I’ve been trying different things. It LOOKS like what works best for Raven is to just freeze – not say anything, not look at her, no extra commands or signals – give her zero feedback. Did that one time this weekend where she was doing it at a tunnel – she stopped and looked at me, totally baffled for a second, then a light bulb went on and she turned around and did the darned tunnel! THEN she got a “YES!!!” I probably should have quit there, but since they were on the way to the exit we did the last 3 jumps (not perfectly but much smoother than the first part of the course) followed by lots and lots of treats.

FWIW, Raven seems to do it when she’s frustrated, overexcited, or both. Even though her tail’s up I think there’s an element of stress, so I’m reluctant to remove her from a course for doing it (which would reinforce it as a way for her to avoid a stressful situation), though I may start removing her early to have a big party WHEN she works through it, like at that tunnel.

You definitely have my sympathy – Rave’s the first one of my shelties that’s ever done this and it drives me nutz!!!

Good luck, and tell Zeeba “Mommy is NOT your sheep!”