So no video in this post as I don’t have the wire available to upload it, but that’s okay. We’re going to have another lesson tomorrow and I’ll probably have a nice, succinct video to show you all.
We started Rippa in the round pen first to see if she still had good control over herself and if my handling was okay. She was a righteous obnoxo puppy outside the pen – she was “whistling” (what Yishai likes to call whining) the whole way to Kathy’s so I think she knows what’s up now when we drive that direction . We wandered over to the duck pen, where a cattleman’s BC was in there with Kathy getting a lesson and Rippa was like, “Screw leash rules! I want ze sheepsies!”
So I had Yishai take her and run her around a bit, but she just kept being annoying, so I worked on her leash work – heeling, down, etc. All slow and pokey. This is one bit about Rippa I don’t love. Fury is very crisp on her commands, she says, “Your way, right away.” Rippa is more like, “This is good enough, now that over there, can I eat it?”
So Kathy suggested that since it had been a bit since she’d been worked (about a month?) we should start her in the round pen. So we went back over to puppy kindergarten and I put her on a down. She surprised me with how remarkably responsible she was IN the pen with the sheep. She had exactly what she wanted, but she was a Good Dog.
We did good things in the round pen, and then it was off to the duck pen after a break.
The duck pen, for reference, is simply a larger rectangle to work in. The round pen is probably fifty feet in diameter. The duck pen is specifically built to ASCA standards for duck runs in trials.
The challenge here is what Rippa will do with the space. She won’t be so tight, so she has room to get out, and it’s my job in here to teach her that – to a point where she has total control over the sheep, so that in the bigger arena, she won’t lose them and get bad habits.
Our goals here are to continue to learn how to balance to the sheep, and just what the rules are. She is overrunning a bit, but in the video, I’ll explain why I am being told by Kathy not to correct it.
Kathy also added two new things for Rippa to work on – both are to prepare her to learn how to outrun without me in between her and the sheep.
One – when I work with her “with me” command (which is a loose sort of heel command), I need to make her always go to my outside leg, so that she will eventually see me as a post to run around and then out from. If you teach your dog to run around you and always around you, not straight from you, their perception of that nice arc at the top is reinforced.
Two – calling her off the sheep. Rippa is, as I love how Kathy calls her, a baby dog. Asking her to come when the sheep temptation is so strong is asking a lot, so you will see me occasionally drop her and then call her to me a short, short distance away. She is facing the sheep and she is learning to ignore her impulses and do what I say. When she comes to me, I praise her and release. It’s my natural inclination to drill her with this, but Kathy wisely says that it is better for her to have a little pressure with ONE successful call off and then just give her the sheep.
What I find righteously interesting is that Kathy sees Rippa as a bit sensitive. She moves off the stick pretty well, but if I tap her with it, her feelings are hurt. She says I need to be careful to teach her how to stay out without shutting her down. This is Rippa, the bombproof, NOTHING BOTHERS ME, excuse me while I step on your face dog. They certainly can be different at work than in real life.
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