Getting by with a little help from friends.

Well, it's coming into the Christmas/New Years season, and I have to say, it felt a little like Christmas to this Jew last time I went working. Stephanie has gotten me so many wonderful goodies, some from my registry, some not . . . and then Jennifer also greeted me with a package for the twins as well. There's something so cool about this - I almost feel about the same about it as I did on my wedding day (thinking about all the people I loved that were in town just because of us), but better, because these kids are going to grow up in a vast, diverse community that loves them, and I feel loved as a result.

Anyway, there was also herding.

Much gratitude continues to ebb from me to Sarah Martin. I'm so glad Joan Cliffe Holmes suggested I talk to her, because she loves to spend time explaining stuff as she sees it to me and it's just what I need right now. Of course, it's very cool and important that she's a cattlewoman using her dogs in the operation to me, but moreover, she's taking basic things I "know" but don't understand and explaining it in such a way that things keep clicking for me. I think if I were to teach people, I'd definitely do it in a class-based format because while Kathy's camps were valuable and she was/is always open to questions, you really have to be "ready" for the info to sink in. I think I spent a lot of that time walking backward and doing what she told me without understanding the mechanics of it. Every time Sarah mentions something that sounds new, it's not really, but it's nuanced in a way that feeds my "why" mind.

So, this last time, she'd sent me videos of her pups working outruns and fetching and she makes a casual comment about how stopping a dog or taking it off its feet will break the balance of the dog to the sheep and handler.

Guess what? That's my #1 issue. And yes, with The Fury, I did TONS of walking backward and not stopping, but with Rippa? I did tons of stopping to crutch through it.

So now, thanks to Sarah, I understand what the real point of all those backward walks and turns are. I think with Kathy, I was seeing it as teaching the dog to read its sheep and nothing to do with balance. If you've read this blog long enough, you know that I am always saying I feel like all I ever do is walk backward because I need miles for the dog to calm down.

WRONG!! When you turn, the dog has to kick out and get into balance. When you straighten and mark a "there" on the dog when they're right, they feel balance. And when they get too close, you don't have to run in and bust it up (that's what causes a lot of fights with my dogs), you take pressure OFF the dog who's already feeling it by being close to the stock, relaxing him or her and showing the dog that it can control from further away.

Slow and steady.

And that's all well and good, but I tried it this last session. The difference on BOTH dogs from beginning to end was amazing. The Fury who is a pushy something else was following the sheep straight across the field with no pressure and taking her downs nice - this is huge! Rippa did the same thing.

This exercise also showed me that Rippa's not really getting to balance a lot of the time before she cuts in, and the sheep will go past me on my side instead of pointing at me in front of me, so we had to work a lot on showing her how to keep out (me running toward her and reminding her) until she got to the right spot and then could tip in. I think I've got a couple sessions of that before it clicks if I do it right. But it was great. Miles and miles of learning.

The other thing Sarah intellectualized for me was the difference between instinct and obedience training. I always hear people disparage other trainers for being "mechanical" and "obediency" but I've always thought everything I did was basically obedience training to one degree or the other.

But Sarah set me straight:

Obedience training is stuff that, when I say, the dog has to do with a predictable outcome. Training flanks, slowing gait, stopping, that sort of thing.

Instinct training, however, is taking the dog's natural inclination to do something and setting things up so they can figure it out without me giving a command. This is HUGE. I don't think I ever really got that because I've been taking direction for so long and not working on my own essential lesson plans. Plus, I always see things as "what does it take for me to shape this behavior?" But the dog, if it's got the instinct, will shape it's own as you present situations to it. I understand now!

Like, when starting a puppy, you teach the puppy to read the stock and balance to them by showing them what doesn't work with the stick. Further along this continues to work like the above with the turning to develop the balance.

In fact, lately one of the things I've done with Stephanie's lighter sheep is walk the fenceline back to the incredible draw of their home gate and Rippa has to keep them in line by going behind them and then half-mooning in front of me, and she's learning over time to stay out wider to move less and to watch the eye of the leader to hold them. I usually try to "obedience that" but I have learned to just let her work.

And that's what a lot of my friends have said when trialing, that I just have to let her work. But I've been so obedience-minded that she's missing a lot of instinct development that would have had us progress faster and I totally see it now.

But letting dogs learn on their own is THE BEST part about stockdogging, and I get it now.

In fact, I'm more eager than ever to see what happens on a field full of cattle now, rather than being worried about how it looks like I did last time I had the opportunity, relaxing, and letting the dog figure it out .  . . I get it. I mean, that's why you get an Aussie in the first place. The quest of "why" is solved.

I finally flipping get it . . . but how long can I keep working before I pop? I'm halfway through this pregnancy, and normally it seems like 30-32 weeks is the magic time to stop, but I have twins and it is dang hard work keeping on the dogs. My core is pretty strong and the pressure of it fighting against the kids is very uncomfortable when I'm out there moving fast and breathing hard. I have a nice brace that Linda Kager (all these lovely dog people!) got me, and I've strapped that on and it makes a world of difference moving around, but  . . . with the rain starting to come and everything else . . . I guess we shall see. :/

Here's me with my brace and preggo stomach.