Getting to the fun training (at least for me)

Didn’t have cattle this week, which was okay, but slightly disappointing, because after watching the video, I want another go at it. And I will have it next week . . . so no whining, right? Opportunities abound.

It’s been a fun ag week for me. The husband and I went out to pick out our replacement hens – this year I just went for the prettiest ones because me going for good layers hasn’t worked out so well (one died, one went broody, and two quit laying).

Here are the little guys:

Today I took the girls out to Stephanie’s to work on stuff. I have my Kathy Warren clinic weekend next weekend (and I will bring both dogs since the huz is away working during that same time period) and there’s some goals I have before I show up: improve that outrun, and get Rippa ready to learn to drive with her. I haven’t gotten this far with Fury so I think having Kathy teach me to do it would be the best use of this clinic.

Here’s the things I think I need to be able to do for Kathy to do it:

1. Be able to pull your dog off the top and circle off-balance without affecting the sheep. Check (mostly – sometimes she’s a little tight and they drift, but nothing big).

2. Be able to down your dog at anywhere around that off-balance circle. Check (mostly – Rippa isn’t an instant downer, she’ll take a couple steps before she stops).

So this lesson was making sure I had that part down. We used a small flock (only 3 sheep) and worked on Rippa’s obedience in taking the down and getting out.

I’m sensitive that she gets pretty bored with this kind of training so we did some fetching, and then I worked on that outrun. She still obviously doesn’t “get” that she should stay out to gather them if I’m not there to help her – and taking people’s advice, I have started to obedience it a bit. It’s funny, because people generally when they tell me to do this say that I’m teaching the dog to think rather than use obedience, but I’d say using commands is obedience. Relative perspective?

I took a video of me doing this. You’ll notice two things: 1 – I don’t yell NEARLY like I used to. I love being calm and happy. Stockdogging is zen! 2 – Snuffly me – a combination of having a cold and having allergies made me the sick kid. Sorry for all that sniffle.

It was a nice, quiet stockdog day. Toward the end, to make things interesting, I worked on penning and Stephanie’s chute-panel. We need more work there. Rippa has no idea whether to follow them through the chute (which makes them panic and her lose control) or to stay on the outside and hold them. The answer is neither. We’ll figure it out.

We  got in her really tight sorting pen today to move sheep out for Fury and I was really impressed. She didn’t take any pot shots, hit legs gently to move them, and generally the sheep stayed super calm. Fun times.

And then it was Fury’s turn. As I said, I don’t expect a lot from her right now. She hasn’t worked in like five years. She takes her flanks and downs and it’s just time to teach her how to balance to me gently and kindly. I had to video this because the way these two dogs work are night and day.

Rippa is upright upright upright and tight working. Fury has more eye and wider working. You can guess which dog the border collie person likes. I think Rippa works more like her dad, but the more I do this, the more I appreciate Fury’s natural style, too. I hope it’s in Rippa somewhere because it would be nice to have a blend of the two in future generations.

There’s not much to the video, I’m sorry, but I was just really happy at how calm everything is, even with Fury bear. I’m again so blessed to be able to try training her again after everything else. So blessed for that foundation and blessed that my eleven year old dog has plenty of go-juice left.

The time honored dip-in-a-stock-tank tradition.

And then we headed out to visit the ducks at the Best Family Farm. Jennifer has been so cool about them – she takes them out to leg them up for me, I left her my stock flag, and they pop pretty easily out of their pen and into the field now without a lot of work. One of them has a messed up foot, but it’s easy to sort her/him out and leave it behind to work the others.

I decided that they could handle some short works with Rippa and so, I did. She did quite awesome – taking her commands to stay off them and drive them, fetching them thoughtfully . . .

