So I think I’m going to lay off the videos for a bit. I don’t really see much changing in the next day so I don’t know that it’s worth editing and posting. But I will show you some nice photos and videos from today.
First up was cattle. Most everyone had a “better” run, but almost nobody had a great run. I was on the edge of my seat for most of it, worrying about people’s dogs (though, as I said in an earlier post, for some reason this does not happen with my own). I really loved watching Joann’s dog work – she’s a smooth border collie, bred for cattle. The day prior, Kathy had her work with Teal and it got her confidence up. Now she was keeping her space, reading her cattle and it was really beautiful. It took my queasy feeling to squidgy.
Her being quiet also reminded me of a truth I forget about – when the dog is less powerful, it opens up the flightzone on the people side. Sheep are usually pretty used to people so this doesn’t happen, but with cattle and ducks, you can see it. Since Joann’s dog was quiet, not bitey and not quite that powerful compared to other dogs, the cattle had no problem confronting her further away from the handler. I couldn’t get a clear one of them fighting pointing toward Kathy (who was handling), but you can see them all more willing to go into the dog than her.
After taking some photos of people’s dogs, it was my turn and Rippa was a lot happier to start, but I didn’t really know what to do to control her so Kathy stepped in and she shut down a bit more.
But there was heading. And there was even a little bit of fetching. And some yahooing. And then she got kicked, but was fine. I think she needs a bit more time on them. Again, not thrilled she’s just not turning on – but she is not the bravest initially in situations like this. But Anne (Rippa’s sire’s breeder/owner) saw the video and commented that she will probably be easy to teach to drive and it’s nice that she’s not obsessed with stopping them. It will be interesting to see. Marilee said things along the same lines – that she’s nice and that I will take her a lot further than I could her mother, and that she’s also making me a better handler at the same time. I just need to give it time. BUT I WANT MY BADASS CATTLE DOG NOW NOW NOW. 
And here we are!
On to sheep - this was cool, Kathy asked me to do the sorting chores with Rips after lunch. I haven’t done them in years since starting early training with Fury so I wasn’t totally sure what to do. But it came back once she instructed. I don’t have video of that because who would be holding it?
Basically our job was to take the whole herd, move them out into the arena, and slowly let them in so Kathy could sort light from heavy sheep. Rippa needed to stay on a down for that, and at 20 months old, that’s pretty hard for her to do and she nailed it. No train wrecks.
Then, she had to take them from larger holding pens to the smaller sorting and take pen. I screwed this up. Kathy was saying I should send her and then lead the way but I didn’t trust her to behave and get out and it got messed up, with sheep behind the door instead of through it, but Rippa exacted pretty good self restraint with fixing it. For a dog that has no problem stepping on you, squealing, stealing food, and tearing stuff up, she is pretty mellow with the stock around.
Then we had to hold the sheep for the sort again. When it was time we either put sheep out or just brought them back in where they needed to be. It wasn’t super exciting, and in the small holding pens, I just had to hold her collar or she would try to just hold them in the back, but all this work was supposed to teach her mellow self restraint. I was pretty impressed that she could be in the same pen as the sheep and show no interest unless told to. Fury sometimes would shake like a Chihuahua in the back area because she was so excited about being around all the sheep.
When it was our turn to work, I was reminded to quit being cocky because I was still working the heavy sheep. The real trial would be to see if Rippa can hold her stuff together (and me, too) on much lighter sheep. If she can, well, I see lessons in flanking and driving in her future. Her slingshot outruns are getting better, too. It’s so interesting how she seems to process stuff after the fact. She is kind of a slow learner – like, she watches stuff and looks at it, and then I think she thinks about it – and I sometimes thing she’s not getting it and then BAM, one day it’s there.
Today was one of those days. I am really proud of our sheep run. It was short because Kathy wanted to save her for pen work.
No comments:
Post a Comment