Gratitude and we’re trial ready.

I have to start this out by sending some public love. It’s 2015 in a few days and the perfect opportunity to bask in the achievements of the year. For 2014, there were many, and not just in dog stuff, but we’ll stick to that because that is what this blog is for.

I will continue to shout it to the heavens, but we are never solely responsible for our own successes, ever. When I look at where I was last year, and where Rippa and Fury both were, I’m just floored.  And this is not because I’m awesome (in fact, in many ways we’d be even better if I was more awesome), but because people found it in their hearts to take me.

First, to Kathy Warren for recommending me go to Stephanie to rent sheep. Had I not known about her, the rest of this would not have happened.

To my husband, who was a massively supportive champion. He told me to get over my insecurity about contacting Stephanie and try again, his efforts prior to that in finding me land to get sheep, his efforts to find me cattle when I decided it was time, his building the duck pen with me, and his blessing of us financially and time-wise because both have been major sucks when I could have been doing a million other things with both.

To Stephanie (Operation Sheepdog) for being a good friend. Moreover, for trusting me and teaching me to relax about hurting her stock. For her patience when they did get hurt – she’s never yelled or nagged, she’s just simply told me about it and trusted me to take care of it going forward and I am so appreciative of that.

For the million other things she’s done for me from book recommendations on stock handling  to taking time to talk to me about finance, wealth, and utterly changing my mindset about that. It’s not necessarily stockdog stuff, but I think because of her setting me in the right direction, the huz and I will take our unique ability to handle risk and do some incredible things in the future. And I’m also grateful to her for not being disappointed in me buying a house instead of investing it like the plan. A lot of mentors would see that as an apprentice failure, but she’s great specifically with taking you where you are and realizing you have to make your own mistakes and forge your own path (or build your own life because I don’t think the house was a mistake, and I doubt she does either). 

Stephanie also enabled me to stop stressing about stockdog resources because her setup is great, affordable, and a beautiful (if not a bit of a drive) location. Instead of needing land RIGHT now and taking what was good enough, I was able to make other choices that are more right for my husband and I (I’m glad we couldn’t get the house with the land that I at first wanted – I am enjoying my new Los Osos house a lot more).

To Jennifer (Best Family Farm), who again, has been an amazing, loyal friend and to V, her daughter, who is as well. Jennifer supporting my having ducks on her property enabled me to learn so much more about them and make leaps and bounds in handling because of it. It also reminded me how much I love animal husbandry and while I’m not the one that takes primary care of them, it’s a taste of it. The fact that I’m not is also SUCH a big gift on the part of their family. To both Jennifer and V for letting me ride Lady and Maddie, because I haven’t done so in years and that reminded me of that part of me that’s been dormant for years. I LOVE working with the horses and my friends and I especially love riding with the dogs because I feel like I’m fulfilling something in my heart and in the dogs’ hearts about being a part of the west and that experience.  I only hope that in the future I’ll be able to give back to them as much as they are giving to me.

And to Shannon and Dustin (DSW Stockdogs) – I know when I showed up at their place I was nervous and stupid and stressed out because I didn’t want to look like a fool when I showed up. My friend Dom kindly pointed me in their direction and he gets a shout out too. Along with Stephanie and the Bests, they’ve become some of my best friends (I see them way more than any other circle of friends so it seems natural) because it’s not just about dogs or what kind of dog I have or anything. It’s because they're good people, fun, and so hospitable that they’ve opened up their world to me – with patience and smiles and OMG their adorable son (also, I must say that Shannon is a fantastic baker).

I think the Woods have given me back the original reason I’ve gotten into this stuff in the beginning. They’re pretty urban where they live but they’re ranchers, too. Things make sense because they make money doing it, because the relationships are worth it, and because the life they want is there for the taking. There’s no need to prove oneself or get into fights about anything because they’re just doing their thing and they’re good at it. From parenting to stockmanship, to just living – seriously, guys, you’re amazing – and they’re younger than I am. Infinite potential for joy, success, and abundance and you can literally feel it emanating from the trio of them.

As I was driving from sheep to ducks today, this combination of people and their allowing me into their life has me thinking big thoughts – not about winning trials – but about what I want for the future and how to get there, and if you know my huz and I, it’s not a far-fetched dream.

