Without clear communication with our dogs...we fail and they do as well.

Outrun | The outrun begins when a herding dog leaves the handler and goes out wide around the stock in order to bring them back to the handler or take them to some other place. If the dog were to run straight at the stock, it push the stock away, so ideally, the dog should run out wide enough to avoid stressing the stock. At the end of its outrun, the dog should be in a position to take all the sheep or cattle to the designated place. 

Flanking / Casting | The dog casting around its cattle or sheep in a circular fashion. The dog should maintain a constant distance from the stock whilst flanking. When commanded, the dog should stop without moving closer to the stock.

Gather | Strictly speaking, a gather is when a dog goes out around the stock and brings them to the handler, but gather is also the term used for much larger operations on vast expanses of ground where several or even many dogs and handlers are sent out to gather stock and take them to a designated place.

Driving | Not to be confused with droving, driving involves the dog working on its own, pushing the sheep or cattle away from the handler, sometimes for considerable distances. It has a great number of uses and although driving has a reputation for being difficult to teach because a dog's natural reaction is to bring the stock to the handler rather than push them away, with patience and an understanding of why the dog finds it difficult, it's not so hard to achieve and will reward the handler many times over.

Droving | Not to be confused with driving (above) droving involves the dog working alongside or close to the handler, pushing the sheep or cattle ahead of them. It's very much simpler to teach the dog to drove, than it is to teach driving, because the dog will be happy to work closely with the handler.

Good Stop | A dog which stops immediately on command, is said to have "a good stop". Unfortunately, in their efforts to achieve a good stop, trainers often undermine the dog's confidence. Rather than trying to get the perfect stop too soon, we prefer to work on it gradually throughout the dog's training. 

Square Flanks | When you command your dog to flank one way or the other, it should turn sharply and move around the stock at the same distance from them as it was when you gave the command. Many dogs insist on moving closer to the stock when commanded to flank. This is a bad habit as can unsettle the stock. A dog with "square flanks" is a joy to work.

Wearing | A dog that is wearing will flank from side to side as it brings or drives the stock. In farm work this can help the dog to bring all of the stock and make sure none are left behind, especially when working a larger herd. In sheepdog trials, it can also be useful if the sheep are stubborn, but it runs the risk of the sheep deviating from their line, thus losing points for the run.

Yard Work / Pushing up | Once the stock are inside a sorting yard or pen, often they will not go through the sorting race unless there is a dog behind them, pushing them through. Once dogs become confident in a yard, they can become highly skilled at it, and a good dog will only use just enough force to get the stock through the race without undue stress. 

Grip / Gripping / Biting | In cattle work, it's often essential for the dog to nip the heels of the stock to get them to move in the required direction. As with the good stop (above) especially with stockdogs, many handlers try to completely eliminate any gripping. This can have a severely detrimental effect on the dog's confidence. We prefer to put a command on the grip. We then discourage the dog from gripping unless we command it to. In our experience, dogs trained this way have far more confidence than dogs which have been totally forbidden to grip. With cattle…if you can’t control the head…you can’t control the cow and must have a clean and impactful grip to move cattle efficiently.

COMMANDS

Come-Bye | Move around (circle) the stock in a clockwise direction (unfortunately, in a minority of areas it's the opposite way)! C is for Come-Bye - Clockwise. From facing the stock, the dog should turn squarely and keep at a constant distance from the stock as it casts or flanks around them. 

Away / Away to Me | Move around (circle) the stock in an anti-clockwise direction (unfortunately, in some areas it's the opposite way)! A is for Away - Anti-clockwise. From facing the stock, the dog should turn squarely and keep at a constant distance from the stock as it casts or flanks around them.
 
Lie Down / Stand / Stop | It can mean stop, or sometimes just slow down! With time and experience, the dog will learn that a sharp command means the handler wants it to stop immediately, but when the command is soft it should just check its speed to allow the sheep or cattle to go further ahead. More confusing still, some handlers want the dog to lie on the floor when it stops, while others prefer the dog to stay on its feet.

Get Back / Get Out | The dog is working too close and likely to cause stress to the stock. The command is used to send the dog further out to give the animals more room. 

In Here | Used during shedding or separating some animals (usually sheep) away from the main group. When a gap has been created between the stock, the handler uses "in here" to command the dog to move from its position on the opposite side of the stock, through the gap to separate them. The dog will then be expected to keep the separated animals away from the others, and take them away.

Look Back | The dog must leave the stock it's working, and turn around to look for more stock. Regarded by many as advanced, this under-rated command is extremely useful for teaching a trainee dog to go back and collect some animals it's left behind. The dog will soon learn that it's easier to bring all the sheep or cattle at the first attempt, rather than have to go back a second time.

Steady | The dog should slow down - usually used to put more distance between dog and stock when the dog's eagerness is likely to panic or stress the stock.

There | Used by some handlers to tell the dog it has completed the required flanking maneuver (circling or casting) and should turn squarely back towards the stock. .

Walk Up / Walk On / Get up | These commands require the dog to move straight towards the stock in a calm, steady fashion without spooking or stressing them. 

