Sending a dog for starting with Sarah Martin

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.

What if dogs have different needs in training?

Since I've been out of the serious dog training game for a while, I've recently started reading new information and signing up for DVDs and what not about dog training because I know a lot can change in 15 years.

One of the biggest things I've been learning of late is what it takes to "raise a dog right" for working.

My training skills came from doing conformation and beginner agility lessons when I was a teenager. That was over 20 years ago. Things have changed so much, in a blink of an eye. And that's also quite a few generations of dogs long ago, too.

I've been leading a discussion on Jack Knox's book Life's Lessons with Stockdogs on the Working Aussie Source group page. At first I found the book disjointed and not very interesting, and then toward the middle he started catching my attention.

"Stop telling your dog what to do" he practically shouted out from the page. "Help her be right and let her know when she's wrong, that's it." I read this as "you have a smart dog with talent, let it grow up."

Maybe it's also because I'm a new parent, and I really do equate a lot of my parenting to the dog training I have a lot more experience with. Things like being firm, not repeating yourself, not negotiating, and knowing when to let things slide.

One of the biggest challenges in society I have run across is that I've raised my 3 year olds to be aware and make good decisions. I can let them go get something in a store without being right by their side. But I can't tell you how many times it's ended in tears because a well-meaning adult didn't think they were capable and either tried to help or stopped them altogether to bring them back to me.

So, now take dog training in that context.

When we approach dogs like immature puppies - we are going to get immature puppies. A lot of us are attracted to dog training because, honestly, it's cool to control something. To train them to respond to us. Lord knows we can't do it with anything else in our lives.

And in a lot of ways, that's why I think stockdog training is the hardest. You can ruin a good dog by making them too obedient. By not letting them learn and make mistakes. By telling them what to do.

I saw this meme the other day on a dog training Facebook page. It rankled me. I'd recently had a conversation with someone who thought you trained the "off-switch" in dogs - and I knew they wouldn't understand since they haven't had a dog that had one.

Now, back in the day, I would have been supported this. Love your dog. Tell them they're awesome when they are . . . 

But now that I'm a parent, rewarding your dog for not being obnoxious? No frickin' way. That's like everyone getting a ribbon. 

So I'm wondering if dog training is behind the new empowered parenting movement and it will eventually catch up. All the people who complain about parents who gave their kids a trophy when they didn't earn it creating entitled kids . . . they're training their dogs to be entitled to praise for just . . . existing and NOT making trouble. Shouldn't that be an expectation? One developed by patterns?

I'm not saying don't reward, but reward for legit effort.

Am I wrong?

So then I think, my stockdog training is in direct conflict with my agility training. In agility, you keep the dog hyped up, you tell them exactly what to do, play drive is key. Stockdog, you really want THEM to figure it out, to use their heads, and to calm the heck down.

So then I got to thinking about neoteny. The theory that we select dogs for their puppiness. But if you have a working dog, you don't want all that puppy. You want more wild features.

And then I read this article: "Dogs Never Grow up, and Neither Do Some Foxes,"it took four generations to create fully tame foxes. "These were fully domesticated animals that showed no aggression or fear towards humans, instead wagging their tails and competing for attention." In my breed, we say reserved with strangers. There is a problem with aggression and fear towards humans even after 1000s of years of domesticity, and they don't always wag and compete for attention. It could be argued that these dogs lack the neoteny. They were selected for something else. They were selected for adulthood.

Then there's this: "In Belyaev’s foxes, this socialization window lengthened, and the same seems to have happened to domestic dogs. When a wolf pup is 2 to 3 weeks old, it’s socialization window is already closing. In dogs, however,  in only opens at the age of three weeks and stays so until the age of 12 to 16 weeks. This might be the most important component of domestication, since it gives much more time for the puppy to get to know humans in addition to it’s mother and littermates."

The implications of this are also huge . . . lengthening the period of socialization. My experience with puppies that grow up to be reserved "more adult" dogs . . . they don't enjoy strange people past the age of 8 weeks, if that. 

So here's what my implication is: WHAT IF, your neoteny-selected dog, be it Australian Shepherd or other breed, that's friendly, has a broad head and muzzle and floppy ears (and white) could benefit from praise for doing nothing while my working-selected dog with narrower muzzle, higher ears, less white, and is reserved . . . what if they just need different things?

What if your happy-go-lucky adult dog needs training as if it were still a puppy and your serious and reserved dog needs to be treated like an adult. What if trainers recognized the difference? What would happen if you treated happy like and adult?

What if we owned up to the fact that even within breeds there could be totally different needs for what a dog's potential is?

New lessons - contextual understanding/learning

The Boers and Lamanchas looking at eachother during quarantine

Well, my flock at All About Dogs is now up to 6 Lamancha goats, 10 Boer goats on loan until September, 6 adorable "rainbow" lambs that are something like Katahdin and Barbados, and 9 Barbados. We lost two of my Barbs early on - one little ram that I think panicked and ran into something and broke his neck and one just mysteriously . . . which now gets me tagged on Facebook in all these sheep memes about deciding to die for no reason. Oh, and my ducks came home.