Deep gratitude for you all for sharing your worlds with me this year. I cannot begin to tell you how much I have profited from it on so many levels. Hope this doesn’t embarrass you.

So, now that I’ve gotten the love and sap out of the way, we’ve got about a week until the first trial I’ve entered in something like 7 years (Sunday, Jan 4). Stephanie has been encouraging me to enter sooner, and the Woods are shocked that I think I’m ready – of course, the Woods are used to cattle dog trials where the beginning ranks are still very experienced, in my opinion – close to finished, dogs. I just need to get stock out of a pen and get through two panels and put them back in the pen.

I was stressing it last week because of what COULD happen, and so have been practicing the take pen since I don’t do that a lot. Stephanie, if you will remember last time, told me to chill in there and Rippa would relax. Well, she did. I really liked her advice about not stressing that her take pen was so tight – that means at the trial Rippa will be LESS stressed because it will be a bigger pen. Of course! Another duh moment.

On cattle this week, we basically just ran some practice stuff. Shannon told me to do two things:
1 – I yell my commands like they’re corrections so stop doing that. Give the command like I want to give the command, and THEN verbally correct if I have to.
2 – Make sure I have Rippa’s attention and anticipate trouble before it happens.
Both are duh, but I needed it.

Long story short on #2, there was a discussion on a cattle dog group about the difference between BCs and Aussies and one thing that was pointed out that I don’t think I’ve ever noticed before was that Aussies break contact with the stock for a second and look back at the handler for (or to confirm) commands. I will say not ALL the time, but watching videos of Rippa, sure enough that happens. It made me realize that many times, Rippa’s not blowing me off, she’s just so intent on the stock she’s not hearing me – so I should be patient and figure that’s it.

And I did. The runs went pretty well – a couple things I liked:
- Rippa heeled appropriately again. I wondered where it had gone because she’s a strong heading dog and when she loses control she tends to grab body shots, but I know she heels too. The cattle got balled up in a corner and she had enough control to walk up, look at me for help, and when I told her to hit them, she hit tentatively  - it worked, and then she hit for herself when she needed more and we were out f there. Nice and low on the hock and not getting excited after.
- I lost the cows in one corner because of the draw of the gate. I totally wasn’t THINKING about that and I was like, “DUH! Bad Kristin!” So the second time we pulled a parallel drive to get them through the corner they were drawing away from. I held them at the eye and Rippa pushed the rear. Worked great and reminded me how to handle again.

I left with a pretty solid strategy there for the cows.
I was stressing sheep and ducks, though, because Rippa has power and take pens aren’t always clean.
So my husband wrote on my hand:

And that was the plan today.
Guess what? It worked. We sorted sheep at Stephanie’s in record time, got them into the take pen, and worked on being quiet there first. Rippa, remembering how cool cattle heeling was, would do it to the sheep a bit in the tight spots but really easy. Even if a sheep turned to face her, she would hit it on the poll or nose, but really gentle – HUGE EVIDENCE THAT IF I AM CHILL, RIPPA IS CHILL.

We did a couple laps of her field and went to ducks.
Same thing with ducks. Only a couple issues with Lucky Duck when I worked her back in with everyone (the first tries were with my most happy 3 black ducks) because she’s more tolerant of the dog from being a backyard duck at my house for a while. As long as Lucky isn’t in the draw, no issues (even then, all I need to do is not let Rippa get too much pressure on her and she’ll be easy).

Rippa’s attitude these days is if I will calm down and shut up, she will happily do her job. Over handle or get angry or confuse her and it’s over. She’ll either quit and come suck up to me or she’ll take it out on the stock.

This forces the Kristin to become very zen. WHich is something Kristin should do anyway and is a major life goal for 2015 (to specifically work on that) – it will benefit my dog and the stock, as well as everyone else who deals with me.

Stockdogging for a better life.

Final thought – everyone keeps talking about me wanting to win it. This is something I’m going to guard very carefully for any time I exhibit in the future. I do not want to win. I do not care to win. I care to qualify and I care that my dog makes Aussies look good. That’s why I waited this long to trial and that’s why I’ll wait longer for the cattle trials. My goal here is to show people that Aussies are legitimate stockdogs and not just for hobbists. In ASCA, there’s no money, and often no real trophy, so all the standings and merit in the world doesn’t matter. I need the titles for legitimacy, but even then, working cow-calf pairs in the field works, too. That’s the goal. Eff winning. I will not get into that mindset because then my ego’s stuck and I’ll get stressed out.

