Rippa at Repeat Offenders’ Camp Day 3

So I think I’m going to lay off the videos for a bit. I don’t really see much changing in the next day so I don’t know that it’s worth editing and posting. But I will show you some nice photos and videos from today.

First up was cattle. Most everyone had a “better” run, but almost nobody had a great run. I was on the edge of my seat for most of it, worrying about people’s dogs (though, as I said in an earlier post, for some reason this does not happen with my own). I really loved watching Joann’s dog work – she’s a smooth border collie, bred for cattle. The day prior, Kathy had her work with Teal and it got her confidence up. Now she was keeping her space, reading her cattle and it was really beautiful. It took my queasy feeling to squidgy.

Her being quiet also reminded me of a truth I forget about – when the dog is less powerful, it opens up the flightzone on the people side. Sheep are usually pretty used to people so this doesn’t happen, but with cattle and ducks, you can see it. Since Joann’s dog was quiet, not bitey and not quite that powerful compared to other dogs, the cattle had no problem confronting her further away from the handler. I couldn’t get a clear one of them fighting pointing toward Kathy (who was handling), but you can see them all more willing to go into the dog than her.

After taking some photos of people’s dogs, it was my turn and Rippa was a lot happier to start, but I didn’t really know what to do to control her so Kathy stepped in and she shut down a bit more.

But there was heading. And there was even a little bit of fetching. And some yahooing. And then she got kicked, but was fine. I think she needs a bit more time on them. Again, not thrilled she’s just not turning on – but she is not the bravest initially in situations like this.  But Anne (Rippa’s sire’s breeder/owner) saw the video and commented that she will probably be easy to teach to drive and it’s nice that she’s not obsessed with stopping them. It will be interesting to see. Marilee said things along the same lines – that she’s nice and that I will take her a lot further than I could her mother, and that she’s also making me a better handler at the same time. I just need to give it time. BUT I WANT MY BADASS CATTLE DOG NOW NOW NOW.

And here we are!

 

On to sheep -  this was cool, Kathy asked me to do the sorting chores with Rips after lunch. I haven’t done them in years since starting early training with Fury so I wasn’t totally sure what to do. But it came back once she instructed. I don’t have video of that because who would be holding it?

Basically our job was to take the whole herd, move them out into the arena, and slowly let them in so Kathy could sort light from heavy sheep. Rippa needed to stay on a down for that, and at 20 months old, that’s pretty hard for her to do and she nailed it. No train wrecks.

Then, she had to take them from larger holding pens to the smaller sorting and take pen. I screwed this up. Kathy was saying I should send her and then lead the way but I didn’t trust her to behave and get out and it got messed up, with sheep behind the door instead of through it, but Rippa exacted pretty good self restraint with fixing it. For a dog that has no problem stepping on you, squealing, stealing food, and tearing stuff up, she is pretty mellow with the stock around.

Then we had to hold the sheep for the sort again. When it was time we either put sheep out or just brought them back in where they needed to be. It wasn’t super exciting, and in the small holding pens, I just had to hold her collar or she would try to just hold them in the back, but all this work was supposed to teach her mellow self restraint. I was pretty impressed that she could be in the same pen as the sheep and show no interest unless told to. Fury sometimes would shake like a Chihuahua in the back area because she was so excited about being around all the sheep.

When it was our turn to work, I was reminded to quit being cocky because I was still working the heavy sheep. The real trial would be to see if Rippa can hold her stuff together (and me, too) on much lighter sheep. If she can, well, I see lessons in flanking and driving in her future. Her slingshot outruns are getting better, too. It’s so interesting how she seems to process stuff after the fact. She is kind of a slow learner – like, she watches stuff and looks at it, and then I think she thinks about it – and I sometimes thing she’s not getting it and then BAM, one day it’s there.

Today was one of those days. I am really proud of our sheep run. It was short because Kathy wanted to save her for pen work.

Starting a Dog on Cattle

So, as I have been writing, I’m attending a clinic that includes running your dogs on cattle. And, as the cycle simply is, pretty much everyone in camp right now has a young dog with limited or no exposure to cattle, so seeing everyone do their thing is really interesting to me.