Otherwise, it's pretty smooth sailing. We're aggressively grazing the 5 acres in this unseasonable rain bringing up all kinds of thistle, and I'm loving every minute of it.

I have been pretty obsessed with fencing since WAY before I was ever into livestock or dogs, so I'm pleased to report that my pen setup is AWESOME. The only hard part is getting them from the run in shed on the hill to the pen system at the top when they don't understand what's up.

See all that green and yellow? That's probably 3 acres of brush, thistle, and more goodies that if you lose some animals, good luck having a smooth recovery. It was all well and good before they grew in this winter - Rippa could go down, round em up and call it good. But next her feet hurt from the thistle (which is how I ended up with the goats on loan) and then it grew taller than she OR the stock can see.

Hi, boys!

Which has been SO good for me. I'm starting to totally understand why I've felt so uncertain all these years training in flat arenas for things like rate and control and parallel drive. The sheep are trained to hook into me when they see me so as long as Rippa sees me, they come right to me.

The boer goats are pretty heavy, but they don't like me as much as they don't like the dogs, so when they got loose in that brush field, I learned the value of a parallel drive and then some.  Rips pretty quickly learned to push from the rear and then I, since I could see everything, would make adjustments as we walked along the fence. Once they hit the open field that's mostly just grass, Rippa can get out wide and hold them from going back in there while I push them up and either into the pen system or into the run in shed pen. Trying to do this without a dog is STUPID.

Lamb pile. <3

Then we've got lambs. Oh, they are so cute. But those things are just panic city if they see me or a dog. It's going to rain, so I needed to get them into the run in shed to get out of it, and tried without a dog for a solid 20 minutes before I brought Rippa in and even then, with her holding, they'd just run past her because she was trying to be patient with them and not overpower them while I pushed. I eventually got my boys (the Barbs) and while the Barbs were kind of pushing them away the whole time, they made a bigger, safer herd for the Rainbows (as I like to call them) and we got it done by working the Barbs together.

And then, today, something I was hoping wouldn't happen but suspected would - the goats busted out of the rusty cow fence along the back perimeter of the property. I got a panicked call and sure enough, they were all over the back field where this Episcopal church and nursery are. Whelp, it was an easy enough job with Rippa. She just went out, pushed them out of tree branches and motivated them to go back where they came from. So, after the rains, I've gotta refence that area.

But here's the part where I was like, "OHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" and also, "MY GOD STOCK PEOPLE NEED DOGS."

Now all the herds were mixed and I had to push them through two arenas, a chute, a small pen, the duck pen, and then out onto the hill and into the run in shed for the rain.

Four totally different flocks at once.

Rippa is NOT a finished trial dog by any means, but what I really appreciated about her today was that she was willing to figure out the job and do it. At first she tried to herd them all in and she got close with the sheep (both herds) but the lambs freaked and the Barbs followed) while the goats hung back. Then she tried the entire herd, and it was really cool as I basically tried to fetch them (because, again, the Barbs could lead everyone) to the gate as Rippa stayed back and basically traversed the whole field to cover everyone dropping off and splitting up. It didn't work because 75% of the stock didn't want to fetch to me, so when I got out of the way they flanked again . . . so basically, I got the goats through, then the Barbs, then did the lambs. Each needed a different technique. By the end, it was old hat and the only difficult bit was field to run in shed.

Those damn Rainbows. The Barbs knew what to do so they led the way and then once I got all the goats pointed in the right direction Rippa and I could just sit and wait for them to go in. Then the lambs . . . OHHHHHHH the lambs.

But by now, Rippa was thoroughly practiced and didn't need a lot of instruction to just walk up as we teamed it across the field to the pen, and when they started thinking about heading into the brush, Rippa went out wide slowly and just kinda let them think about it. They passed the run in shed gate, so I just opened it the other way and then sent Rippa and the went right in.

And I'm just sitting here thinking some thoughts:

1. A lot of the training I've been doing just didn't feel practical so I couldn't really do it, and now I get it. And so does Rippa so we're so much better now.
2. I really like my dogs. I really like that I don't need to say a lot to get the job done because they figure it out and then anticipate what you need. Sometimes Rippa's stubborn and takes over and messes stuff up, but it's always better than doing it by myself.
3. I've always known Rippa was pretty frickin' cool, but she's not had a chance to shine until now. I always said she was "ranchy" - and she is. She wants to do her job and then go in her little den (she dug one in the back yard under the shed) for a while. She is a great little town dog in that she'll follow me around but doesn't want pets or make too much a fuss.
4. I decided when I started breeding that I wouldn't use dogs that weren't tested (aka working on farms and ranches) and I'm really glad I am. The difference between a trial dog that lives in a house and doesn't have to do all this can really be huge. I'd err on intelligence and grit over biddability any day and I am.
5. I do not understand why people with stock don't have a dog. With minimal training, everything you do is both easier, and, honestly, more fun. That's my new tact, I think. It would be fun to do a series of videos of without dog and with . . . stuff like medicating (in the holding pen, if I don't have a dog, the ovids run everywhere. If I do, I can catch them like it's nothing), stuff like moving them from arena to arena . . . holding them at the exit of a hot wire netting fence that's not lit up yet . . . working perimeters, all of it. Without a dog, heck no.
6. I'm feeling privilege to work various breeds of dogs these days - I'm learning a lot about what I like, what I don't and how to change my philosophy. And I'm proud that people are seeing a difference between what I offer and what others might - hat tip to Kathy Warren for teaching me to develop instinct and not obedience (which is what we all really want to do first).
7. I've long had a goal of just being a better trainer and helping create a community for people who want the same and I think I'm ready. Squee.