No. My goal is to make my dog’s heritage proud.
I’ll write again after the trial. See ya!

Playing with the toys and it takes a village

So, in the last two weeks – it’s been raining a lot.

One time, the Woods forgot I had lessons with them in the morning and when I showed up (I usually check, but Shannon was totally like WE’LL SEE YOU WEDNESDAY, so I didn’t) they were gone. Happily they trust me enough to just go work the cows myself. We got them off the hill and into the arena and I didn’t really have too many goals with her except to just let her work cattle. We’ve been working on tweaking a lot of finite stuff so I basically just wanted her to have some mileage on them and get more and more confidence. About a quarter of the way into the work, I started trying to pen them in the middle and MAN that was hard.

These are calves and not SUPER human/dog broke so they’re not super happy about fetching to me or my pressure OR Rippa’s, so getting in the right spot to get them in was rough. Rippa’s not super sharp so hitting the sweet spot where she’s right AND I’m right was rough.

I was pretty happy because she’s working quiet now and without a lot of commands, she’ll read the stock and do whatever. Got some good hits in there (both ends – and more excitedly, she hit low where she needed to on the heels, which makes me feel pretty good about the body shots being an insecurity thing and not her real toolbox).

And then we finished up with just putting them back:

Pretty good – some stuff I’d like to go different for both of us, but as Shannon said last time – leaps and bounds! You like my angry batman voice? Hey, it works. I have to wean myself off it, though.

It’s been raining a lot here (yay) so this week it was just sheep and goats. I worked the round pen with Rippa and the goats to refresh her mind and get her a little sharper on commands as well as going to the fenceline to stay off them. My handling’s getting better, but definitely needs some improvement.

Took CA Sharp and Kira to sheep at Stephanies and Roland was there (remember him from my ducks) working through. When it came to my turn, I was stressing because when people watch me, stuff falls apart. Moreover . . .

TWO WEEKS TO TRIAL TIME.

We spent some time working on fetching and outruns and commands and then turned to the take pen. In the trial, I’ll need to send Rippa in to get her stock. I’m not worried about trialing on cattle at all – but sheep and ducks I am. She tends to bite (aka, THANK YOU – end of the show) in stress situations (aka, if I am stress or she’s feeling out of control) and I do NOT want that to be what happens first off. I’m in there trying to get that worked out and Stephanie’s telling me to get out of my side, stand up straight, and then Roland comes over and physically shows me like, STAND UP STRAIGHT and that works. I’m so busy standing up straight and not intimidating Rippa that she’s not stressed. So if I trial like I have a stick up my butt, you know what.

We’ll need to work a bit more on this before the trial for sure.

I’ll also need to start reading some more sports psychology stuff and staying with the meditation practice I have. And, if all else fails, there’s always shots.

I kid.

Kind of.

Here's everyone and their dogs.

Dustin sent me home with toys to work on, too, and it’s been fun. I build a little pen, shake them up, and then set them up as they end up:

In this case, I think a (counter clockwise) Way To is a good idea because the leader stock (cow and sheep are already facing that way, they just need a push.

In this case? A go by (Clockwise).

And then this one made me talk to my buddy Amy Bradley and look up the stockdog rules. If I left the dog there and stood behind the gate, they’d just pop out. Can I do that?

The answer is, yes, I can do that. it might not be ideal, but starting nice is better than not and then having drama the rest of the time.

I’m going to spend the next two weeks working on being the most quiet, trusting handler I can be. I watch videos of myself and cringe. I could get so much more if I just chilled.

Duck Husbandry and Philosophy

I have ALWAYS loved taking care of animals. I’m not sure what it is about me, but people feel hardwired to be a certain way, and my way is – without a shred of doubt – super agrarian, and moreover, shepherdy, not farmy.

I  do garden, but I don’t spend a lot of time REALLY caring about the garden. I water, I weed, I see what comes up, I work slowly to get better at it, but I’m not 100% there.

But animals? Yes, I am. Growing up we didn’t have 4-H or anything like that, but had we? I’d have filled my backyard with all the things I have now and moreso. Mom, can I have a goat? PLEASE? PLEASE? PLEASE? I kind of feel like that now, but with a balance of wanting freedom to leave and go on adventures without being saddled to the animals.