But then when she gets too close she gets all kinda panicked about why they don’t move off her and starts kind of nipping on them trying to stop them. It’s okay. With time she’ll learn to take the pressure off. V, Jennifer’s daughter, wanted to see what their dog did (he’s half BC/half lab) so after a 20 minute ducky break in their posh duck waterfall:

I let Obi give it a go. He’s funny. His border collie sense is like, “Go to head and stop.” He’s fabulous at that. I worked at getting him unstuck but there’s not a lot clicking for him yet. I have a feeling in time, he’ll be kinda fun to work on the ducks, but definitely missing a couple instinctual pieces that I’ll need to help him with.

But yeah, le sigh, very good stockdoggy day.

Oh, and I finally figured out how to podcast today. I’ll be posting interviews from breed greats in the future, but for now, the first one’s mostly about me.

Cattle video and being watched

Most people, I think, only post shining star videos of their dogs, but let’s be realistic. Nobody gets any good without failing and sucking, first.

Not that what I’m about to show you is fail and suck, but it’s not “Wow, THAT is a great cow dog and handler pair.” Which is the exact point.

1. When I work under someone else, even if I’m not worried about them, I handle like crap. I worked Rippa on sheep today and everything that I “learned” yesterday I found myself naturally doing today. I know better, but if someone’s watching me, I seem to fall apart. Going to be hell when I trial, but a good way to work on myself.

2. It’s as much about handling cattle as it is the dog. The clips I show you I purposely selected to show you – the first set up is bad and it doesn’t go well. The second is right and it goes fine.

Videoing is so good – I can totally see how much I need to shut up (I thought it while I was out there – my default losing control mode is yapping, that’s why I joined Toastmasters, to get it under control) and where my handling is really lacking. I’m asking for too much from Rippa for how I’m setting her up. She’s been on cattle once at Kathy’s and at a clinic last summer after not working for weeks, and now this, I think, is our third time out since then. It’s pretty good – I’d say.

Also, the way I walk in this video creeps me out. I’m having my physical therapist look at it – hmm.

Anyway, enjoy!

I also took the dogs out today for sheep – Rippa did nicely, as usual, and Fury did, too. Both managed to get loose during the other’s run and come join me in the field, but neither messed with the sheep when it happened, so that was happy. They are whining, crazy fools when the other works, but I figure they’ll get used to it eventually . . . I can’t correct and work at the same time.

Fury got a short work because she’d pick the sheep up and then because she doesn’t know how to balance well, we’d do a lot of hard running in record heat – not good for anybody, sheep or dog. I had really wanted to get her feeling settled, but she was taking pressure of the stick really well and not pulling anything cheap so I thought that was enough for her first formal lesson back. She put them away nicely, too. She is just ALL GO JUICE compared to Rippa being more tentative about new things. It should be fun working two very different dogs with power at the same time.

Cattle and record breaking temps

We took the dogs to the beach today because it was 85 at 9 am and waited until 6 to visit the Woods today. The entire area broke heat wave records (it’s always pretty hot around this time of year, and then hot in September), and our area doesn’t really have A/C because it’s not usual to get that high. Toasty! But that doesn’t stop good cow dogs!

Once again, Dustin ended the lesson by telling me that Rippa was way better than the last time she was there (two weeks ago) and I’ve only worked her once on sheep since then. Really interesting how she is learning is a really clear progression. Usually I’d expect one step forward, two back, at least once in a while, but she seems to “get it” pretty well now.

I feel like it’s time for me to “get it” on cattle, though. Granted, I’m battling Death Allergies right now and it took two Allegra and two Dayquil to get me upright after three days, but as I write this, I feel like I’m drunk. So, I felt better when I was out there, but I wouldn’t say I’m handling at my finest.

We started, as usual, with the goats, and Rippa did pretty well. My new homework is:

a – learn that when I throw the dog into an outrun and want her to change directions, I need to stop her brain (or, as Dustin put it, throw her into neutral) with a down or a there before I switch her. I’m sure I probably learned that a while back because it makes sense, but I certainly unlearned it.

b – it’s definitely time to start over flanking her and preparing her for driving. She’s AMPED on the goats still (far more interesting than sheep), but I’ll work on it harder on sheep.