An update

It's been almost two years since I last did a post.

Ha ha . . . man, what a wild ride it's been - raising twins, my work just blowing up . . .  stockdogging was simply not a thing. I had a litter of pups - unfortunately only two viable, but both are pretty awesome and I think will make their mark soon enough. I've just started mine and I'm pretty excited about him. He's the Australian Shepherd I've always wanted and . . . I made him. And he reminds me of his grandmother in so many ways. Oh, right, and she died last May, too, at the ripe old age of 15. No regrets there.

So the stockdog stuff had been on hold mostly, though I was going out to Robbie's as regularly as I could to work his dogs. Rips for whatever reason was not really doing well there, but he was letting me handle his dogs so I could get better timing and feel.

And then it finally happened - this property on the main road out of town put up a sign that said "All About Dogs." It was so vague, I called them up . . . and the rest is history. Meet All About Dogs (with Kristin influence).

I now have my own stock, a pretty sweet training setup, and my brain is just exploding.

I've been emotionally maturing and letting a lot of stuff that used to bother me go - realizing it didn't serve me, and realizing that "imposter syndrome" is a real thing.

I spent so many years feeling unhinged without a trainer telling me what to do, and then scratching my head when Rippa didn't really improve all this time but knowing she was better than that.

The step to send her to Sherry was definitely the right one  - it proved her potential to me. The stud dog I chose for her was the "right one" and I got EXACTLY what I wanted out of the cross. I'm sad I can't repeat it but she had a hard time with the litter and it's not worth it to me to do that to her or me again. There are simply not enough ranch Aussies getting bred in CA and it bothers me that I get inquiries with nowhere to send them sometimes. But now is not the time for it.

I had my friend Roxy out to play with my ducks a while back and I was able to work her two border collies on them and everything started to click for me - I felt confident and I felt like I knew what I was doing finally. I could see what the dog was doing and what they needed and that lack of confidence melted away.

So when I got my OWN stock, I knew it was important to get the "right" stock because working at Stephanie's had me spinning my wheels. Her sheep are great for how she trains and her dogs, but I needed more dog-broke stock that could stay in the middle of the field or come in to me while I worked on my timing and my dog's placements. Trish Alexander graciously sold me some of hers and MY GOD the world is a different place.

Last session I had Rips out in my arena and we were driving and she was taking wide flank commands and I could NEVER have gotten that out of her prior to sending her to Sherry and then with these sheep. The fact that I am also shows me that it's not all me. That nothing is all me.

I actually just went through a really bad time at work where I internalized a message that was being given to me that I was not good enough. I woke up from that and realized that not only was I good enough, I was pretty amazing and it allowed me to let go of that voice when it came to stockdogs.

And so, now that I'm not letting other people's gossip or words or my imagination of what they think hold me back - I'm starting to find again that I AM pretty amazing. Not like . . . at stockdog training and handling, but I am seeing I have some value to add to the world - both as an Aussie breeder and also as someone who helps people with their dogs.

I've done a few instinct tests on my sheep so far and only one total dud. I figured nobody would have as hard a dog as I have, so hey . . . let's see. And so far I've been right. It might not be the most "perfect" start for people, but I have to learn somewhere. I'm seeing myself make mistakes, but I'm also really quick to stop making that mistake. I can feel it. I can feel subtle shifts in the dogs, and I'm really happy that every sessions so far has ended a lot better than it started - and when my own dogs go back a step after a session, I'm patient and not frustrated because I understand.

I'm also proud of my ability to verbalize what I'm doing and talk about it to people.

And moreover, things my main stockdog mentor, Kathy Warren, taught me - are coming back fast. One thing is I suggested to her once that she write a book and she said that things change too much for that and shrugged and was like, "Okay." But now I can feel it. One of my biggest mistakes was trying to fit the steps to my dog and when they didn't fit the steps, I didn't know how or what not to get them to the next step. So, a book with steps only works if all dogs are universal. My other pup went to Rick Hardin, who has my lines, and he suggested that I might just be frustrated because my dogs handle differently than what the people I take lessons from are breeding for. And suddenly, I was like, OHHHH, and so he opened my mind there and that helped me see that instead of doing it a prescribed way, I needed to be open to the idea that my dogs might be different in how they respond. And I think that's what Kathy was saying (also that training progresses, but yeah) - you can't put everything in a book or in a step by step process with stockdogs, even though I desperately wanted to be able to do that.

Most importantly, Kathy taught me stockmanship. I've always liked working behind the scenes because the stock has always been my #1 love - well before I was into dogs, so being the one to care for them and set them out and what not really gets me in my soul. I'm very proud that I can see the shadows and challenges to a set up and help animals feel comfortable moving off me with minimal stress. Teaching that to others, man, that's a whole new level of enjoyment for me.