Shannon and Dustin (along with meeting Brad and Alana Holstein) are showing me I can have my animals and my freedom and not necessarily live on a ranch to do it. Both of this couples manage land and stock off their own property and despite everyone telling me it couldn’t be done around here, it is. It’s all a very good education and whether it comes to fruition or not, I am working quietly on learning how to “farm out” livestock for fun and profit. Funny how I went to school for this and yet the animal science classes taught me nothing and made me feel like it was hopeless. School, clearly, isn’t the best avenue for all things you want in life, right?

One of the first steps to this was getting the never to ask my good friend Jennifer if she’d be up for housing my ducks on her property. I don’t go out every day, so I’m definitely adding to her chore list. She gets duck eggs out of the deal, but it’s not 100% a fair trade, though I suspect her motivations are much like mine, and I think the whole family appreciates them, too.

So I’m not taking care of them day in and day out, though I feed them and whatever when I do visit (I try for at least once a week, but lately with work and guests it’s been hard), but they’re still a good learning opportunity for me.

When I first got them, I really didn’t know if or when to work them, and they would get really stuck in the house and not want to leave. Kathy told me to feed them in the field and put a pool out there, which I did and it helped.

Since then, I guess I spend a lot more time wondering how to get the most out of them – and sitting in the field just watching them do their thing is about as good as praying or meditation has ever been for me. It’s as good as sitting on the top of a mountain with a friend after a big climb (I’m into rock climbing). But it’s effortless. The choice to sit in a field with ducks in the morning is a stronger draw than anything else in my life right now.

So, as I sat there letting the duckies play in their mid-field pool with Rippa on a downstay for a half hour or so to make sure they ENJOYED being outside their pen before we moved them, I got to thinking.

If I ever give lessons, I’m going to force people to spend time with the stock themselves. I feel like all this time working on my own has made be understand them better and empathize with them. Having my own ducks makes me understand their motivations and how to move them (sometimes just removing pressure is all you need), and also what they want out of life aside from not getting trampled by dogs. Some of the more valuable stockmanship I got from Kathy was her asking me to feed her animals when she was gone and moving around in there just interacting with them. Moreso with Stephanie’s sheep when I have to sort my own – I learn personalities, motivations, and reactions.

The more you work with an animal the more it becomes part of the equation for you. It’s not just about you and the dog, it’s about the lives that come between you in the moment. Their fears and hopes and what you can do to entice them. A good quiet work helps them achieve their own goals (of not getting eaten, left behind, or starving) just as it can your own.

(Here, the ducks want back in their home and away from the squeeze job of both me and Rippa. I’m PSYCHIC.)

The longer I do this, the less I want to be a part of the “dog” culture and more I want to be just in the fields tending my animals. Everybody gets into stockdogs for their own reasons – but I’m pretty sure I know why I’m here, and it has nothing to do with the breed or my ego or the dog club or the people – but just because I like finding ways of interacting with the animals under my charge and getting better and better at that. I loved conformation, I loved agility, and I loved training in general, but not enough to spend time doing it every day, taking lessons, spending money. But here, I do, and I think it’s because there’s something inside of me that wants to be around as much life as possible – and the kind of life that relies on human care.

Here’s a little video of us working them prior to the trial coming up. I’m working on being quiet and calm to model it for Rippa. You’ll hear me sucking in periodically – it’s a weird little tic I got from training long ago that warns a dog they are on thin ice: and it works. And it looks real quiet to the casual observer.

Oh, and PS, the Fury is doing awesome. It’s hard to keep her quiet, but she’s using her leg to walk around and only pulls it up if she’s moving fast (she’s not supposed to, but . . . she’s Fury sometimes you can’t stop it in time).

Here’s my almost-12-year-old dog, a little less than two weeks post traumatic orthopedic surgery . . . on my flipping desk. NOT OKAY. Back in the ex pen she goes. But, it’s funny, you have to admit.

My first NCA trial–and not my last

I don’t really like trials very much of any sort, or pretty much any day that involves sitting around waiting for my chance to go or do something. I go to them because it’s time and because I need to look for dogs I like. Otherwise, I’d be doing something else. I like to be busy.

