You get the dog you need.

So, it’s been two weeks post trial. I’m in the massive swing of things with work and responsibilities, and I THOUGHT the dogs would like a day off, but they seem to be more anxious to get outside and get ticks and fleas and take my time than usual. ;D

I put Rippa back on cattle a week after, and this week, it was the trifecta. She’s still pretty shut down on cows . . . will go do an outrun and just go to head to get some hits in, gets them going along the fence, but then gets pouty. I want to be frustrated with her for not trying so hard all the time like her mother, but the fact is this: Rippa is the dog I need right now.

Why is Rippa pissy? Because at the trial, she gave me 12 straight works of me giving her all kinds of commands without blowing me off too much and she’s fried. Rippa did not understand what I wanted by the end and now she’s in her learning phase thing she does where everything slows down while she figures it out.

Why do I know this and it’s not an excuse? Two things: She won’t work WITHOUT me giving her commands. She’ll take a step, look back and wait. But she doesn’t work very happily, so what I’ve started doing is dead silence works where the only thing I can do is grunt and use my stick. By the end of the second session I had my dog mostly back because she felt like she had her job back and could think for herself again.

And you know, the biggest things I need to work on at this point are that: quiet and consistent commands and letting my dog work. Rippa is asking for it and I’ll give it to her.

The Fury has a different set of tools from Rippa, and one of those was her consistent willingness to try hard even when I messed up. If she hadn’t been like that, I wouldn’t have kept on going with this stockdog stuff. I’d have messed her up and probably quit. The fact that I’m still working her at 12 and able to see the difference between us before and now . . . what a gift!

But now I need a dog that won’t try that hard when I mess up, because it will make me a better handler and trainer in the long run. Of course, we all want perfect dogs that have talent and try and never give up, but we don’t all NEED that in every dog.

I know a lot of people don’t want a dog to think for itself, but that’s what her generations of breeding have wanted – one that will work stuff out on her own. The trial I wouldn’t/couldn’t let her do that and so she was super cool and let me force her into stuff. But too much of it and she’s throwing her paws up like WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO, REALLY?

I still think she’ll be a nice little trial dog when she gets “the point” but I’m still going to work on foundation stuff instead. She won’t need as many commands from me if she understands the basic job better and better.

She was great on sheep and ducks, but Stephanie’s sheep are all bred so I think we’re out for a few months on that. Shannon and Dustin were thinking that I’d either have to drop cattle and work JUST sheep in order to qualify since we’re working on building confident power on cattle, but she’s a pretty nice dog when she gets it so I don’t think I’ll need to. Will I have to ratchet her down HARD at trials? Probably. She’s a cow dog. She has a lot of presence and power.

Dana Mackenzie’s been posting all the old photos of Rippa’s heritage, and this one about Judd’s Chickasaw Dan (that Rippa’s line bred on – remember me posting about calling the Judd’s about the shut down and how he’d do that on ducks and sheep?) just got me:

”I know Dan was an older dog when he started training and trialing. I saw him run with Joey in Arkansas in one of his early trials. He was a very strong dog, had aussie eye and some natural distance off of his stock. He was working freely in this trial and I got to see his ability. Later on Joey had so much obedience on him it was hard to see, but I suspect he needed it. Dan was a hard, tough dog, and excellent sire of good cattle dogs.” (Emphasis mine.)

Yeah, I think Rippa will need a lot of obedience on her for the wee animals, and for the same reasons. Plus, I like knowing that he started trialing/training when he was older, too.

So yeah, just going to poke around a bit for the next few months while I get my work done. I think my goal of WTCh by 2016 is still pretty doable, so long as I figure out the balance for my dog. I’m looking forward to the next generation and seeing what it’s like training a dog start to finish with no breaks with so much more knowledge than I had to start with her.

The next trial on the docket is April 4th weekend’s 4Cent Ranch cattle trial, but with how work is going, and how Rippa’s pissed about commands, I think I’m going to sit it out. The Woods have invited me to their ranch in April to do cattle chores, and that’s the right step in the Education of Kristin for me – getting to both apply my stockmanship and see how dogs are really used with more than a few head of cows, I think. Better to do that, than worry about trials.