Roxy came by and I had her do chores - taught her how to do gates but also how to make the sheep go through one at a time so that you were working on the sheep's manners as much as you and your dog. I learned that from the pens at Kathy's and I'm grateful that she gave me that experience, because I have gathered most people who don't own their own stock get that. I feel like that's going to be my #1 priority with my lessons is stock care.

I guess the other piece that's getting me is that you have to start somewhere. I'm leading a book group that's reading Jack Knox's book and he talks about how he gets the most out of the clinics he leads and that he wouldn't have learned anything from anyone compared to what he learned making mistakes. I've been poking on and off at stockdogs for 17 years - I think it's okay to put my shingle out at this point and help people - and be honest with where I'm at while I'm doing it.

And I'm so excited to be able to.

Weekend at Sherry's Part 2

Life has changed quite a bit. I no longer have the time to sit back and muse about my stockdog experiences and worries like I used to.

And that's probably a good thing. Sending Rippa to Sherry for a month was a game changer.

Going this week for a couple lessons even more so.

As Sherry is telling me to repeat "There" to Rippa and watch her turn into the sheep and slow down, I'm flashing back to driving out of Stephanie's property wondering why I need SO much mileage on the dog because I never seem to get better. Why is it so much more work for me when other people are doing this like it's casual? How is it that I'm so sure Rippa is pretty special, but I can't even get her through the ASCA trials, much less be comfortable entering NCA stuff as the lone Aussie?

The answer is this: every single time I felt I was spinning my wheels, it was because I had a hole missing in my knowledge of stockdogs. It's not like I didn't spend years watching Kathy teach other people. It's not like since I haven't talked to people about what they see in all those videos I shoot.

But, just as that one time years back I took a lesson from Sherry with The Fury, I came back with some lights on. Sherry somehow reaches me and explains things to me in a way that I "get."

As much as I wish I'd known to do this sooner (like way back when I didn't have a way to work Rippa), the path is the path, right?

I want to give much gratitude to Mel Zarchikoff publicly for suggesting I send Rippa to Sherry in the first place. There was a big part of my early stockdog culture that was like, "People that send dogs off for trainers are dirty cheaters." When I talked to other people about the idea, all of them were like, "Well, good because it will give you a chance to work on your handling and not worry about the dog."

So, we did it. I'd hoped Rippa would meet Sherry, realize she knew what she was talking about and come back to me ready to trial, but that was not to be. Rippa has way too many bad habits right now for that. And now I'm 100% sure it's because of me. Is she the most forgiving and pliable dog ever? No. She's powerful, she has opinions, and she's stubborn. But if I knew what I was doing, we'd have been a lot further along by now.

And I flash back to standing at Stephanie's feeling so lost and being like, "Well, Kathy said I could do this. I need to learn to fly on my own." Wrong. One thing I've learned is that if you're not already a stockman, and you don't already inherently understand the stock you're working, you're already at a disadvantage. If I ever train people, I'm definitely making them do stock chores. Kathy used to have us helped and it was my favorite and I did learn quite a bit of stockmanship that way that I didn't learn in school (I have 3/4 of a large animal science degree), but it's not the same as running a ranch with 300 head of cattle and I know that.

So, here's a couple things that I got out of the last few days:

• She actually can work at a walk and stop the sheep in front of me.
• She can be moved where I want her after this with a flank, a "there" and a "stay." I've never had that degree of control of her, and she's never had that degree of trust in me and the stock that it will work to get it.
• COWS, guys. Sherry put us on cattle after a lesson on sheep and she fetched them in such a relaxed manner, it wasn't funny. Went right around them, walked up on them and stayed straight along where I needed. If they challenged them or lagged, she'd hit them low and square and instead of getting upset and making a mess, she'd just go back to the job. No barking, no growling, just getting the job done. We cruised around her whole field like it was nothing. I've not been able to fetch cattle kind of ever. Obviously they were heavy cattle who were like 2 feet off me, but her ability to just relax and do the job was amazing. I was ready to cry. 
• I had a very different understanding of how to do the commands usefully. Like, "out" doesn't mean move out of contact, it means square your shoulder. So a command should be "go by" and then if she needs to square out more, "out" and then hit a "go by" or a "there" or whatever you need to finish it so "out" isn't a correction.
• If you say "there" and the dog correctly turns in, but too fast, just say "there" again and they'll slow to a walk. Like, WHAT? Because they're pointing in but have to rate if they're going straight right behind them. Total news to me. I've never had a dog take the "there". Or, let's be honest, I didn't know how to use it until now. Now I do. I taught her it, but I wasn't using it right!
• When she's a jerk, I should keep her on her feet and working, but she has to give to me. This is something I know, and especially Sarah Martin has drilled into my head about switching the brain to neutral, but Sherry's method of doing this was a game changer and something I have to fix in my own habits: if she's coming in tight or whatever and doesn't take her command, I don't hit her with an "out" and push her in the direction she's going, I make her switch back the other direction to show her that I'm in control and have her switch her mind. I was doing this by laying her down so I could have a mental break and get control but it caused a lot of issues - loss of stock, frustration taken out on stock, etc. Just stopping the direction and then getting a move on allows Rippa to keep control of her stock and work with me while also shifting her mindset.
• I need to have higher expectations of my dog's performance. She should stop without a single step when I ask (I let her have a beat because I don't trust my sense of timing). She should take a flank with a fancy square corner or else get hit with an "out" to make it. I was taking whatever I could get. I had to stop my session and look her in the eye and thank her. I've never known what it was like to have a dog act like this and how to even expect it. 
• I need to learn to control my mouth. I've picked up all kinds of other things, like yelling "Hey" or "No" at her to warn her off of her choice, but now she's trained such that she definitely knows what it is so if she doesn't respond, I just hit her with it again and force it. All the other stuff is just nagging. Same with body language. Neutral or positive, and then correction if needed and then back to it.
• Even stuff like repenning - don't let the dog just follow the sheep into the pen, look for the dog to slam dunk them into the gate by having them take a flank so it's pretty and square and they cover their side and you cover yours. When she taught me this, I was so impressed, I gasped and told her that was why she was the best handler in the world. I think she liked that. I mean it, though. So many runs I've seen Sherry slam dunk things because of her handling. 

