Have I Broken My Dog?

On Wednesday, Rippa quit me again. It’s not your classic dog quitting behavior where they won’t take commands and run out of the ring.

No, Rippa just stops working. She’ll come to heel next to me and offer anything else I could ask for, but just won’t go to her stock.

And when this happens, you get in a position where it’s like, do I force her into something to end on a good note or do I let her win and walk away?

So I went out to ducks yesterday and set up a course.

Fury absolutely killed it – nailing the entire thing in 30 seconds.

Rippa? Rippa quit me. She either went too hard or didn’t go at all.  I  got her back at the end, but not “open trialing dog” back.

And, wouldn’t you know, I entered an open trial this weekend.

So I asked Shannon if they could find time for me today (Friday) and they did, because they’re wonderful. I can’t go to a trial that way, but after the ducks, I was ready to just not show up, even if that meant skipping it with Fury, too . . . because I have other stuff to do that I feel guilty blowing off, really.  I had heard the trial had a waitlist, but nope, they don’t. It was flush money away if I didn’t go.

So when I got there, we started in with the goats and Rippa was a bit naughty. She blew me off a bit and went to water instead of working and Dustin, who hadn’t really seen us work in a bit, was like, “Nope nope nope nope.”

…

After Wednesday’s work, I was really discouraged. Here were my thoughts,

“OMG – everyone says you’ll ruin your dog if you take them to a border collie trainer – maybe I did!

“OMG – Rippa must really suck if she quits me.

“OMG – I personally have broken my dog!”

I talked to people and all of them were like, “It sounds like you drill her too much. Let her do stuff she understands and is fun.”

But I wasn’t drilling her on ducks – the ducks can’t be worked long enough to do that . . . but what became obvious to me was that I have some major training holes with Rippa. Her walk up is broken and I don’t think she fully understands “there” – aka drive them. I had flashbacks to working at Doug’s house with the Fury without much guidance from anyone and having Fury drive by calling her to me with inside flanks and then relying on her enthusiasm to keep going. It totally works, but it doesn’t mean the dog knows anything really except to take your command and then run at the stock. It’s not control.

And as I’m going to DSW today, I remember the last Kathy clinic I was at, and her telling someone with a more advanced dog, “Lay off the tweaking. You can do too much.”

So, yes, I knew I had holes. I knew I needed to go back and work on fundamentals instead of obedience, but Dustin pretty much nailed it to the wall . . .

When had I truly gone wrong? When I dropped my mantra of “shut up and calm down” from a few months ago.

I had, again, began to yap. People used to tell me ALL the time that I talked too much, and I have said as I became more self aware of it, that it’s insecurity. Hell, I write too much, too. The minute I do something bad, I want to tell the world. It’s some kind of defense mechanism that says, “Look at me, I’m know I’m bad, so you don’t have to tell me!”

He’s like, “She’s not taking your commands that much and when you get mad, she dives in. Take this stick, use your body, and shut your mouth.” (Well, he said it in more words, but you get my point.)

I did. She was awesome. She went from being too pushy to balancing at the top, kicking out wide when I made turns, settling into walking straight into the goats . . . and being perfectly honest.

“And what did you learn from that? Rippa knows what she knows. But she can’t deal with you telling her all this stuff that doesn’t mean anything that you don’t reinforce anyway. You know how you get over this? Shut up.” Again, paraphrasing. He’s too nice to tell me to shut up.

When we were done, Shannon was like, “I think you should at least trial in ducks, tomorrow.” Dustin again was like, “No, you can trial in cattle. You can do this. Why would you waste money you already paid – just use it for a training opportunity.”

BUT HOW? I don’t even know what to do! I can’t do that on cows! She doesn’t balance up ever. “Oh, but she will” he said, knowingly.

So, we went up to cattle and Dustin had me lay Rippa down and outlined that as soon as she cut in on her outrun, she was to lay down, and I would reposition, using only my body and the paddle, and send her again, laying her down just when she’d moved the cattle a bit.

After two goes at that, Rippa was super quiet, thoughtful and balanced. I layed her down. We did it in the opposite direction. She went so quietly into the cattle after that that I did some parallel drives, and by the end she was quietly fetching in balance with them.

There were some times when she wasn’t perfect, and it was because I wasn’t there to reinforce it. Holes. It was also when I said “No” or  yelled at her and she’d go dive right in, or start thinking about quitting because I yelled at her.

But otherwise, she was happy, in control of herself and her stock, and moving them at a walk.

It was like, “Oh, I got this. She’s not ruined!”

So, we’re going to trial tomorrow on cattle, and we’re probably going to confuse people when I handle her like this, and it will probably not qualify me because I won’t let her work too much, but it will get my dog back and help fill in the holes in my training, and I’m psyched.

Funny thing is that now I totally know what happened – just like dogs have bad habits, so do people. I’m a dog trainer because I like telling dogs what to do. I LOVE micromanaging. Rippa has gotten far enough along that I do micromanage her and it was working until I was pushing too much and she didn’t get the point. I did it to Fury, too, and Fury didn’t quit, she just got angry. She still gives me angry face when I push her too hard for her tastes. I think trainers who saw her do this would get mad at her, but we have an understanding – when I cross the line, she lets me know, but still works through it.

Rippa doesn’t let me know. Rippa just gives up and tries to please me in ways she understands.

I think this is going to be something I battle anytime I handle a dog – it just becomes habit. I know better, but in the moment I don’t.

Shut up, calm down. I’m sure glad the Woods are going to the trial with me tomorrow. We got this, even if we don’t. I am so grateful to those two. They’re wonderful friends, and they took a solid three hours out of their day to help me today get Rips back on track.