Shedding

  I went up to the arena today to give lessons.  Kathy worked her young pup(nice job)and Ben (he did very well). I was going to work both dogs, but I started on Dare and never got to Dually.  Dare and I started working on his Down. I sent him for the ducks and asked for the down at balance. He went by balance and came in 5-6 steps and then downed consistently. So I tried going to him and taking him back to where I asked him for the down over and over again and got no difference. So  then I tried asking for the down earlier than balance and he came in on balance and downed after 2-3 steps. But that is not what I want even though it was better. So then I took the rattle paddle and rattled it at him on balance and got a much better down, but by this time he had been working hard for quite some time so who knows if he was getting tired or what.
    I put him away and brought him out later to work on shedding with all 10 ducks.  There is an AKC trial in May which will have course B ducks and I might want to enter and he would have to do a shed at the ADV level.  So I got him to balance the ducks to me and settle them and then I went in and split them and tried to call him thru the hole. It wasn't too bad, but boy he wasn't happy.  Next time I will try it more against a fence because as I called him thru they went around behind  me and joined their buddies. I didn't like that.  I am not going to even attempt trying to keep them separate yet.  His brain would explode.