So, anyway, this was a game changer for me. So many years of sucking at it and now I'm seeing it again for the first time. I also know I'm not ready to train on my own until I totally understand everything. 

The advantage to Sherry knowing Kathy's methods so well is she'd be like, "So, this is how Kathy has you do stuff, but you're missing something about it." Click. I flash back to when I was a kid learning subtraction and at some point didn't understand how to carry numbers and always carried a 9. I failed so hard all year long because the teacher didn't see what I was doing. My mom spent a whole summer retraining me and it made me think I was bad at math.

My years with Kathy, I only scratched the surface of what she said and what I did and what I saw because I had one dog (and a couple lesser instinctual dogs I handled) and I never got further than started, so I never understood everything and got stuck in a basic principle without truly understanding it. I feel like I might finally be on the road to mastering this thing with her help.

Have van, will travel.
We got lost looking for a park for the Squees and found an apricot orchard.

It's a hell of a thing to stop in the middle of a work week and drive yourself and your babies and your amicable nanny up to lessons, but she's totally right. She told me she could keep Rippa for four months and have her habits fixed and back to me, but a better thing would be for me to take lessons once a month with her. When you have invested as much time in this as I have, you buy a van and you make it happen.  I am so happy with my little red dog, my wonderful nanny, my patient babies, and the ability to do this now. It's okay if Rips isn't the world's greatest dog, it's okay that I know what she is, what she can do, and what I can look forward to in the future.

Much excite. 

An open letter to the Board of Directors and members of the Australian Shepherd Club of America

After hearing about what’s been going on lately and reading the strategic plan posted in April’s minutes, I felt compelled to write this to help an organization that transformed me for decades. I organized this by a couple sections so you can skip to whichever you feel most useful. I realize not everyone has time to, or cares to, read an essay of this length.

About me

I’ll start with who I am, as I realize quite a bit of time has passed since I was deeply entrenched in the club. I got my first Australian Shepherd in 1992 when I was 12 years old. This marks my 25^th year of involvement with the breed. I was not a cool kid, and I had a lot of problems finding friends and a purpose and my mentor, Cathy Davis of Melody Aussies, helped give that to me. What my parents thought was a phase turned out not to be.

At this point, I’ve competed in every ASCA venue except for scent work (though I’ve trained for it). I’ve been to six national specialties. I’ve titled in every venue except scent and rally (though I’ve qualified in rally, I just didn’t love it). I was 4^th in National Finals junior handling. I’ve literally done everything in the breed. And this is due to mentors that put up with me, who saw something in me, and to all of those who still do.

While I was in high school, I was asked to chair the founding Junior committee. I might have been the youngest chair in the breed of anything, and I certainly was one of the youngest for the other committees I’ve sat on: DNA & Genetics,  Education, History, Strategic, and the one I’m most proud of: Breed Standard Review.

During a particular time of turmoil, while I was still in school getting my masters’, I ran and was honored to win, a highly contested seat on the ASCA board, becoming the youngest to have that seat as well. And while youngest isn’t a special distinction, I want to point this out because I ran and won that seat because while I was young and passionate, I also had a capacity to do the research, the work, and look to get things done. People told me I should run on some campaign, but I didn’t. I ran as myself. And the membership seated me, where I worked through some difficult things with the other directors for a term until I wanted out and on my own again.

Once I got out, I tried to help steer the club when asked to be a part of the strategic committee, but the work really didn’t go anywhere or do anything. I felt like unless I wanted to be on the board, or join a committee and just do all the work, nothing could be done. A lot of who I am is because of ASCA, and being in a position to not be able to do much was too much, paired with the constant negativity from politics, infighting, and general culture problems, I decided to stop my membership and not be involved in ASCA as a member.

I didn’t leave the breed – I sit as Secretary of the Australian Shepherd Health and Genetics Institute, where I’m working to help get the nonprofit less dependent on CA Sharp and continue the good work it’s been doing toward education and research.  I also was asked to take over the Working Aussie Source, because I’ve found a passion in promoting this aspect of our breed and I’m good at Internet things.

