Shelties circle a lot

Sheep herding breeds (Shelties, Aussies, German Shepherds, etc) really understand the value of a circle. Moving in a circle is something that has been bred into them pretty strongly.

I'm noticing that E likes to trot in a circle while he checks things out, while he thinks. I went home at lunch to put the dogs in. They were all sleeping by the gate, and E was in his crate (door open, also near the gate). They all jumped up to greet me, and E was happy and barking and was clearly greeting me. I went to the back yard to encourage everyone to eliminate. I sat on the patio and all my dogs came up to get pats and scratches and E circled the picnic table 5 feet away, assessing the situation, wanting to get near but not wanting to at the same time.

Once the other dogs stepped away from me, he came up and sniffed my back and hair, and stopped about 3 feet to my side. He let me reach out and scratch his chest. He stepped away again, circled the table a bit, and came back again. This time I encouraged him to come closer, he did, and he asked for more when I stopped scratching him. I pulled him into my lap which made him very happy.

We went into the house. I confined my dogs so I could train E. He was not on leash. As long as he was off leash, he trotted around, not coming too close, acting nervous toward me again. I was clicking and treating for eye contact but as long as he had this circling thing going on, the eye contact was too fleeting and I felt like I wanted to break this pattern. I got some good treats, lured him to me, and put the leash on him. I was sitting on the carpet. He layed down (C/T) and started giving me amazing eye contact. We're up to 5 seconds of sustained focused eye contact. Excellent.

So what I learned is that this is still a new situation, which makes him need the leash to be able to settle down and focus. Once that leash is on him, he's attentive. We'll take advantage of that during his sessions.