Going Back In . . .

So tomorrow we return to the sheep. Nathan is doing his best to accommodate me, but we have a long road to go to get his sheep ready for his puppy to train on.

When I last left you, I was pretty worried that I was going to mess up my dogs without some experienced guidance, but a couple friends read this post (including the one that inspired me to try craigslist to find stock opportunities, Selena) and gave me some useful advice.

Basically, I am feeling a  lot better about doing things wrong. I do kind of get what I’m trying to do now and hearing what they had to say was useful. I wanted to write it down before I go back in tomorrow.

First order of business, though, is a new stock stick. The bamboo poles at Kathy’s are apparently super strong because mine break randomly all the time. I’m going to just bring a pole and wrap a rag on the end of it and see how it goes. When I was working Rippa last time, the stick broke and I just used my body, but eventually everyone needs to respect the stick so I need something . . .

Anyway .. . here’s the game plan tomorrow.

1. Patience. Nathan was talking about sorting a bunch of sheep and trailering them to a different holding area so I’d have sheep tamed up faster, but what a lot of work, so we are planning on working whatever random sheep the workers can get in there (sans lambs) and it just taking a while.

2. Remembering why I am doing this – having access to these sheep is no substitute for Kathy’s tutelage when available. It’s there to put miles on the dogs and to calm them down. Normally a ranch dog is not going to be super charged up when it sees stock because it sees them all the time. My dogs work the sheep for all of ten minutes before they’re put up, generally, and so self control and excitement is what I need them to learn. In trialling, you don’t have time to “warm them up.” This is supposed to help them calm down. I think I forgot that a bit and had visions of me taking them out of the pen calmly and walking the 1400 acre ranch and vineyard that day. Nope.

3. Learning to manage the sheep better. There were some handling mistakes that we all made that I should have known better on just the sheep equation that in hindsight if  I just had more practice and experience with them, I would not have done as second nature. I just got a flock of chickens for my backyard and even though I took a couple classes in poultry management in college, it’s no substitute for having them day in and day out and learning what makes them tick to create low stress handling environments, which is what I want to do here.

So, tomorrow the game plan is pretty simple – more of the same. Only I’ll probably bring a stake and tie Fury out because, as Selena reminded me, Fury needs it as well and I can probably start working her again if she can dial back the enthusiasm.

There will be some chill down exercises in the arena, call offs, there will be some half moons, working on Rippa’s reliable down, and there will be some leash stuff for now. I gotta keep at it. I have to teach the sheep that the best thing is to come to me – get that flight zone to me a lot smaller, and also teach them that they won’t die if she gets in close. I’m going to do everything I can to minimize sheepy panic.

I figure I have about an hour out there before it gets too hot (104 tomorrow), so we’ll see how it pans out.