Okay, enough about me and Aussies. Here’s the thing, though – my career, not totally accidentally, mirror’s the club in an incredibly unique way: I am both an executive director of a 501c7 (founded on the basis of ASCA) AND an event producer. I’ve devoted my life to both seeing what didn’t work with ASCA and changing it, and seeing what did and incorporating it.

Those who know me, know that I am never satisfied with good enough, and I’ll educate myself constantly on whatever I need to do to get better at something. At this point, I’m a very good ED who understands the ins and outs of managing membership expectation, steering something toward a mission, working with and hiring others to share that mission, and growing a club. I also know just how difficult it is to make a nonprofit work the bigger it gets. I’m even on the faculty of our local nonprofit resource group.  I’m also a very good event producer. I know about funding and marketing, sponsorship, working with land managers, course design, all of that. We do events worldwide and are frequently hired as expert witnesses because of our expertise.

Again, I say all that because my history in the dog world makes people think I’m still 12. I’m not. I’ve done a lot in that time that I’m proud of and continuing to do so.

And despite wanting to stay out of ASCA, I get talked to a lot about it. From things going poorly at Nationals, to seeing people get upset at current rule changes or political climates, or whatever. And I shrug and say, “Well that’s not my battle anymore.” I did my time.

I have nothing to gain from writing this, or from you guys taking this advice. I am not in a position to do any of the things I’m about to outlay. Maybe in the future, I could take on some of the things I’m talking about for remuneration, but it’s not now and I’d rather see ASCA grow with or without me.  ASCA changed the rules a while back to make sure it would take a decade more of membership for me to sit on the board when I decided to let it lapse a bit after 20 years of membership, so really, I couldn’t do anything  about any of this if I wanted to.

But I’m hoping that some of you will appreciate that I took the time to lay this out in hopes that ASCA can continue to take this breed somewhere special and become a place I want my year old twin daughters to play in, grow up in, and be influenced by, rather than what it has become to my husband and friends: an eye rolling, high drama distraction.  I’m uniquely qualified to say any of this because I know what it looks like behind the scenes, at the events, and from an uninvested perspective.

The issue at hand:

ASCA currently appears to be going through some changes that are making a lot of the membership unhappy, and while I don’t want to get into it, I will highlight the general issues I see:

• ·         Lack of consistent vision
• ·         Lack of understanding its current membership base
• ·         Lack of leadership expertise

As someone who has been involved with the breed for 25 years, and is passionate of the history before that, I can acknowledge that there’s always turbulent times. But ASCA was once to me and to others, THE club for Aussies. If you were passionate about Aussies, you joined it. It was the Aussie’s champion – it was where you found the legit mentors and the original dogs doing things. When we went through the AKC breed takeover, people felt very strongly that ASCA was the club that would retain the breed’s integrity.

But more and more, it feels like ASCA is chasing AKC. And I understand why. As the breed has gotten more popular (my red tri pup in 1992 was mistaken for a St Bernard among other things, but never an Aussie, but now I live within spitting distance of four other Aussies and everyone knows the colors correctly even) – ASCA has not.

In 2007, the Australian Shepherd was not ranked in the top 30 dogs registered with AKC. It hit in 2008 in 29^th place. Today it is in 16^th place. If the Aussie is crawling up the ranks in AKC, why is ASCA not seeing its pie grow larger as AKC grows it? Why are its membership and registration numbers, and even its programs on a downward trend?

Is this because USASA is an amazing breed club? I’ve never been involved in it. I did some AKC shows back in the day but my current dogs are ASCA only. It’s the shows that put in the work and do that end of things, so I’m not sure what’s promoting the Australian Shepherd in the club itself. It’s the breeders and the dogs themselves, most likely.

So . . . if AKC registration is growing, why are breeders favoring them over ASCA? Why isn’t dual registration happening, or why aren’t pet homes registering their dogs?

This brings me to my first bullet point:

Lack of consistent vision

I’ve sat on my share of ineffective boards and committees outside of ASCA, and I’ve advised even more – this is not just an issue to ASCA, but it is a huge problem for the club because of how big it’s grown and how its leadership is selected.  Since there is no executive director that manages the day-to-day and long term vision, that comes down to the directors. But the directors themselves are selected not by determining holes and filling needs but by popular vote. A good organization will identify strengths and weaknesses in its board and round it out depending on the club’s objectives. This can’t happen with the kind of turnaround and culture ASCA currently has. The club is so big now, the best you can hope for is that your particular interests are represented by someone at board level or by some loud, annoying voices at the committee or membership level.  The only way to ensure consistency is by keeping the same board members in the same spot and reelecting them and keeping them engaged and asking for reelection.

Lack of understanding of the current membership base

Following on this track – much of the board is comprised of long term Aussie lovers and ASCA members, and this is intentional: a minimum of eight years’ membership in the club is required. That kind of heavy investment means that people that have stuck it out that long have really gained something and you look at membership numbers, they’re essentially stagnant. Either ASCA has zero new blood coming in, or people are cycling out as fast as they are coming in. This would be fine if you were a youth program or serving a short-term goal, but the idea here is to get these Aussie fans and keep them for life, right? So why isn’t the club, its advertising revenue, its membership, and its programs naturally growing by something like 10% year over year, when we’ve seen a much larger exponential growth in registrations by AKC for Aussies?

