This isn't about Rippa's journey to WTCh. I'm pretty much over it, to be honest with you, so I guess so is this blog? I don't know. I'm over it because she doesn't like trialing and neither do I. I signed her up for MVA at Aussie Nationals and we'll do okay and if I feel like pushing her more because I can, I will, but I'm having plenty of fun just refining my training skills with her and seeing our team work improve.
I've spent the last 3 months focusing on my own handling skills and thought process. Running a book club about Jack Knox's book was helpful in making me think deeper from a new perspective I haven't been exposed to. In the past few years, I've sampled a few trainers and thought I was going to commit to Sherry Baker as a mentor/trainer but the kids put a stop to that.
I also think I mentioned this before, but Rick Hardin put it into my mind that perhaps part of the reason I have not been successful with my dogs prior to this is that they just work differently from the dogs that Sherry and my former mentor Kathy Warren expect and it didn't fit as well. Everyone has a different style and I do know that their lines and my lines aren't exactly the same so it was possible. He said, send her to Sarah. I feel like when a stockdog judge who has your best interest (since he has the brother, among other things) tells you to send the dog to the owner of the dog's sire and a friend that's become a mentor, you do it.
I've been on this quest to go deeper into what is needed in a using dog for a while now because I have been going more and more "pure" in my quest to promote and preserve the Aussie. I have learned so much from having my own stock, but unless I have an operation like Sarah's, I really won't know/see things without putting myself out there.
And I've been fortunate to make a number of friends that have invited me into that, which of course, includes Sarah. Thank God for the Internet because you have a mentor in Canada and the only way that works is with videos and Facebook chats. :)
The thing I really like about Sarah's methods (which are derived from Elvin Kopp, and she is VERY careful to remind you that none of this is hers and is all his) is that it's based in dog management first. If I had been given the kind of tools she has given me with my first working dog, and then my second, I think my life with those dogs would have been very different. I was blocking Danger from looking at the cows at one point and she was like "no no no, this is what you do - otherwise it causes reactivity." And she's not wrong. I just didn't see it until she showed me. This is pretty much the whole thing about Sarah that I love.
When I visited her about four years ago, she had all her dogs in crates in a dark barn that she let out to run but then back in they went and I was a little horrified. Not even a run? What sad little doggies. But one thing I've learned is not to judge people until you find out why. So . . . over time, I did.
One thing the last time I visited with Kathy Warren that stuck with me was when she mentioned a guy at a clinic having "raised his dogs right." I always wondered what that totally meant, but I thought at the time it was kenneling them when you weren't working, the end. Kathy loves to talk about dogs and takes time to explain things when I ask to her to expand, but it doesn't always "connect" with me.
Now I think I understand what she meant, because of Sarah and the proof of how that is. :)
My experience with trainers has been they take your dog and they work with what you and they have to offer. There isn't a whole lot of what to do off the stock in terms of education. I've often felt that I was not equipped well to have a multi-dog household and we had a lot of issues figuring it out when I had two dogs with strong opinions and rules. My dogs tend to be alphas and you really need dogs willing to submit in a house.
I didn't have Danger Mouse managed well. I blame work and ignorance and raising twin preschoolers. He is a LOT of dog. He's friendly and sweet, but he's also ALPHA and has opinions and is pushy and didn't know how to yield to people or to stock. He'd literally go out there and got so hyped he couldn't think about controlling the stock, it was just taking them out. I knew he had it in there because I'd seen him as a puppy and when I got him working it was good, but you had to have impeccable timing and skills to get him going. It wasn't the goal I had for the litter when I bred him, but I've found if you want a really strong dog, this kind of thing comes with the territory.
So, it was quite clear I couldn't be consistent and unemotional with him. It was time to send him out. I had a couple choices: a local guy that took in client dogs (BC guy), a great trainer in the state that I'd sent his mom to when I wanted to know if she was as good as I thought she was, or Sarah in Canada.
Effortwise, it made zero sense to pick Sarah. Flights and logistics and everything else, but if I wanted the best start possible for both of us, I knew it had to be Sarah.
Here's why: she spent the first month just setting new rules for him off stock. The second month, she set new rules for him before she let him have stock, on a line. And the third month? Now he was willing to work with her.
The thing that I've learned through this process is this: dogs want and need control. Her strict "parenting" resulted in him absolutely loving her, to the point that when I picked him up, he was torn about who to go to and listen to. I was kind of expecting a different dog, more controlled, calmer, but he was still his goofy oafy happy self, but you could shut off his inappropriate energy with a warning growl and he'd get right to business.
And while I don't want to go into all the details, because Sarah is right - that too little information without context can ruin dogs and people . . . there are some things that have revolutionize my dog management and stockdog handling techniques.
1. I am so much more quiet. Because of the ground work and then subsequent line work (which nobody I've learned from up to this point has used), I don't yell. A growl lets him know he's not acting right, a line catches him for correction. And you can toss a cane at him if he doesn't listen to either. No more long sticks with bottles on them (though I will still use it as a tool). It's not all about your body language fixing the issue. It's about giving the dog the control they want and a low growl being the thing the checks them. When I run into a dog to push them out, it creates strong, aggressive body language, and builds it in my head. Sarah's quiet method keeps me calm, quiet, and in turn, my dog. Sherry Baker pointed out I was too much with the stick, not aware of how it affected the dog, how my posture didn't. Her method makes me aware.
2. Expectations outside of stock. He can't pee whenever he wants. He comes out of his crate, when allowed verbally even if the door is open, goes and fully empties his bladder. He yields to me if I walk into him and doesn't come back in unless I invite him. He can go from being like WEEE we're having fun, to calming himself down and focusing. He honestly appreciates being put into that position more than running free. All it takes is a growl for him to correct behavior. No praise needed, no commands. He knows what he's supposed to be doing and he corrects himself. He's being allowed to make choices and grow up. And that is going to help him on stock.
3. Feel. After 3.5 months, the only commands he has on him is back (which is like, "out") and down. He doesn't need anything more yet. But he has such nice feel because rather than helping him with the stick and walking into him and correcting him until he gets magically in the right spot, he knows how to give to my pressure and the stock and that he doesn't have to come in to still have control. This is the first time I've had that in a dog, and I'm 100% sure of it that it's the training/handling/ground work that's giving it.
What I also like about Sarah's method is that it's not hard and fast. It's all about calming the dog down. Well . . . that's what my dogs need. I am sure she changes it up if a dog needs encouragement, but as Rick said, what my dog was going to need was to learn "patience." And I certainly did not have the tools prior to this to do that.
In fact, I think Sarah would be able to put on an amazing clinic for reactive dogs totally outside of the stock context. She understands how to set boundaries and react appropriately to them, far more than I have in the 25+ years I've been in dogs. It's not like I've wasted my time twiddling my fingers; her ability to explain things clearly and in detail in the context of action and repercussion is something anyone can take and use as a tool.
And there's so much more to learn. I truly believe that Sarah will revolutionize stock handling as she takes what she's learned from Elvin and continues to evolve it with her own vision.
