Malcontent

Malcolm is prepping for C course. I'm pushing it I know, but I'm not. I'm keeping him under threshold, trying to only ask for as much drive as he can handle, since I know there's more available to me later. I'm defining threshold as keeping him mentally at the point at which he can still make decisions, and can still take input from me. Not franticaly running, not throwing attitude, no barking, just earnest work and desire to figure out what I want. Hard place to stay for a busy guy like him, but this is a work in progress that I've been really paying attention to from early on. The boundary really helps him - he knows he can rush at the sheep and scare them back into the boundary, but it is obvious that he then uses the boundary to put himself back into work mode, no matter how exciting the disciplining the sheep was. His sire, Brick? Got pushed into his chore job early due to Pow's stroke, and didn't have all the self control work to fall back on. End result is a dog that is over threshold a lot of the time, grips and hangs on, and has a hard time applying power cleanly and focused. I made that. Ah well. Learned my lesson. I don't want that with Malcolm, who has so much potential.

Malcolm is also subject to getting himself into situations, where his drive leads him to do things that he later thinks better of. Here's an example:He got into the chicken coop to get closer to the chickens, realized that there wasn't really a job to do (no boundary, how do I keep them in when I'm inside the boundary too?!), and then couldn't figure out how to get himself out. And dad, Brick, explaning to him the trouble he's in when I find out.
Really though, I just took him out, fixed the hole, and chalked it up to desire to work. No big correction - I want him to look to me when he needs help for support when he can't figure out what to do.