This weekend’s trial definitely kept me busy. When I got invited to go by the Woods, I of course leapt at it. I imagined I’d probably pay my dues, potty their dogs, wrangle their delightful boy, and learn some things. Instead, they asked me if I wanted to time and I said sure.

Well, in a time trial, that makes me the judge. Woah! In ASCA, you have to go through a fair amount to qualify to be  one. Put championships on your working dogs, have a solid background in livestock management, etc. Then you go through a review and training period and then you’re able to judge. Of course, the judges also are looking for something other than points and time: they’re looking for how the dog gets it done. In these trials, it doesn’t matter. It’s just points, with ties broken by time.

A couple things about NCA (National Cattledog Association) Trials: they’re horseback, you have to have western gear (I guess I better get a new hat, my straw one has seen better days), and the divisions are interesting.

Open – this is the pro category: if you give lessons or train dogs for money, you go in here. You’d think it would be the most competitive category, but I didn’t think it was in the end. Just because you’re a pro doesn’t mean you have the best dog or handling ability.

Intermediate – I think this is if you’ve won too many Rancher classes and have to be somewhere. I’ll eventually get here. And, since people like me get here, it gets competitive. I was shocked to see how well these dog and handler pairs did after watching Open. But, you have a broader pool to pull from.

Nursery – for dogs under 3. Again, you’d think this would be a beginner class, but it really wasn’t. Some dogs were in one of the other two classes and ALSO in this one. Some of the best dogs out there were under 18 months! I couldn’t believe it. Aussies seem to mature slowly compared to the BCs, because these dogs had confident swagger that I’ve never seen in an Aussie at that age to date.

Rancher – it’s kind of a misnomer. This is where I’ll start. It’s the beginner class, but again, not really. The ranchers were mostly actual ranchers and their dogs were awesome.

Bottom line – this is a whole other thing and I love it.

I LOVED their attitude of, “Hey, we give you this job, you seem capable, do it.” I feel like that has never been the MO of the Australian Shepherd world. I wasn’t just doing the timing/scoring with the help of new friends, I was doing the announcing (yay for Toastmasters and being an Emcee at events when needed) and people went out of their way to tell me how much they appreciated my efforts. I loved how they had cards signed in thank you to the people who put the trial on and the sponsors that gave the prizes. Cowboy chivalry is alive and well, friends. Heck, had the environment been the same when I was back in school in the ag program, I might have stayed. I feel like I came out of the weekend with many new, sincere friends. And that I’m now a part of something really organic and cool. In school, I was in the ag dorm in an ag program and I never wanted to look the part. I didn’t want to be a part of it to begin with. I only recently bought a pair of boots to work and ride in. Here, I didn’t care if I didn’t look the part and neither did they. It was just people giving mutual respect and appreciation of people. A really rare thing for any gathering you go to. Beautiful.

So, anyway . . . I put a lot of thoughts together watching these dogs this weekend that I think are fairly interesting if they’re not already obvious:

• I’ve been thinking this for a while, but this weekend proved it: if your dog has mostly all the tools in its head, stockdog training is really about mileage. That’s it. If you work a lot on sheep, your dog will confidently handle sheep. If you work a lot on ducks, same. And same with cattle. People have been telling me for years that Aussies at National Finals just don’t have grip and power. I think they probably don’t because most of the finals dogs aren’t regularly working cattle – and new cattle. Aussies have a reputation for being barky and bouncy and out of control and from what I saw this weekend, it looks a lot more like the dog just is intimidated by the cattle and doesn’t know what to do. Rippa was like that and she’s settling now. Miles on cattle can make a cowdog.