They had me handle their dog, Cat, who is pretty much finished and I got a feel for how to drive, but man, it’s a thing. I have that clinic with Kathy Warren coming up and I really want to be ready to start that with her because I haven’t gotten there with the Fury so it’s not in my bag of tricks body-English-wise (intellectually, yes, but that means jack most of the time).

They also had the huz handle their dogs – he’s pretty good at it. He’s been paying attention to the commands so I’m very impressed at what he does have going on. I suspect he has no interest, but they want him to get involved, too, so I think he humors them.

We then went over to cattle and I think my main thing is to help Rippa learn to read them. She gets really excited in the beginning and stops thinking, but once she is thinking, it’s all good. I lose a lot of the control I have on her with smaller stock, but for now, like I said, better to let her learn to read her cattle. Again, some good things today. I can’t get her to heel the cattle, but she tends to want to wait them out to make them move and I’m up for her not being too rowdy if she doesn’t have to be. She’s a heading fool, though – but she does take my command to stay back so that’s getting better. It’s fun watching her think. It fries her little brain, though, and the works aren’t very long before she gets tired and starts looking for Yishai. This annoys me a little because Fury never quit, but I do know that once her brain stops frying, she’ll be good.

Interesting thing, when I tell her she’s good, she quits. I don’t know how it happened, but it’s her release word (I definitely didn’t train that – the huz noticed it and says she’s like that for lots of things so he never tells her she’s good). So, now I have to break myself of praising in that way. Oops.

So, that’s that. I’ll have video to show you (it’s not wonderful, but hey) soon, but I’m too “drunk” to focus on editing it to something useful right now. I think I’m going to lay down . . .

Sheep and ducks tomorrow.

Fury begins training again!

Today I picked up CA Sharp and Kira and we rode up to Creston. Rippa usually needs a lot of help on these days because we are stuck with lambs instead of heavier sheep, and I went into it thinking that way. Thinking that way mean I didn’t ask for too much out of Rippa and it had a surprise result – I got a lot more! Why? Less pressure  on Rippa = more ability for her to get things done.

I’d been doing stick work at home and man, that’s really fun. Once the dogs got it, I’d direct them through the house and it worked on sheep, too. I used the stick really clearly and Rippa took it – really clearly. We also working on our responsiveness – her downs got faster, she started facing out from the sheep and giving them her shoulder. I even got to call a flank or two from behind her. So much improvement from each lesson – it’s awesome. She gets me, I get her.

I was thinking I keep saying I’m lazy, but I should really cut myself slack. When I wasn’t lazy, I was INTENSE and it made training hard for both of us and Fury before her. By not being 100% on every thing perfectly, I was able to scale back my emotions about performance, and I think the result is “lazy” handling. That’s a fine problem for someone that’s been training too intensely for ten years.

It sounded like Kira’s lesson with Stephanie was going really well, too, and so it was. Apparently this was the best work yet. Kira finally gets that she has to listen to Stephanie or not work and she’s chosen to work. She only comes out once a month, so I was happy for CA because I can imagine being frustrated that each lesson isn’t ideal and then waiting a month, but she’s patient and kind of left me with the impression that she was expecting this, so yays.

And then, I showed Stephanie what the Fury had going on. When I asked her, Stephanie was like, “You really want to overwork an old dog like this?”

“Fury isn’t an old dog, she is every bit as fit and active as she was five years ago. Trust me. I’ll watch her.”

We went through the gate, I sent her to get the sheep, and she did it. Coming in wide and kind of intensely once they got into contact with them, but all I need to do was side step and walk into her and she was out again. Her go-by side is really an issue, and I remember me training that into her from terrible handling. She lays down when you tell her and she takes her flanks honestly.