After I did my time on the board, I continued to do something I felt was important to the health of ASCA: conduct exit surveys for those not renewing. It did a couple things – it reminded people that they hadn’t renewed and encouraged them to, it gathered information about why they were leaving, and it made them feel missed. When I lapsed my membership, I never got the survey, so I assume that ASCA stopped doing it when I did.

I haven’t done those surveys for gosh, at least five years, but at the time, I got a lot of data out of it and I sent it to the board, but I’ve never seen any of that information put to use. ASCA will not succeed if it does not start to quantify, inquire of, and measure its base instead of making assumptions.

Lack of leadership expertise:

This brings me to the final point – which is not that the people on the board aren’t smart or don’t care, but that they simply lack the finer points of the expertise needed to successfully grow and heal the rifts within ASCA that I believe are caused by it running “business as usual.”

When I was on the board, we tried to do some board education that came in the form of some little handouts we all got – but we had to read them and all buy into them and that just didn’t happen. Changing culture, training leaders, etc, is not a part-time job. I’m spending a half hour every week with each of my employees doing checks on what they think and helping them grow into better managers, reading at least 5 hours a week myself, etc. If you’re on the ASCA board, you’re reading emails, talking to your friends and other members, playing with your dogs, working on your career or raising your kids, or whatever . . . are you really that into growing your leadership skills? And what if nobody on the board is, as well?

So while you might have cool people who are smart and understand the breed and are loyal to the club – you’re not getting people who are marketers, middle-sized business people, etc that would really catapult this club to where it could be. Those people have their careers and aren’t typically as invested as you’d need to be to both be a member for that 8 year period along with be a big name that people recognize and vote for.

So what do we do about it?

Did you actually make it this far? Thank you. I appreciate your time and you giving me a chance here. I’m not the type to complain and point things out without also providing a fix here and there, and in the past it was solved by ME providing the fix. I can’t and won’t do it right now. But I will help outline some actionable things that ASCA can do today, as long as how the club operates hasn’t changed that much from when it did:

Address the leadership issue first, and it needs to be a multi-pronged attack.

a.       Accept less time as a member in the club for board members. Encourage new blood with skills to apply for the jobs that need those skills.

b.      Don’t like that? Hire an executive director (do this even if you like the above). Yesterday. And yes, I more than anyone else know how that went down poorly (I used to coach the first one for hours after work weekly until she was let go). Put together an attractive incentive package. Hold out until you find the right employee that’s hungry to learn about ASCA (or already knows) and hungry to make the changes and believes in the mission. Hold out until that person has demonstrated experience at the helm of a passionate membership organization. Don’t think you have the money? I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again – if you hire an effective director, you will make that money back. You are BLEEDING membership and registration dollars that a focused individual could get back through implementing simple operational changes.

c.       Get complete board buy in to do leadership training. Rather than complain about it being a time suck, the board members should see it as a development perk. My tenure on the board has made me great with numbers and projections, great with legalese, and just overall confident in everything else I did because I learned it there first thanks to our wonderful professional team. The board seat is an asset to the right people.

d.      Send a message to the tireless volunteers and passionate supporters in the clubs and committees that things are changing. Liaisons need to check in and have real relationships with the committee chairs that put that leadership training to work and trickles down to committee members.  Let that leadership training become available to affiliate clubs. Let EVERYONE get just a little better at everything from efficiency to communication, to outreach. Send messages that you want to hear from people. Send thank yous to those who you hear from. Send updates to them, too. This is an open letter specifically because I know as it currently stands, I’ll be blessed to even get a thank you that lets me know it got to the board. I’ve taken hours out of my day to process this and write it. I’ve spent decades giving my skills to this breed. A thank you and an update is the least that could be done. And yes, I know it’s work and the people at the top are thankless volunteers: HIRE AN ED or at the very least, expand the Executive Secretary’s job to do this, too. She’s cool. She’ll do great at it.


As a club, it’s time to look at what ASCA is, what it was, what it has become from there, and what you want it to be. This needs to be measurable. Run the following surveys:

a.       Track every stream of income as far back as you can go – and do it by programs. Look at the graph. Where it spikes and drops, look at the policies you’ve enacted and also go back and look at ASCA-L and look where the drama occurred. Make objective notes.

                                                               i.      Evaluate income stream against the expenses at the club level so you can see which cost the most to administrate and which don’t. (How much does it cost the office per month or year to admin a program? Time track everything from data entry to customer service calls to printing and mailing certificates)

b.      Start up those exit surveys again. If they’re lost in the ether, I’m happy to dig up the questions. They provided pointed reasons for leaving as well as suggestions for improvement.

c.       Conduct a survey of the membership about their feelings. Run it for six months. Market it heavily. Email people. Call them. Invest in your membership and see what they think about things. Specifically:

                                                               i.      Why are you a member of ASCA?

                                                             ii.      What do you see is the primary purpose of ASCA?

                                                            iii.      What would you like to see for ASCA’s future?

                                                           iv.      What do they like and dislike about the Aussie Times? Is it a major driver for membership? Have they placed ads in the past, why or why not? Did they work? Why or why not?

                                                             v.      What got you to join as a member?