• Miles make the dog make sense. Rippa tends to freak out and go for a body shot. I always worry about that because it’s pointless and stupid, but I was sitting with a  lifelong cowboy who has produced some very nice dogs, and he said, “Ehh, that’ll go away when the confidence comes.” I agree, because see above.
• Cowdogs need bite and lots of it. Terry Martin is always saying that the ASCA stockdog program is weakening cattle dogs because of the sheep/duck requirements to championship. This is because dogs can’t bite those stock, and since it’s 2/3 of the whole point, you end up with dogs who don’t grip cattle first. It’s been really frustrating to me with Fury and now Rippa that they both are a lot more chompy than most dogs I see and it makes trialing harder. It says a LOT that Fury got her started cattle title and doesn’t have ducks and sheep. I saw a LOT of gripping (and took a LOT of photos of it) over the weekend. These dogs had it in spades and even when it got a little wild, everyone was fine with it.  I had a chance to talk to a cowboy helping me out in the box and we got to talking about it. I said I’d seen all these videos of dogs ganging cattle and it seemed like a mess. He agreed. So I said, why all the bite? I mean, people cross breed border collies with pitbulls. He pulls back a bit and says, “You need to.” And he basically says that all these dogs out here need that kind of tenacity or they won’t last in a cattle operation. Day in and day out getting beat up, they need to have the edge to keep doing it for years. That’s why people do the pitbull breedings. Of course, he says, you never know what you’ll get, maybe you’ll lose some things when you do that, too. This, combined with what I saw, made me sad that I was not in a better position to do what I do now with The Fury. She would have been awesome. I specifically bred Rippa to take the edge off a bit, and she is a lot more thoughtful, but she’s missing the balls-out bit that would make her last years in and years out working hard stock.  At least, theoretically.
• Buying and selling dogs. My friend told me that he used to train crossbreds and sell them at auction but then he figured that purebred dogs with papers made more money, so that’s what he’s doing now. I figured the market would bear whatever the best dog was. Au contraire. Lines matter even in the working cattle dog world.
• Puppies in ranch homes. He also said that if you had a rancher that had never had a dog before, you’d better place a finished dog with him or make sure you give him some lessons. Otherwise, he’s not going to know how to use the dog and he’ll tell his friends your dog is a piece of crap and that’s how your reputation goes badly. But, once a rancher has a finished dog, he’ll know how to use the next one and start it as a pup. This is a good reason why a lot of Aussies aren’t in working ranches anymore: people don’t start and sell started/finished Aussies. I know Norm Andrews wanted to do that, but too bad he isn’t here to talk to anymore.

Shannon asked me after it was all over if I felt ready for the next one. I told her not yet – my dog doesn’t mind well enough and she’s got to get some more confidence before we go in. There’s a trial Easter Weekend I might be ready for if I get enough mileage in. There’s a lot riding on me representing Aussies well if I’m going to do this – I’m conscious of the prejudice and, honestly, if the Aussie has no place on the ranch any more, there’s definitely no point in breeding working ones with reserved attitude, bite, etc when there’s plenty of lovely family pets and trial dogs for people to pick from. There’s also plenty of people trying to get me to switch to BCs next time (and at this point I know what I’d get if I did), but I’m more than ever encouraged to go as far as I can with Rippa and start with a new generation to see where it takes me. Keep learning, keep looking, the world just keeps getting richer and richer.

Stockhandling: I should know better

I keep this blog mostly for myself to track what I’m doing and  thinking and to just get it down. It’s public because I figure some people can get some good out of it here and there, and also so many people have helped me when I had issues after I posted here.

This is one of those posts that’s definitely a mix of both.

First, The Fury ruptured her CCL (ACL in humans) and we decided to go ahead and get the TPLO surgery on her so she can get back in action. I had a feeling it would happen. She’s an athlete that does not really think much about what’s happening with her body because her head is in the game. The older she gets the more I worried about it, but I’m of the school of let them enjoy it if they do. She blew it cornering on sheep, but she could have easily done the same thing playing fetch.

She’s an intense little dog for a 12 year old and I have a feeling that unless something horrible happens, she’s still got a lot of time with me left and I’m not going to let it be hurty and depressing for her. So, she’s got hurty and depressing for a few months instead. 

They say they have a 50% chance of blowing the other side and “the vets don’t know why that is,” but as an athelete with some decent sports medicien knowledge . . . it’s pretty obvious. If there’s a weakness, it will get exacerbated. A dog limping on a limb for months and compensating and then going right back to hard work without therapy and probably some ongoing work is totally going to compromise the weaker side. I’m feeling pretty good about things on that end, but again, she blew the first one in the first place and the plan is not to restrict her fun when she’s ready.

I set her up in a pen in the office and she is sooooo sad and it’s only day one.  We’ll get through it. So much for trialing her in January! Oh well!

