Finnie
Herd Master
- Joined
- May 6, 2017
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Does your vet allow you to text photos? He might like to see that, and then advise.
Don't wait for him to jump on you before doing the hard knee to the gut since you are not expecting it and cannot brace yourself. Instead coax him to jump on you. Sounds counterproductive, but it isn't. Talk excited baby talk, call his name, pat your chest, call him to you and brace yourself for when he runs up all happy and jumps up on you. Step into his leap and really knee him hard in the gut. He needs to make a strong "OOF" sound. If you can knock him over even better. Tell him "NO" in an angry tone as you do this. Then when he comes up with all 4 feet on the ground bend over and tell him how good he is. Keep doing this until he realizes that he gets knocked down when he jumps. As soon as he runs up and stays on the ground fuss over him big time. You can also enforce the "sit" command when working on the jumping by making hm sit to be petted. I don't use the "down" command for anything except lay down. I use the "off" command but whatever you want to use, it has to be consistent. You can't teach him to lay down with the "down" command and also use it as a warning not to jump on you. It will confuse him.First in my mind is him jumping on you. Knee him in the chest, HARD. Like back flip HARD.
I would take him into the small night pen with the sheep and see how he interacts with them. If he doesn't try to play with them in the small pen, you can try in the large pen again. The long training lead is only used after the dog is responding to commands on the short training lead. Remember also that he needs to recognize his sheep by scent as well as sight. Allow him to go up and smell each one. They need to smell and identify him as a member of the flock instead of as a predator.With a shorter lead, it may give you a little more control.