How Kathy starts the dogs on them  -

First, it’s important that the cattle are as used to dogs as possible. They’ll group nicer, stay calm, and be less frightened of people (ie, smaller flight zone). These cattle are off the hill and then used for a trial the preceding weekend. There’s a reason that the advanced dogs go first in trials – to teach the cattle to mind dogs so by the time the started dogs get there, they’re less panicky.

Second, wide open spaces. It’s really a good idea to get your cattle out in a big space like an arena. Kathy uses a combination of a stick with a flag on it and her dogs to keep the cattle off the back fence (where home and safety are) so your dogs don’t get mashed up and smushed, and also to give them a chance to pick them up. The stick with a flag up also seems to freak the dogs out sometimes (it’s a bigger visual than the plain stick is), but it has a purpose. Anyway, like point number one, this is a safety thing.

With that said, man, watching young dogs start on cattle freaks me out. Some people intentionally won’t put their dogs on cattle because they worry about safety. I feel like I have cattle dogs so there is no reason to consider it an unnecessary risk, so I don’t get too freaked when they get into dangerous situations – but other dogs, I totally am on edge watching.

Anyway, the general approach to putting a new dog on cattle is this – set your cattle out in the middle of the arena and let the handler and dog follow them until the dog turns on. Then figure it out from there.

Most dogs, after a period of intimidation which involves running up to the cow and then running back to the handler, will slowly gain the confidence it takes to figure out they can move them. But I wouldn’t say “moving them” is a confidence shower in and of itself.

Most of the dogs, when they got confident moving them, started to yahoo a lot  -  heeling, then running to head and barking/feinting them to turn them around. But there was a lot of running and barking and unnecessary shots. Rippa was equally guilty of this, but still didn’t really have the confidence to head them. Some dogs never do. I think I covered headers and heelers earlier, so search that if you want to know why.

I was talking to Marilee about dogs bred for cattle and dogs not and I made the following observation about this, which I have pretty much considered truth after experiencing it in my own dogs. Very strong cattle dogs, when given the choice to fight or flight will pick fight. They will go in and do what it takes with a charging steer, but this also means that off stock, they are more likely to nip or be confrontational under pressure when other dogs would submit or avoid.

I actually got Rippa into trouble for that today. She and I were working in the pens and someone wanted to come through with her dog and watch. So there we are along the back panel, pretty close quarters – she and her dog, me, Rippa, and Kathy’s dog Denny. For the record, Rips has always been a little worried about other dogs – with time and socialization she’s mostly friendly, but if a dog runs up to her and intimidates her, she has no problem letting it know. Anyway, Denny is up in Rippa’s business so I make the mistake of trying to re-place her by laying her down between the two dogs, and Denny puts more pressure, Rippa looks at the gal’s dog, and he makes eye contact and leans toward her and it was just too much pressure for her so she lashed out at him for a second. I should have just read the situation and put her back by the front of the gate instead with us, but I was being dumb and novice. Now she is quite sure my dog wants to eat her dog when it was just a situation where my dog felt too much pressure and I wasn’t letting her get out of it by telling her to stay. My bad.

Anyway, it’s an interesting thing. Watching all these new dogs go from being intimidated and standing with their owners to charging the cattle, sometimes taking a hit, and going right back for more. But I also watched Kathy handle Teal on them – an experienced cattle dog who has to be about . . . 8 now? Anyway, confidence looks like Teal – she stands up right, no face, no lip and just looks at the cattle getting in her face. If she needs to, she’ll do something. And then when she’s fetching them in, she’ll sometimes take a cheap shot once in a while, but keep her balance and read her stock and you can tell she just thinks it’s fun. These biting dogs . . . they’re just as scared as the non-cattle dogs not making contact.

And then I wonder if anyone starts a young dog and they aren’t intimidated at first. Kathy used to bring out a trained dog to keep the cattle moving and give confidence to the younger dog (it’s in a lot of training books, including my favorite by Scott Lithgow),  but she’s since learned it can get the dogs hurt so she avoids it now.

And that was a divergence. Once the dog is going to head and moving the cattle, it’s time to ask for a fetch by pushing the dog back once it heads. And that is how you start a dog on cattle.

Day 2–On the Hill, First Cattle Run, and Sheep

I don’t really know how to start this blog except that today was pretty much one of the most perfect stockdog days I’ve ever had. I lately have felt a little burnt out from the whole thing – maybe because I have lots of other stuff going on, maybe because Fury was really easy to train so I achieved a lot of the goals I set, maybe I’m lazy, or maybe being on the ASCA Board just kind of burned me out. I have no idea. But today reminded me a lot about why I do this.

