And so we pause for a commercial break (not really)

I recently got around to reading Getting Things Done, one of the great tomes business people cite when you need to get efficient. One of the pieces of advice that I got from it was this:

If it’s on your mind, it’s unresolved. Write it down, put it in a to-do pile or a resolved pile, or do something about it. Stuff on your mind will drag you down.

So I’m sitting in acupuncture today trying to meditate and make use of an hour of having needles in me with nothing to do, and one of the things that came up was: stockdog trials.

Like, there are about a billion happening this May, and while my job is taking a lot of time, and I still haven’t recovered from the financials from the last few trials (not a cheap endeavor, to be sure), I still think, well, should I keep up this momentum? And there’s at least one ranch trial happening memorial day weekend. Should I go for that?

And so we pause:

1. What this blog is about is the warts and all of things. I know that by saying my thoughts, I am revealing things that probably happen to all of us but few admit to it and that’s WHY I do it. I believe in being real. So the first thing I have to say is that I’m sorry that I was so haughty that I thought I’d walk into my first trial and get Most Promising Started Aussie and all my titles because I’ve been working so hard on training my dog and I don’t like trialing.

I don’t not like trialing after the last one, but I’d still rather be doing other stuff, that’s okay.

But here’s the deal. Everything in my professional life revolves around training and exhibition in some way. In the climbing world, you train to go somewhere, climb a goal climb, and go home because it was fun. In the event world, you can’t expect to win an event because there’s more to it than your savvy and fitness. I don’t know why I thought stockdogging would be any different.  It was arrogant and whiny of me and I’m saying it here.

2. Ever since the trial, Rippa’s been lackluster on cattle. She’s not quitting me per se, but she’s not giving it the college try. Like I said after the trial, I honestly think she got tired of taking all my commands and it wasn’t helping so she’s like, “Dude, what the hell do you want?” Shannon reminds me that that kind of thing isn’t useful on a ranch and won’t win over anybody for homes.  But I am pretty adamant that this is because of trialing and not just doing chore work – and I never said I needed a good trial dog for my goals, which she is always game to do, and good at.  I got really frustrated with it so I had Shannon video tape it. Her attitude is like, “Look, I don’t know what you want, so I’ll try a little – but, oh, look, this sucks. I  will do tricks for you, though, I love you, I’m sorry.”

I sent it off to Kathy to look at and asked, “Is this the dog or me?” Kathy says she can’t really see her attitude, but I was running the cattle off and even she didn’t know what I wanted Rippa to do. And I can see where at one point I was aware of it and then fixed it, but it was already too late. Again, I’m used to The Fury just trying again and harder whereas Rippa just wants to be right.

Here’s the video:

The quit is at 26 seconds when I tell her: leave it to the cow trapped in the pen. I can see about a billion reasons why she’s mad at me and why she doesn’t believe so I have GOT to learn to handle cattle better. I don’t because they’re big and I am worried about Rippa coming in too hard.

Here’s a minute before the quit, after about a half hour of work:

She gets a little fixated on the one she hits and we lose our thinking dog, but I’m always in the wrong spot.

So, you know, handling and stock sense make a difference. New plan? Borrow a trained border collie and figure out how to handle cows with a dog when you’re not worried about the dog’s end of stuff.  Let Rippa work  shorter sessions and don’t keep going until she is frustrated with me.

I’m off of sheep for a bit because Stephanie’s ewes were all bred so it’s goats and ducks and cows. She’s looking flipping AWESOME on goats. Just saying. She used to like them a little too much but she’s maturing into it. Like Shannon says, I wish I’d been able to start her consistently when she was younger, it would have been interesting to see what we got.

I took Rippa and the Fury out to ducks yesterday and the weeds are so high that it’s kind of hard to do it in spots. I had real low expectations but set up a pen course with some obstacles and I found by not saying much at all and letting Rippa just make assumptions about what I wanted by where I was standing, I got a lot done – and nicely – and that’s like . . . ENTIRELY what she’s for. So I need to learn to handle like that. Fury takes commands easier but doesn’t read her stock as well. Habits, adaption, etc.

So, will I trial in May? Probably not. Money + peak work season (like, Memorial day weekend is a week before my big race on the Eastside and will I really want to be gone that much like that? Probably not) + this little hang up . . . I need to be confident before I drop big money on a trial that I have a dog that will do the course and that I will help her out. We’re Open dogs now, and we have some limitations and expectations that weren’t on us before.

And there, now it’s out. I can finally stop thinking about it. I hope.