Stephanie seemed pretty surprised, “She doesn’t work like I thought she would. She is definitely under control, and she doesn’t look like she wants to kill the sheep.” I told her that I’d retired Fury because she was too hard to control for me, but I never said “kill sheep.” The Fury’s never come close to that. I have to shake my head because I know someone’s been talking about me behind my back to her. I don’t know what disparaging my dog did for that person, but we’re back and we’re going to prove quite otherwise I think.

Stephanie asked me if she always worked that wide and I said, that yes, that was one of her things. “I like an Aussie that works wide.” Yup.

So, by not getting obsessed with results and knowing that I just have to watch my timing and show the Fury that I’m not going to fight her, I think we’ll have some real progress quickly if I work her every time I take Rippa out. I should keep improving on my handling now that I have two dogs with two different issues to work on. But I am very grateful to Stephanie for giving me the sheep to rent to put mileage on Rippa and to Rippa for being less intense than the Fury (which is what I wanted out of the litter anyway) which allowed me to get more relaxed in handling, because now I have none of the fight and aggression I used to feel when I started the Furball in lessons.

I know the Woods are open to me putting her on cattle, too, but I think at his age we’ll stick to ducks and sheep (not even goats). She may not be less healthy that she was a few years ago, but she’s not going to heal well if she gets stomped – that’s natural. She poked her eye on a plant a few months back and she’s got a little cataract in the spot because it didn’t heal that cleanly. (BTW, yes, the vet confirmed that’s what the cause was, not genetics).  So Fury probably won’t ever get her WTCh and I’m not putting any titling expectations on her, but it will be interesting to see how far I can get with her now, now that I have the opportunity to put real mileage on her with my new headspace.

I was supposed to go try to finish her elite gambler agility title and CD this weekend, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I think where I used to have goals of versatility championships, I’m just so much more interested in getting good at the stockdog thing, especially since I have every opportunity I had wished for (and didn’t think would come a year ago). So, you know, I know Fury can get her GS-E and her CD, and most people who have seen me trial know that, and what do I have to prove? Let’s do stock. All of us like that more anyway.

After the lesson, I took CA to the Best Family Farm to check on the ducks and give them some exercise. They are SO funny looking right now. They are feathered out on the stomach and sides, but they have fuzzy little mohawks down their backs and up their heads. They’re starting to quack more, too. I think they’re a mix of chocolate, blue, and black. Nothing super fancy looking.  I still don’t know the sex ration, but Trish tells me there’s a runner breeder up by her if I need some more girls to even things out. They are TERRIFIED of people and dogs right now, which is good, and QUITE gregarious. There’s a weaker one in the batch of 11 (they sent me a baker’s dozen, if you will, when I ordered 10) that gets a bit trampled so I’ll have to remember to sort it out when working. I’m hoping maybe legging it up will help it, but it’s seemed sort of weak from the beginning, not quite as upright.

I think in a couple weeks we’ll be ready to work them. As it was, Stephanie’s lab/BC Obi got to show what he had (run wide, go to head, lay down) and it helped moving them around the field, with Kira pushing really hard to get in there. I left my dogs in the car, but in hindsight my dogs would have probably done a better job moving them controlled than two PSYCHED dogs with no training on them. As it was, it seemed pretty low stress for the ducks, but they were TIRED.

Fun times ahead, I think. I took home my bean-pole bottle stick. Stephanie had hid it during her Jack Knox clinic this weekend and between my better handling and Rippa taking the stick pressure and me seeing that Fury does NOT need stick pressure right now but freedom, we’ve graduated off of it. I have never been able to do that in ten years of stock training.

I’d say that is a red-letter day.

Oh, and PS, the vet called and told my huz that Rippa scored in the high-eightieth percentile for Australian Shepherd hips – meaning that she’s got excellent little hips and likely won’t have any issues in the future. I’m really glad I went with my gut on that testing stuff. Time to do the rest of it now that the main concern is out of the way.