It also got even better when I sat down to review/edit the videos of Rippa from today and listened to the onlookers on the tape comment on her cattle run – people with a lot of experience, with a lot of knowledge, and even a well-respected stockdog judge comment on her positively. It made me sparkle because, well, I bred her. I didn’t just go out and buy her, I planned this.  Squeal.

Lots of firsts today so let’s get to it:

7:30 am, I arrive and help Marilee and Doug fix Marilee’s awning because the trailer washers are coming. Did you know there are professional trailer detailers? I didn’t. First number one.

We finish that up and go out back. I am lingering by the fence (mostly because I want to video tape this), but Marilee calls me up to her, down the road a bit and on the hill with the sheep. I leave the camera behind because it’s foggy and because I think asking her to tape while also making sure I don’t eff this up is probably asking too much.

She tells me to just hang out while she works on getting her dog to listen. Ally is kind of being feisty and wanting to do stuff her way and it’s pissing Marilee off. She tells me she wants to save her energy for cattle, so it will just be a little and then we’ll get them.

The fog is so heavy. Everything is so still. You can’t really see anything. So different from the day before’s super hot weather. It’s magical. It’s my turn.

“Make sure you point the heads uphill or away from the gate they came out of when you lay her down,” Marilee says, handing me the reins. If I don’t, they've been known to take off. Stockmanship 101.

So I down the puppy, get between her and the sheep and let ‘er rip. And she does amazing. Now, I have mostly only seen advanced dogs out here, or dogs learning to drive who lose their sheep, but I am pretty impressed with the Rippa bear. She keeps off them, balances up and rates when she needs to. It’s like floating across the fields. I have never felt so mellow in my life. Poor Fury had me on extreme edge all the time – I am so glad I bred Rippa to be a little more easy (her dad looks pretty easy in the video) and I’m glad Yishai chose her for that reason (I am quite certain two of her sisters have Fury’s spitfire).  I can do whatever I want. Even when she does her little dive in to test what happens, I push her out easily. It’s flipping amazing. I feel high.

And then it’s time to go back in.

Kathy is right there and asks how it went, and I give her a sheepish grin and say it was so different.

Well, she lists the reasons why:

• No fencelines may mean less intellectual control, but the space makes dogs feel less pressure and less claustrophobic.
• You’re making less turns which means you’re setting up less mistakes and bobbles and nags.
• The handler pays less intense attention to the dog because he/she is worried about where he/she is going.
• I had eight sheep. More sheep is nicer for these dogs, as I’ve said before.

All this comes down to the fact that working out back on “the hill” is more relaxing. And it was. For the dog and for me. She even downed instantly when I asked which I have a hard time getting her to do on stock, as you have seen in the videos. Marilee tells me I did a good job. I tell her I was glad it was her out there babysitting me.

We then regroup and figure out what’s next – and it’s that all of us want cattle. I spend a lot of time watching and taking some notes, adding to what I remember from Fury lessons and what Kathy says. I take photos of some of the dogs and then it’s my turn.

I think I’ll write a separate post about starting dogs on cattle, so hang tight. This post is all about me, Rippa, and the stock.

Anyway, so it’s our turn, we’re last, and we have nice cattle. I don’t know why but when you mix red and black cattle, things happen. I guess they’re racist. I warn Kathy that I know Yishai has taken her out with them but I’ve never seen it so I don’t know. I am sort of expecting a ballsout charge fest.

It’s actually quite the opposite. Rippa has shown me in accidental situations that she is quite measured around cattle, keeping her space, being calm, etc. And this was no different. She immediately started out by driving them at the heels, keeping them together, and just helping move them along. Peaceful like.

The thing is, she really did not get up the confidence to go to their heads and turn them. She tried a couple times and I have this awesome image of her burned in my mind of her giving the “I’m serious” snarly face to one of the bovines, but she pretty much stayed out of their way, kept out, and was happy at their heels. When she was at their heels. She did a lot of running back and checking with us and staying next to me. Which is HILARIOUS because I spend a LOT of time yelling at her to do just that when she sees cattle on the hill or in a field or something.  The video will show you this.

