Chicken Herding . . .

So, lately I’ve been working on letting Rippa work the chickens, too, since she has successfully not-killed them so far.  Today she did so great I went back out with a camera and back-up handler (the husband) and got some shots of it.

I am starting to realize that me doing this, and the chicken + dog combination is teaching me a lot more about stock and dog training and handling than I have gotten at Kathy’s from a realistic standpoint.

When your only real stock experiences is through lessons on other people’s sheep, at least for me, it becomes an intellectual exercise and it’s hard to see the full operations going on because it’s you vs the dog vs the sheep all learning. Having my own stock, which have become familiar with me and the dogs enough to know they aren’t going to die has shown me about real stock handling and reading. I feel like I can finally calm down about oopsies and the like, which means my voice calms down and I don’t feel like I have to be on top of the dog at all.

In fact, using what I learned at the last clinic about (1) cranking hard on Rippa to star and (2) maybe not announcing good times ahead but easing into it allowed me to get these shots. 1 – Angry voice downs in the beginning calmed her down and kept her from just joyfully running out to the chickens to scatter them squaking like live squeaky toys. 2 – I just had her walk up with me and then I stayed back and said “walk up.” Rippa has figured out that the goal is to get them back in the coop, so if I just stand there, Rippa does, too, thinking. She was actually standing behind the planter in the photo above for a good minute without moving, just watching . . .

And the chickens slowly got the hint and moved around it opposite her, and she just calmly watched what happened and then got to work. No ‘get around’ or ‘there’ from me, she didn’t have to worry about me at all – just the job.

In fact, she forgot about two of the chickens so . . . all that calm work kind of went to hell when one made a break for it:

But because they were my own stock and I’d had enough experience with oopsies to know that Rippa wasn’t going to maim or kill if it got out of control, I was able to see all the good work involved (see she’s actually trying to get around it from her earlier position?) and be calm about everything.

I’m also starting to really understand how hard it is to trial, and why these dogs would be fine without all the insane formal training I do – because they learn their chores and inherently “get” how to do it. It’s the finite work in a strange place that’s gotten me in such a tizzy.

So yeah, really amazing learning from my time off just playing with chickens. I am really tickled by the whole thing, too. I might just have to clean my yard up a little to provide less obstacles and try formal training now that it’s not a fearful clucking frenzy out there anymore to annoy the neighbors.

My husband has even suggested crating the chickens and just going to our climbing gym/warehouse to practice with them . . . it might be fun but I will wait until I get some commands on the dogs before that. Who needs ducks?

Pushy Dogs and Chicken Dogs

So, I was out in the yard this afternoon cleaning up the planting beds for spring (I’m a little behind for where I live) and Fury was out with me and the chickens. Every once in a while, I’d watch her, just for fun, move them around the yard. Nice and easy.

Which, you know, is totally the opposite of what she does when I take her to lessons and why I had to retire her and start her daughter instead of continuing her training.

And which is also why I am kind of stuck with her daughter because we don’t get stock exposure regularly enough and she’s turning into a wild child.

The dogs aren’t crazy unruly. They are just utterly STOKED when it’s time for lessons. They never get to move stuff. I yell at them when they think about heeling the vacuum or the skateboarder going by . . . and when you put them on animals, their brains LITERALLY SHUT OFF and I have to get all hard with them and really beat it into their little brains to listen to me, while still trying to figure out a way to get them to calm down.

So watching Fury, I realize now that there’s not really anything wrong with the dogs except that they don’t get enough livestock exposure. Because what I saw Fury doing, I liked.

I went out and took a short video, and it’s blurry because I didn’t focus it right (sorry, new DSLR camera), but you can see the picture plenty clear. Even the spot where the chickens worried, it was because I was right there putting pressure on them, not Fury.

I thought it was pretty smart of her to move them the direction she did–it was a dead end on the fence the direction they started in.Toward the end, she thought she just lost a chicken, not that she should get in the coop and push them out. I figured I got what I wanted.

I’ve also started working Rippa on them – now that she’s demonstrated she’s calmed down enough not to maul them when she gets frustrated. Rippa needs some more obedience to keep her behaving, but she’s getting there.

Yeah, that’s what I’m reduced to – backyard chicken herding. But, hey, it’s something, and it’s teaching me.

Pretty grateful to have dogs that are pushy, because it isn’t really a frustrating trait if they’re in a real life situation and not my suburban cowboy version – it means they’ll keep going, even when it gets old hat.

<3

No sheep for me.

Well, today, despite what seemed like something to get my hopes up for, I found out that I would not be getting sheep in town after all.

After two years of trying to figure out a working solution, Kathy retiring, and just not having the money, energy, and interest in driving hours and hours away to just put mileage on my dog, I think it’s time to give up the ghost.

It’s been a good, long run. Adelaida ranch is still on the table, but unless they somehow get tamer sheep for beginner dogs, it’s not going to do anything but teach my dog bad manners, and even then, that’s two hours out and back to get there just to condition them. There are other stockdog trainers in the area, but Kathy has recommended me not go there. It seems like I can only use her or not at all. And because I didn’t fully commit when I had the chance, today it’s not at all.

Maybe one day, but I would be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t heartbroken over this.  To be surrounded by opportunities and just not have a champion in my corner for how long and hard I’ve worked is really frustrating. But I have also learned that when I bang my head against the wall like this, it’s time to turn around and go another direction.

I quit ASCA this year because I couldn’t take what was happening without trying to fix it (both just the attitude it was projecting and the business it was conducting), and I’m the kind of person who, if involved at all, expects to be REALLY involved. I signed off of all the dog lists (except the ones I help manage) earlier this month because I just felt like the environment wasn’t what I needed right now, and it was clear I didn’t have much use to anyone on there, anyway. I haven’t missed any of it (well, I do miss ASCA, but not enough to come back). 

Perhaps this will be the same. Or, perhaps the opportunity will show itself when it’s supposed to. There is something beautiful about the time it takes to train an animal. I love working with horses that are tougher for the same reason, as well . . . maybe it’s time to go back to horses after 20 years in dogs. Or find something else to invest my heart in.

At least for now.

<3