But first -
A week ago we took the Woods and their latest litter of pups out to work ducks for the first time, and it hadn't occurred to me just how important experience on the kind of stock you have really is. Like, there were just some tips I had about them (like too much pressure and they'll just sit down and more won't help) made me feel good about getting the ducks in the first place. I know when I have my own sheep and cattle, my stockmanship will skyrocket. I'm really good at chicken herding, too, and it becomes really obvious when people stand in the hole I'm trying to send them through. :)
We dropped Rips off at Sherry's, and no I did not cry. I am 100% sure she's going to love it - she's a ranch dog at heart and likes structure and knowing what to expect and pretty much her favorite things to do are work and eat and that's what she'll do there. Sherry gave us a little tour and showed how much of her property was under water. She gave me shit for Rippa's pink collar - but we always got her a bright pink collar because that's what Y liked, so that's what we got this round because she wanted a plain buckle.
On the way home we visited the MacRoberts' and saw her brother, Reid. Rippa is a little thing. Bigger than her mom with more bone, but she's a dead-on 18" high and 32 lbs in peak shape. Reid was neither short nor light on bone. He was great. I'm proud of him. I wish his owners showed a little interest in at least testing him on livestock because they kept him intact and it would be cool to have that blood down the line, but I'm not going to breed to a farm dog that just hangs out just because I am sentimental. He's still so cute and he loved his mama.
Back to the issue at hand: I'll say this - I'm so sorry that Sherry's so far away. I had a wonderful mentorship and experience with Kathy, but the natural enthusiasm Sherry has and how she explains things resonates with me. Every time she tells me something, even if it's me overhearing her talking to others at a trial, I learn something. I think a lot of the stockdog people tend to be a little close-mouthed and she's enthusiastic about expressing her thoughts and teaching people and it stuck with me as we drove away. I remember feeling this way about the single time I took a lesson with her and the Fury, but I just can't give up that kind of time. Maybe I can as the kids get older . . . I know lots of people drive a lot farther to get to her.
Anyway, I felt really good about leaving her there - I'm comfortable describing her as clearly the best handler in Aussie trialing history - I've watched enough of her to say this. She has finesse and she knows how to get a lot out of her dogs, even if they themselves aren't doing the best job at times. It's not hard to be proud, almost, that she was willing to take Rippa in. It feels like a privilege.
I really thought Rippa would immediately settle in and forget all about us and start being super cute for Sherry and not try all her stupid things she does to me. She told me not to call for a week, though, because dogs take a while to adjust.
And it had been seven days, so we did.
I guess Rippa was actually loyal to us and spent the first couple days looking up the hill to find her family and trying to escape Sherry. After a while, she stopped doing that and got to working, but Sherry got to see all the bad habits she'd picked up from me.
And the nice thing was, Sherry referred to them that way. It's not inherently Rippa that she is naughty, it's that she needs good timing and someone to trust her or she takes it out on the stock or quits and Sherry recognized that straight away. She told me would get corrected at the top and just lay down and she'd have to get her going again because I've been stopping the action for so long. That I need to correct and move on. I asked her how she made her keep working because I've had so much trouble with that and she gave me a great tip:
The dogs hear really well, so you tap the ground with a long stick away from them and move it closer and closer. If they let the stick hit them, that's on them, but eventually they'll get up and move well before it and it makes a good training tool. So Rips basically couldn't quit because of the round pen and the stick pushing her.
It was like hearing Kathy with me and The Fury. Rippa's easier to handle, but if you remember, I started with the fear and baggage of The Fury and I didn't breed an easier dog on stock - so it was a delicate balance for me to trust and not trust.
She told me she's taking out all the mechanics and just putting a steady on her and she hasn't been able to get her out of the round pen yet, but she thinks this week it'll go. AKA, she's changing her habits fast enough to be able to trust her in a larger spot and move on.
I had a feeling that Sherry would have a good time training her when Rippa got on board - but you never know, you always think your dog is cool - and so far, she has said some nice things about her - that she's smart, and maybe not real square or finnessy worker, but she is basically how Zippin (one of her best cowdogs) would work if she'd been trained by a novice handler. That's a feather in my cap for sure. That's a much bigger compliment that she told me casually than I'd have expected to hear.
I want to stab the ground with the fact that after something like 15 years of this I'm still a novice handler. And that some of the things that I messed up in the Fury I messed up in Rippa. But, this is why I am doing this. Because I'll NEVER be a great handler (my temperament alone makes me bad at this), but I'm excited to reinforce what I thought, which is that I have a great little dog. And that's all I want, really: to produce great working dogs and to keep learning.
We miss her, but I definitely think this was a great idea. I'm going to be curious to see how I adapt my handling to her new habits and hopefully can document what she looks like after Sherry handles her. It'll definitely be job 1 to be up to the handling she needs when she comes back. This investment is soooo worth it. I'm so excited.
Off to judge/announce a point/time trial!
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