All in all, I’m not too worried about her not heading yet. She needs to turn on and get some confidence and she’ll be fine. I told you earlier I held off on lessons because she had some confidence issues and this is the same here. She’s kind of got a thing about new stuff – she needs some time to work it out. Once she does, she’s golden and it translates nicely to similar new stuff. I think she just needs time to understand what is going on. Kathy gave me some excuses about her being weirded out by her being there and that normally she would get Teal in to help rile them up and get Rippa some confidence (that’s what she did with Kite when it was Fury’s first time) but her Fred dog got injured so she’s wary of doing that with Rippa, who she can’t really control herself (Rippa works only for me). Marliee suggested working on the hill made her tired, but I doubt it. I think it’s just Rippa’s confidence is low. I know that about her.

And honestly, that’s kind of a bummer – I was happy to see a lot of things, but sad that she didn’t have the sheer drive and ballsyness that Fury has. I definitely wanted to tone that down in the next generation, but I also don’t want a dog that needs cajoling when things get rough. Rippa definitely checks out when she’s uncomfortable and that was always something I liked about Fury, that she didn’t. But, like I said, once Rippa gets it, she’s golden.

Anyway, here is the video for your pleasure – with Wagner as your backup music. Unfortunately, despite it rendering FOREVER, when it uploaded it was all cloudy and waiting for it is making me get behind in work so you get only cloudy Rippa. I’m sorry.

The interesting thing about going back and reviewing the video is that, as I said above, people had really interesting comments about what they were seeing.  No one ever actually talks to you about your dog, and no one said anything to me after the run, so it was funny to be like, “Oh, look they were talking about us.” Folks discussed her pedigree and me going back to linebreed on Slash V and such. They mentioned her super rich dark color, and then settled into discussing how Rippa is a better dog than Fury. Which is sort of nice and not, right? I mean, LOOOOOOOVE Fury, and as Kathy has always said, Fury was a nice dog that I started wrong. Rippa would have been a better learner dog for me, but definitely Rippa will get along quite nicely compared to her mother because she’s also benefitting from years of handling practice. But, as an objective viewer, yes, Rippa is better – conformationally, temperamentally, and she’s got nicer control over herself. If she would quit stealing everything and eating it, she would be universally better, but Fury’s at least honest.

Anyway, there are comments on her nice tendency to keep them together, sympathy with me that she’s not going to head, comments about how that might not be an issue . . . etc.

At the end of the video, when Rippa finally does go to head, the whole peanut gallery erupts in support, “Good girl! Yay! She has it in her!” Sparkle! Thanks campmates!

Lunch time and then back to work. I ended up going first because I tend to move fast so this works, which is also nice because I can go home and get back to work. I feel really, really guilty taking time off to do this so it’s nice to be able to actually get home and be productive, too. (Only after Rippa blogging, of course).

So it looks like Cathe failed at video taping my sheep run, but I’ll tell you that we’re so awesome it makes me sick. I can brag, right? Yeah, gonna brag.

First, Kathy had me go in and do take pen work with her. I guess apparently the way I was moving at first I was fetching instead of going around with Rippa and keeping her off. Rippa hates pressure so she tried to get out of the pen, and maybe once she nailed a sheep in the butt, but she was good otherwise. Practice makes perfect and wool is thick. I feel like that should be my new mantra.

So, we got them out of the take pen mostly nicely and out into the arena. I was able to send her around without having any more little dive-ins like she used to, and she stayed out. She takes her “outs” very nicely and I just ended up walking backward in a line. In fact, Kathy had me go through the panels, drop her, do some outruns, etc, and it was all so totally fabulous I’m thinking in my head that we just did our first title in started sheep like it was cake. I just really need to get her to LIE DOWN when I ask instead of coming in, but Kathy says she can see that will come if I am just nice and put pressure on my side. Rippa and I got to the panels (which we’ll talk about when training for trialing happens, or maybe just later) and she slowed right on down, let them get through, went around the panel and followed them through like it was baking a pie.

Toward the end, I was having a hard time getting Rippa to cover the right side of the sheep so Kathy started yelling at me about it – but it was windy so I could hear yelling and that was all. But, learning the lesson from yesterday (which is why this blog is awesome, I have to think and process stuff) about needing to just straighten out and get out of the sheep flightzone, I built my side up and held Rippa out and it fixed.