That'll do | The dog must stop what it's doing and return directly to the handler. This command can be a great help when training a dog to drive. As the dog veers off line because it desperately wants to fetch the stock back to you, the dog is effectively getting farther and farther away from you. The dog's far more likely to obey the "That'll Do" command than a flanking command to bring it back towards you, so we use "That'll do" as a sort of "cheat card" to bring the dog closer, and therefore into a driving position behind the stock.

Herding or Sheepdog Trial Sections

Outrun | Standing at "the post", the handler sends the dog to collect the sheep and start the run. The dog should go out in a pear shaped run, getting wider as it approaches the sheep. Towards the end of the outrun, the dog should move in behind the sheep, close enough to gain control, but leaving enough room to avoid disturbing them. In a trial the handler will choose the direction for the outrun. 

Lift | At the end of its outrun, the dog should be behind the sheep on the "Point of balance". The lift is when the sheep begin to move under the influence of the dog. It should be controlled and orderly.

Point of Balance | When the dog stops at the end of its outrun, it should be on the point of balance. This is not necessarily directly behind the sheep. The point of balance is where the dog needs to be to keep the sheep in place prior to moving them towards the handler at the lift.

Fetch | The dog brings the sheep down the course towards the handler, making sure all the sheep pass through the fetch gates. If one or more sheep fail go go through the gates, no retry is allowed, and the sheep must not pass back through the gates. The sheep must pass behind the handler at the post, and they are driven towards some more gates. As the sheep reach a point directly behind the post, the drive section of the trial begins. 

Drive | Having completed the fetch and driven the sheep around behind the handler in the direction dictated by the course director or judge, the dog then drives the sheep away from the handler to the first drive gates. 

Crossdrive | After negotiating the first drive gates, the sheep are driven across the course to the second drive gates. The cross drive must be as straight and orderly as possible. Once again, no retries are allowed at any of the gates.

Shed / Shedding | After passing through the second drive gates, the sheep are turned towards the shedding ring where dog and handler sort out and separate a specified number of sheep. The handler shouldn't leave the post until all the sheep are inside the shedding ring (about 40 yards in diameter). Until shedding is completed the sheep must stay within the ring, or points will be lost. Often, but not always, the judge will signal to the handler that the shed has been accepted, and the sheep must then be taken to the pen.

Pen / Penning | The pen is a part of the sheepdog trials course where the sheep are driven into a small enclosure (sometimes the pen is a stock trailer but more usually it's a fenced enclosure with a gate). The handler holds the rope to the pen gate and must continue to hold it until the sheep are penned and the gate is closed. The handler is not allowed to touch the sheep or push them in to the pen using the gate. 

Single / Singling | Singling is similar to shedding - but more difficult! At open trials, once penning is completed a single sheep may be required to be separated from the main group and driven away. This operation is carried out in the shedding ring, and the sheep must not leave the ring until one has been singled off.

Double Gather | At some of the bigger open trials, the dog must collect a group of sheep and bring them to a specified point. The dog is then commanded to go to another location on the trials course to collect a second group and bring them to join the first batch before continuing around the course.

Look Back | The designated point at a double gather where the dog must abandon the sheep currently under its control and turn around to look for more sheep. An advanced "look back" can be done in such a way as to indicate to the dog which direction the new sheep lie in.

Description of Dogs

Started Dog | A dog which has been taught the very basics of stock work. A started dog will usually run reliably around stock (rather than splitting them up) if sent to them from a short distance away. The started dog can be stopped (sometimes with a little difficulty) and taken away from the stock. 

Partly trained Dog | A partly trained dog is more skilled than a started dog. Usually reliably working around sheep from a short to medium outrun (rather than splitting them up) and stopping reasonably well on command. The partly trained dog will not usually have experience of penning, shedding, pushing stock up or through a handling area, but it will be a useful dog, and should learn more skills quite quickly. 

Fully trained Dog | There is no such thing as a fully trained dog. Even the world champion trials dog will have room for improvement at some skills and will be learning all the time. We have yet to find a dog which is fully skilled in every aspect of stock work (for instance, good cattle dogs can often be much too aggressive with sheep) but of course, there are a great number that are highly skilled in a good number of tasks. Every shepherd and every farmer has different requirements of a dog, so it's unwise to describe a dog as fully trained. 

Powerful Dog / Strong Dog | A powerful or strong dog is a confident dog. One which works in a relaxed way and which commands instant respect from the stock. It will stand no nonsense. If they stop, it will just keep coming towards them in such a confident manner, the animals will continue on their way. The dog's attitude and body language makes it clear to the stock that they have no choice. 

Weak Dog | A dog that's commonly called "weak" is simply a dog that has little confidence around stock. It may be extremely obedient and work well with light or co-operative animals but when faced with a difficult situation a dog has little confidence will either stop and stare, slash bite, drive-by biting, or even turn away from the stock altogether. Stock can interpret weakness in a dog surprisingly quickly and will take advantage of it. It is therefore of paramount importance to avoid putting a young dog in a position where it might be challenged or (even worse) attacked by stock.

Eye | A good sheepdog needs what's known as "eye". This is a kind of powerful glare the dog can fix on sheep to make them move in the direction the handler wants. 

Too Much Eye | Farmers and shepherds say a dog has "too much eye" if it appears to become entranced - standing rooted to the spot, glaring at the stock and ignoring all commands. In fact, this is another symptom of the dog lacking confidence. The dog can be trained out of this habit, particularly if it's young.