04/19/2026
Holding a Line
Kent Kuykendall
Issue 67 – 1999
Most border collies are born with a certain amount of instinct for balancing stock. One way this instinct manifests itself is in the ability of the dog to find the right position (relative to the stock) to bring the sheep to the handler. Balance can be ever changing and holding it well reflects the ability of the dog to read the stock and react to the pressure appropriately in order to accomplish the task at hand. In many instances the task will require that a dog have the ability to take sheep in a straight line. Practically speaking, if you’re taking stock somewhere at home, they will generally get there quicker with less stress if the dog brings them in as direct of a path as possible. Likewise, in competition at a dog trial, you’ll lose less points and save more time if the dog can take the sheep in a straight line.
If the dog doesn’t or hasn’t been taught to hold a straight line, it won’t hold this pressure correctly. This will result in fetching or driving the sheep in either a zigzag pattern or a curved path. Or worst of all, it may result in stock getting away from the dog all together. There are several ways dogs can misread or avoid holding correct pressure to keep the sheep on a straight line. Some dogs will try to slide around to the heads of the sheep, turning the lead sheep off the line slightly. Sliding is common on the drive, particularly when a dog first starts out driving and wants to get to the heads of the stock and bring them back instead of drive them away. Another way dogs can avoid staying on the correct pressure to move the stock straight is called flicking. Flicking is when the dog comes off the pressure at the sheep’s heads and goes to the rear end of the sheep instead, pushing the sheep from behind where there is less pressure and the sheep are easier to move. When a dog flicks off the pressure, however, the sheep will sq**rt even further off line. This will require the dog to go to the heads and “catch” the sheep again, sometimes setting up a zigzag pattern that is very difficult to straighten out.
Some dogs are born with a lot of ability to read pressure from sheep and have the desire to continually seek that pressure point, or point of balance, that will keep the stock straight. Most dogs, however, need at least some development and experience to learn to do this consistently with different types of sheep. In teaching or strengthening the dog’s ability to hold a straight line, the trainer should try to make the dog hold pressure appropriately to move the sheep straight. Many people start a dog out by having the dog wear or fetch the sheep to them in figure eights, circles or other curved lines. On a curved line, the dog is always letting the sheep slip out to one side or the other instead of holding pressure so the sheep are fetched on a straight line to the handler. You can reinforce a straight line when wearing sheep in a figure eight pattern if you square off all your turns and go straight the rest of the time instead of staying on a curve.
The same principle goes for driving. Some people practice by driving the sheep in a circle. I drive them in a square, and flank to change the line. If you drive in a circle, the dog’s not really holding pressure, it’s just following sheep in a circle with the pressure on the sheep’s shoulder. When you begin driving with a dog you should be trying to teach the dog to drive sheep by holding a straight line instead of sneaking around to the outside to the head so they can bring you the sheep. If you let them drive on a curved line you are actually allowing the dog to do what you don’t want them to do in the drive, which is to keep sliding around to the outside to the heads of the sheep. Only instead of going all the way around, they’re getting held so they’re always letting the sheep slip off to one side as they drive around the circle. The dog doesn’t learn to hold a straight line by staying on proper balance this way. When you start a dog driving, if it’s not taught to hold lines when it’s first taught to drive, when the sheep bend in a certain direction, the dog will slightly follow them there, letting them slip, instead of immediately flanking to the correct pressure point to hold the original line.
In teaching a dog to drive in a straight line, I like to start the dog driving directly away from me first. If it takes longer to do it that way, I do it anyway, because it’s got to learn to drive straight away and I don’t want it looking at me. If you start dogs cross driving first, it’ll end up looking at you out of the corner of their eye, and when it can’t see you, it’ll try to slide into a cross drive.
No matter if your goal is to have a trial dog or a farm dog, when training one should keep in mind what you’re letting your dog learn when you do certain training exercises. As yourself “Is this really OK, or is it something that will cause problems if I do it too much?” Teaching a dog to work primarily in straight lines rather than in circles or curved patters will contribute to your goal of having a dog that will know how to hold pressure correctly when moving stock.