I felt proud as a peacock when I was done. I have come so far as a handler and Rips is such a nice dog. I’m excited for Bakersfield 2012, if not trialing before that.  It’s becoming a reality!

BTW, the UPS man just dropped off a package and Rippa is so dead to the world tired that she didn’t notice. Ha ha! Three more days, girl!

Repeat Offender’s Camp, Day 1

So I showed up to Kathy Warren’s Repeat Offender’s Camp this morning at 8 as the email said I should and no one was around. I literally heard the crickets. And then I found out it’s customary to take your dogs out on the hill, even though she’s not there. Oh. So I sat with Carol Norris and Doug Manley and waited for the show to begin.

Repeat Offenders is for graduated of her 100-series camps. Having excellent notes and also having done this for years, I thought that the opportunity to get on the hill, work cattle, and have five days in a row would be good for the Rippa bear as she’s been kind of off since surgery and no money and no lessons available.

I still need to set stuff up with the goat man, but yeah.

So anyway, the first thing all of us did was use today as a “warm up.” Rippa and I were back in the duck pen to make sure she got good control of herself and I managed things okay on my end.

I totally brought the video camera, but I guess it was full so I did not get any footage, sorry. It didn’t look too different from what you’ve already seen, though. I need to give more time to Rips to straighten up on turns and stop walking in circles, and she needs to stop checking out when I do stuff wrong. But overall, she looked cute.

Tomorrow I will be at the ranch bright and early at 7:30 and I’ll be paired with Marilee Mansir for my very first foray out “on the hill.”

Basically, at Kathy’s you progress from the round pen, to a bigger duck pen to the arena to “the hill.” “The hill” is an open space with no fences to help you. Your dog has to stay in control of the sheep or else it gets messy fast, but the real goal of training at Kathy’s is not to put your dog through the motions trialing, but make it a real, useful stockdog by working on the hill.  Fury never got enough control because I broke her, so in the ten years or so that I have gone to Kathy’s, this is a big moment for me and my puppy. I’m excited. I’m also happy that I am doing it with Marilee as she’s been around long enough for me to take her ribbing and know she’ll take good care of me and be patient if I screw up.

And then it will be Rippa’s first exposure to cattle if it is cooler than it was today (in the 100s, first time all year). Well, first official exposure to cattle. I’ve had accidental run ins since she was four months old that all ended quite well and I kind of think Yishai “lets” her work the cattle on the hills around her when he takes her running because he is always adamant that she is good at cattle. In an almost worshipful way. So we’ll see. I kind of expect good things from her because she has no fear but a good measure of self control and balance from what I’ve seen.

Today was a lot of telling people to go through the sheep to correct outs and a lot of “use your stick to hold the sheep back” which has been kind of a thing lately. Having been around a lot, I don’t know if Kathy has just figured out that this is something that needs to be taught, if I just never noticed it before, or if everyone is just in some kind of stick-misuse cycle. :hrug::

To day 2!

Take my pen, please.

So, yesterday I went to “Good Woman” Thursday and had one run with Rips in the round pen. More of the same of what you’ve been seeing. I really wish I could get her to down faster out there, but I really like her otherwise. She is great for me to learn on – I feel like I am really going to “get it” this time and maybe I’ll eventually have time to help Fury get to her potential before her little dog body breaks down (she’ll be nine this January).

The folks at the ranch yesterday and today were really cool, too. Saw some familiar faces and met some new people – I especially liked meeting a gal my age because you never see that.  

Anyway, so yesterday, Kathy’s like, “Let’s give the take pen a try next time, arm or no arm.”

So today, that is what we did.

We started with working on outruns and me getting back to paying attention to the sheep (I got heavy sheep today and my life is easier when I don’t have to worry about them). We worked on getting Rips to LIE down and to come to me instead of going for the sheepsies, and then it was round pen time at the end of the lesson (when she is good and tired).

So take pens – this is a different kind of work entirely from what we’ve been working on – which is getting the dog to work in an increasingly more open space in control. The take pen is much smaller than the round pen you start a dog in, and you really need to be able to keep them in control there. Dogs feel a lot of pressure in there so keeping them away from sheep and mitigating the pressure you put on them is important, too.