When we dropped her off for surgery, we then headed over to the Woods to work some calves. I am sure I’ve mentioned this before, but the Woods are always switching out their livestock to keep things fresh which I love. I’m so used to people keeping a set flock of sheep and just replacing older ones, but this new stock all the time does a lot for me and the dogs on the handling things. There’s no getting used to patterns. It’s different in some ways and similar in others.

What do I mean? Well, the animals are different so a dog and a person can’t settle into, “Oh, well, that’s how I work THAT animal” mentality. It’s the same in that the stock handling principles become really apparent.

I work my chickens pretty regularly with the dogs, too. When the Spring comes, grasses stop being dormant and start popping up everywhere. In my old house, I’d just let them loose to mow the lawn and let the Fury hold them from going into the street or bushes, but in the house, the grasses pop up in the mulch and fake riverbed in front, so I pulse graze them with an ex-pen.

The neighbors love it. Seriously.

I generally use Rippa for this because the mileage has paid off and she is really good at moving them faster than me alone while also team working it with me.

Anyway, the point I’m making is that a day after Thanksgiving, one of the neighbors came over with me herding them into the pen and asked how it was I was able to herd them at all and I told them about this hobby of mine, and it’s true. There are basic tenets of stockmanship, that, once you understand it, apply to pretty much everything. Watching the eye, understanding pressure and the direction things will flow in avoidance . . . Chickens aren’t hard to work at all if you know what you’re doing and they’re not tame enough to blow you off. In fact, last year a bird flew into the house at night and could NOT figure it and it took me settling and realizing it was heading toward light sources, so we just turned off the lights, opened the door and had the porch light on. Fixed.

Anyway . . . we’ve got Rippa entered in a trial in a month and my main focus right now is getting her to mind me more responsively (aka, “Down” when I say down, not after five or me yelling) and take pens, because I don’t practice that a lot, no real good opportunity.

Both of these hinge on my ability to chill out. I get pretty yelly instead of being consistent and it’s not good. And I also put a lot of pressure on the dog in the take pen. Looking at photos of me, I can see that I probably just need to get out of there.

So, we went to the Woods and Dustin worked with me on getting Rippa to just be easy. Reality is – she gets uncomfortable when she’s faced up close to a cow and I get why. Her instinct is less to run than it is to fight (which is good), so she will take pressure to a point until she needs to break loose and hit something and run to relax. It’s fine with me, that’s something we can work with, but it’s a fact. Our session consisted mainly in having Rippa learn that chilling while facing stopped cattle can be okay, both in the pen and outside.

We have a free-standing pen and Dustin and his dog would work one side and Rippa and I would work another to repen them when she pushed them out and again. After an hour of this, we were getting really great teamwork together and Rippa was starting to get that it’s okay not to bust stuff up when something moves.

I, on the other hand, got a solid reminded to think more.

Dustin asked me with regard to the pen, where I should send the dog. At Kathy’s, the way the pen was set up, it was ALWAYS on a go by and lay down at the back end. It was the lowest pressure way to get them out of the gate and into the arena. So, I never thought much. That’s pretty much how all of the take pens I work are set up, so I told him.

“No,” he said, “Look at your cows.” The heads were facing counter clockwise outward. If I opened a pen wide and sent her on a way to, they would pop right out. If I sent her clockwise, they would have to turn around and probably cause a little dog fight in a tight space before coming out.

OH NO! I KNOW BETTER THAN THAT! Once he realized I wasn’t thinking like that, he started asking me before we sent her in to take them out. It was a great lesson.

During the team work, I also learned something important on my end. I was using Rippa to hold one side and me to hold another while helping her get repositioned, but twice when a cow made a break for it, I would run laterally in that direction and it would spook and overreact, and then Rippa would.

“You did that,” he says. “Next time, don’t move laterally, think about moving  out and back and then laterally.” (AKA, don’t cut my corners, but square off when I take the pressure, like we want our dog to do.)

Again, I SHOULD KNOW BETTER. Shannon says it’s a lot of me worrying about the dog and my handling will get better when the dog gets right, but it was a leap forward in sensibilities for the both of us this time.

Dustin sent me home with toy stock to set up some stuff and practice my strategies. next post, I’ll probably share that with you.

Or, maybe it will be observations from this weekend’s horseback trial. We’ll see!

Me backing up to take pressure off, Rippa minding herself, too.