Back to Basics

Sometimes it takes me a while to process new information – I’d say this took me a couple months. As I was driving home tonight, thinking about how I was going to start lessons up again after a month hiatus, I was thinking about I would start Rippa out again.

We’ll be going back to the round pen to work on some basics and flanks and such, and as I said, I’ve had some difficulty getting her to start working nicely (enthusiasm can be such a killjoy on sheep). My method has long been that when you start, you point the stick at the dog and kind of block them from running in. Or that’s how I saw it.

And tonight, I realized when Stephanie pointed out that you’re supposed to point the stick in the opposite direction you want them to go, that me doing this push thing isn’t right and despite me knowing that particular gem, I wasn’t applying it. It’s why I always had trouble. And looking at old videos of Kathy handling, she’s not pushing the way I think I’m supposed to be doing.

It reminds me of when I was little and learning subtraction. Despite being pretty smart, the whole carrying numbers thing got me pretty good. For at least six months I thought you always carried a 9, no matter what number. And that’s what I did. My teacher didn’t catch it, but my mom did, and we spent a whole summer relearning math.

This is a classic corollary to stockdogging for me, and maybe life. I tend to overthink things to an absurdity and sometimes miss the forest for the trees. I was carrying a 9 because you just did – I didn’t fully understand what I was doing and it must not have been explained in a way I got it. And so it goes.

So, that completely explains why I broke Fury with the pushing too hard on her and why Rippa’s starts aren’t right. Even under Kathy’s tutelage, I don’t think I “got” it until tonight.

So: if the stick is supposed to point AWAY from where the dog is going, I shouldn’t be thinking about using it to “push,” but think about it in terms of “DEFINITELY NOT THAT WAY” and make it clear. If the dog is doing an outrun, the stick goes “DEFINITELY NOT THAT WAY” and I make my point instead of crutching on it to point and force the dog a stick length’s away (ideally more).

I think I started that line of thought when Kathy was helping me learn to walk straight backward (it helps for me to point where I want the dog to be and walk away from that). But that’s for me.

So I think I get it. Let’s see if it plays out tomorrow.