog’s trust in them - from the time the dog is very young, the good handlers have made sure their dogs feel like they are always winning. This means they need to balance their corrections and letting the dog work. It’s delicate- and the better you are at it, the less you’ll actually need to correct. If you find yourself giving more and more corrections, your strategy needs a second look, because even the most naturally confident, drivey, and even hard headed dogs will start to show symptoms of confidence loss, the more corrections you have to give. You may not see it at home with the keen ones but take the dog to a trial and they will hesitate at a pivotal moment and you’ll be left thinking “what was that?”
Sometimes all it takes is an awareness of if you are taking the sheep away too much, or if you’re letting the dog have them too much. If you think in terms of letting the dog have sheep, or not letting them have sheep, instead of thinking of pressure and release, you will understand things more from the dog’s perspective.
Letting the dog have sheep builds confidence. Some ways we can let the dog have sheep are:
Giving fewer commands
OR
Giving more commands for a dog who may need support in a situation and wants your help (for example, a soft dog trying to move a big group of sheep who doesn’t know it needs to move to the sheep who are lagging a little)
Letting the dog balance
Allowing the dog to drive sheep even if they aren’t going exactly where we intend
Allowing the dog to come forward into the bubble (whether we intend it to or not - this works the other way as well if we are inadvertently letting the dog come in on a flank, giving it the sheep when we should be taking them away)
Letting the dog outrun without widening it out
Allowing a dog to balance sheep along a fence or work a single.
CONVERSELY:
Taking sheep away from the dog, if done excessively or without tact, can lessen a dog’s confidence. Some ways we take sheep away that cause lowered confidence are:
Giving too many corrections - the dog can never be “right” because we keep moving the line of perfection (even if it improves a little, now we want more).
Stepping in to push the dog back on purpose without regard for when the correction is enough (ie continuing to push them back too far when the dog has already given to you)
Only working on things the dog finds challenging every day or every training session without doing anything enjoyable
Stopping the dog all the time, especially while driving
Working only on obstacles and precision every time you work the dog (thus having to stop, stop, stop them)
Widening the dog on its outrun, when done excessively and without times where the dog is allowed to just go to balance to see where they’re at
Pushing the dog off of contact on its flanks (inadvertently or on purpose)
Working the dog on lots of pace without asking the dog to speed up too (gears are your friend, pace is not). Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, dang it!!! Don’t fall into this trap if you want to have a dog left at 10 years old.
Of course we need to take sheep away and we need to give them back but training for confidence will change the way you approach your dogwork. In the end, when you send your dog down the field or up the hill to do their work, confidence is really all you have and the results of your training strategy will show. Have you taken care of the dog’s mind?