Kathy’s pen is set up so that you have a main gate into the arena that leads into a chute with different holding pens for different sheep (so she can select heavy, light, etc sheep for you). So Rippa’s job was to down in front of the gate while I open the gate and let the sheep into the round pen.

Of course, I guess the sheep weren’t too worried about Rippa because there she is, diligently lying down in front of the sheep with the open gate as I am tying it back so it doesn’t shut, and the damn sheep run right on past her to the take pen. Fury would NEVER have allowed that to happen. I guess that shows the kind of terror Rips gives these heavy sheep.

That doesn’t bother me too much, though. She’s got plenty of power when challenged and to move stock. I haven’t really seen her on cattle, but as I said, Yishai likes to “accidentally” let her get in contact with them sometimes and he always talks breathlessly about her performance, so we’ll see in the fall.

And then, once the sheep were in the take pen. We went in. Here is the video. No commentary necessary because you can hear us all talking.

 

So the idea is that you teach the dog to go in, not bugger (Kathy’s phrase, and it’s perfect) the sheep, and run right around the perimeter, stopping at the back corner (where you tell them to), and then using presence to push them into the arena.

We teach this by going in with them and having them run circles around the sheep and keep her wide to the fence. Then I am supposed to down her opposite the gate, Kathy opens the gate (because it’s a lot to ask an 18 month old puppy to hold her stay with that kind of pressure), and the sheep go out. Now, right here, Kathy says not to let her work the sheep, but use obedience, so I leave her in her down, go out to the arena gate, call her and down her. Eventually she will understand the plan and relax and just go to me while I close the gate and start working again when I say. This was a nuance I either forgot or didn’t remember from Fury. In fact, a lot of this stuff I forgot because it’s been aeons since Fury and I worked take pens. It was kind of funny.

Anyway, second take pen of the day was good, but Rippa was thinking maybe it would be better if she just got out into the arena if I wanted her out so bad. Oh well, Rips has her mother’s “If I am not doing it right, then why bother” trait. When she figures it out, it will be nice.

I am also having problems with stick location, and how it affects the dog, but we’ll worry about that next time and next time hopefully I won’t have the brace on.

Rippa says, “No worries, I luv mah sheep!”

People keep asking me how old she is for some reason. I answer, but I would feel weird going, “Why do you ask?” Maybe I should.

I also talked to Denise Creelman (who was up for lessons) about my silly aspiration to be a breeder judge with stockdogs. All the Junior handlers that I grew up with are getting their licenses to judge, but not me. She was like, “Yeah, she’s a nicely balanced little dog, maybe a little too long for my taste (true, me too), but the problem is she is so small.” Gets you every time! She is about 18” exactly, but in California that’s the kiss of death! :) Oh well. Next generation.

Barking, Arenas, and Sweet Videos of Me Working with a Sling

So, this time, I thought, “Hey, this whole working with an immobilizer on seems to work,” so I brought the video camera for Thursday’s lessons.

The first work of the morning, it was only me and my neighbor, JoAnne (she lives down the street from me) and it would have been too much for her to shoot video so I just set it on a post. You won’t get much video from that work, and it’s okay.

So I get there, and Kathy’s like, “Well, you can’t use the duckpen because Cindy (border collie local) needs to use the geese to get ready to trial in August, so let’s use the arena.” And I contain myself and very studiously say, “You sure the time is right? I can wait.” She goes, “Nah, let’s do it.”

And I am right back to when I first showed up at the ranch and thought the arena was the be-all and do-all. I am thrilled. Although, truth-be-told, I also had just sent in a deposit check for her Repeat Offender’s camp, which involves horses, cattle, and using the hill. I am hoping Rips will be ready by September, if only I can stay in good control and maybe get ahold of the Cattlemaster I keep mentioning and he is game.

Anyway, so I go in there and I am nervous. I watch Rippa at my side as she slinks in. I love how both my little dog ladies get super focused on the approach and slink kinda border-collie in and then lie down as solid as rocks until it’s time to go. No bouncing around like idiots here.

And away we go. You cant’ see much in the video, but she comes in hot (expected), and I push her out, and within a little bit, we’ve got them balanced and I can do pretty much whatever I need to.

Things I learned or thought about today:

I really need to control where I hold that stick. I notice in the video it’s way up when it should be pointing more down. I do like the sheep and how they help me with that because these new sheep are a little lighter and less likely to smash into me.

