The Round Pen

When introducing your dog to sheep, there are many important exercises you can undertake inside and outside of the Round Pen. Training for flanking, stopping your dog and teaching whistle commands begins here. “The Pressure on/off” technique and the “Reverse Square Flank” offer new alternatives to all trainers.

Most of my fine-tuning for trials with my older dogs takes place around the Round Pen, as it’s so much easier to recreate problems and to quickly address them. There is also a health benefit to the Round Pen when working with dogs that are coming back from injury. Dogs can be run evenly between the sides so that the impact on their muscle groups is evenly spread. One of my favourite uses of the Round Pen is to practice driving both inside and outside.

If you have sheep both inside and outside the pen, and you are working from a distance, dogs of all ages can get very confused as to the commands you are giving and this can help to make the dogs more pliable.

Duration: 18:32 secs