I am thinking about it all wrong.

Today I went out on the fire roads and cattle paths that make up the Poly Canyon to Stenner Creek mountain bike ride with the dude and the dogs. I always think that our dogs are probably in better shape than most ranch dogs because they simply pull mileage out of the week with their full bore running. Watching both of them zip around the burmed corners of the single track makes me giddy.

I happened to watch Rippa trot a lot today because Y had her on a leash on the road and she wasn’t able to bop around much. Every time I look at her, I get pretty excited. She’s pretty much exactly my ideal dog in structure. Her movement isn’t something that takes your heart away, and to be honest, I don’t pay that much attention normally. But she’s efficient, and she is fast.

And as I was posting more recently about her not being very brave on cattle, today the dogs got a taste of them that I didn’t intend and it helped me think differently about her. The mountain bike trails are all mostly open rangeland and filled with cow-calf pairs. This is the most dangerous time to run around in the fields because mama cow is definitely not going to put up with a dog hassling the kid.

Y was up ahead of me and did an amazing job keeping the dogs focused on running with him instead of poking at the moms and babies that were strewn all over the road. When I finally caught up, we went down over this hill and the dogs found a mess of cattle without babies spread out all over the trail and before we could do much, they took off.

Now, one thing Kathy has taught me is that if you start shouting stuff at a dog, you’re liable to get them hurt, so usually if we don’t have much control on them, I keep my mouth shut and let everyone settle before I call them back.

So Fury takes off and gets around behind the first cow, with Rippa going the opposite way, and believe it or not, they balanced off each other and kept it mellow and simply moved the cow up toward the rest of the heifers. I was imagining some major drama with a green dog and a dog that hasn’t been formally on cattle for three or so years – but they both basically just did a good job of putting them back in the group and letting it go at that.

They then went across the road to the next straggler and did exactly the same thing. And as I’m watching with some pride and amazement, I had to realize that heading – if Rippa never really does it – isn’t really a must-have in the bag of tricks as Terry Martin has told me. We’re out with the range cattle who aren’t dog broke and they don’t take a lot power to get moving. What they need is simply some control and self-restraint on the part of the dog. Just like good trial cows.

So like . . . hey. I got myself a pair of dogs that work nicely together and keep their cool and don’t get into trouble but also have no problem going right to the cattle and getting ‘er done.

So, Rippa, I’d like it if you head a little more (Y says she does when this happens without me there), but meh. I keep forgetting this isn’t for the bragging/photo rights.

Gotta go meet up with my cattle master. I’m excited to finally get that moving. He’s even got cows he’ll let me work.