It’s time to move to the arena when your dog has control of the stock and itself (and you do, as well). The duck pen is useful in that, just like the round pen, it’s simply easier to catch and get control of the dog. Some training methods use leads, but Kathy’s is more about using yourself to handle the situation, and I like that. Fury has always been very good offlead because she knows if she messes up, that I will go and definitely get her.

I have a very big problem of walking into heads when I push Rippa out. It’s like I think the sheep stay put. I push Rippa out and then I go back to where I was in parallel with where Rippa is, which makes her unable to get around, and then makes her bitchy and quit trying.

Kathy is super annoyed by the brace because I can’t really effectively use the stick to get Rips to slingshot around me because of the arm placement. She always was like, “Now that you’re in the arena, it’s time to learn take pen, but you need full use of your arms!” Hopefully when I get to the doc in two weeks, he will say I have the right to bare arms.

Other dog thoughts . . .

- Barking. There was a new dog at the ranch for lessons and two women were outside talking about how the dog was barking a ton. “Does he bark normally?” “No!” she said suprisedly. So I kind of mumble something about how when her dog figures out what its doing and focuses, it will stop barking. Which, right about when I say it, it does.

Stock people really don’t like barking dogs, as I’ve said before. I haven’t thought about it lately, but there’s a good reason for it. I think the majority of barky dogs don’t have as much instinct as I’d like. They are usually like, “Wow, it feels kind of good to rush these animals but . . . I don’t know what to do!” Just like I thought Rippa would bark a lot because she barks a lot in person, she’s dead silent. And how many lessons have we had and she looks good. I’m really happy with how she’s turning out.

- Stress training seems to have worked. That same dog was having a hard time not chirping when he wasn’t on the stock and it reminded me of how Fury was totally unable to self-sooth at the ranch for a long time, she would dance around and chirp and all kinds of things. Now she settles right in for a nap, but it was obnoxious for a bit. Rippa has always been real easy to self-sooth. She is asleep under the picnic table while I grade in the interim, or napping in the truck. Fury used to shiver when we worked in the pens for trials and setting out sheep and I doubt Rippa will. She seems a lot calmer. Could be a personality difference, but I do think “puppy torture” that I did when the litter was little was helpful.

I Definitely Let My Freak Flag Fly!

So, sports fans, I haven’t updated this blog because Rippa didn’t get to work since last time. I haven’t called the goat cattlemaster because I found out shortly after that I was having surgery on my shoulder (old injury) and then I had it. And then, three weeks later, I have lessons.

And while you’re dying to know how we did and what we worked on, I need to explain what I looked like out there.

First off, I’ve got a big ol’ immobilizer brace on so that I can’t do anything stupid with my shoulder. Here’s a photo of the first day of surgery:

So, yeah, that big black thing. People think it’s an industrial fanny pack. I am supposed to wear it all the time – but the reality is that I am sitting here, lying on the couch with it off because I can type easier. Workarounds.

Okay, so, on top of that, it’s pretty hot and humid here in SLO, so, abhorrent of shorts, I have on a short little running skirts and some Nike Frees which are nothing but mesh glued to soles.

And there I am, wielding my stick with one hand and Rippa’s actually doing pretty awesome. We were all thinking this was spectacular and I look up at Kathy and grin, “Well, maybe we shouldn’t be practicing!” She’s staying off them, rating them well, walking straight up, giving them some space . . . Kathy says she gave me a notch up from the heavy sheep we were used to so I better be sure to keep them off my feet . . . which turns out to be literal because . . . RIP!

My right foot literally exits laterally from my shoes and my socks are exposed to the grass. My handling starts to fall apart, so I down the Rippa dog, kick off my shoes and am now handling her in the grass, which is a mix of sheep poo and pee and water. But I am classy and I don’t care.

By now I have fallen apart on my handling and Rippa doesn’t look as good. She’s not trying and not covering. She won’t lie down quickly on command. We practice the slingshot recall and she shoots and doesn’t sling a couple times and Kathy thinks she is clued into the fact that I’m hobbled by the brace.

But, you know, whatever, it’s funny and I had a good time. I still think Rippa dog is an excellent beastie and I’m looking forward to getting more miles on her and more skills on me.

One thing was super clear to me today (though it always is) – your handling skills make all the difference on these dogs.