                                                           vi.      What motivates you to register your dogs with us?

                                                          vii.      Do you compete in our programs? Which ones? How long have you?

                                                        viii.      If you have not competed in our programs, why not? How can we help you?

                                                           ix.      What can we do to make it easy for you to reach out to other Aussie owners and educate them about ASCA?

d.      Take all this information and make an objective table. Where does it line up with expectations? Does anything surprise you? What simple changes could you make to please more people? What is super complicated and creates a headache for everyone?

3.       Take a good hard look at the breed, where it’s at, and what step 2 yielded – what is ASCA these days? Is it what you want it to be? If not, it’s time to make some changes. Something I do want to say is that taking on more and more centrally is NOT a great idea if we already have leadership wants. More programs will not solve your income stream issue. Retention is key. From the surveys and numbers  - what is it that people want? It’s time to make a hard decision about whether that’s in line with what you think ASCA’s supposed to be. Success comes from staying focused on your niche and believing in it and doing it WELL with consistency.

Develop an outreach approach that captures these things. 

Booth a large dog-friendly events. Sponsor affiliate club outreach efforts so it’s easier for the people on the ground to do the work that ASCA wants and needs. Beautiful ads in well-read dog magazines, pamphlets sent out to members for distribution. Updated car stickers. Some drop-shipped merchandise that people can wear to show people’s pride that’s only available to members (so circumnavigating the income requirements of a 501c7).

  

a.       Advertise heavily what your fees go toward. Make the process transparent. $10,000 to health research. Tours of the office. Tours of the new software. Faces of the staff in the office. Whatever you spend money on, find the reason a member should be excited about it and show us all proudly.

5.       Electronic entries – I still don’t know how you guys aren’t doing this yet. There’s no good excuse. I’m putting on multiday adventure races where people go missing for a time with no communication and could easily die and I can do it and it works great. Have been for fifteen years. Make the barrier to entry low and catalog and data entry EASY – cost effective, too. And you capture money from people who don't come who thought they would. I know a couple smaller timing companies that would be thrilled to shoulder the expense to program it based on the volume ASCA has. And how about autorenewing memberships? Opt out vs opt in!

6.       Nationals/Finals – this is stuff from almost 20 years doing events nationally, internationally, locally, and ranging from 200 participants to 10,000

a.       Hire a team to do this. Do not put it on any volunteers, do not put it on office staff, do not put it on the theoretical executive director. Someone doing this year after year will get so good at this, that the quality will be unsurpassed. I wrote up a whole outline about how I thought that would work when Jean Roberts requested it of me, hopefully that’s going to be helpful one day.

b.      Make this the best it can be. Market it heavily as the place to be if you love these dogs, even if you don’t show or trial them. Get as many Aussie lovers in one place as you can. It’s not just the trials, it’s the stuff, it’s the seminars . . . educate, outreach, etc.

c.       You did a great thing by deciding to cycle through the same few spots and here’s why – sourcing will be easier but . . . more importantly . . .

d.      TAKE ADVANTAGE OF TOURISM MONEY. You have events in the fall season. Have these Nationals locations in tourist-friendly areas, tell them you’re bringing 2000 people (all the more to do step b) for a week and show them the heads in beds. Tourism money for events during "shoulder seasons" (like fall) is lucrative. You could probably get $50,000 to bring ASCA nationals to my home turf if you said you’d come back again and again. Fill hotels and restaurants and tourist towns will support you – show them the economic impact. You won’t be complaining about Finals not being self sustaining or about not being able to afford an event coordinator. You won’t even have to work on pursuing sponsorship dollars.

So there it is, my manifesto for ASCA greatness, as short as I can make it. I hope someone out there finds it useful. This breed has brought me a lot of joy, a lot of pain, and a lot of frustration. ASCA can do this, but things have to change and people need to take advantage of resources out there. Put in the work and it will come back. I promise.

Thanks for your time,

Kristin Tara Horowitz (McNamara), Tara Aussies (lifetime registered ASCA kennel), home of ASCA MVA qualifying C-Me Fury and the Mire of Tara STDdc, CD, GS-O, JS-E, RS-E  DNA-VP and Tara’s Lil Rippa STDcsd

Week 2 - Going Okayer

The house dynamic is so weird now. Like, nobody is sad because Rippa's not gone permanently, but The Fury has gone FULL LASSIE on the babies and feels the need to be with them all the time, circling, nudging, keeping them from leaving, etc. It's kind of annoying. We used to have to yell at Rippa for this and now it's Fury. She seems a little lost.  Also, the house is so clean. I don't know why. She must just roll in the dirt all day and bring it inside.

Anyway . . . Friday rolled around and I made my second call to Sherry about Rips. My cell phone reception is bad and I tried to play it off like it wasn't, but I might have missed a bit with her as a result. We bought a booster because it's seriously impeding my ability to work these days and it's all fixed now. :)

Anyway, so I am feeling somewhat better about my own handling hearing about how it's going with Sherry. I thought for sure she'd be like, "Well, here's someone who knows what she's doing, let's kick some ass," but she's giving her all the trouble she gave me.

Sherry says that it can be through bad handling as well as some of what she's seeing is just in them. Specifically - her top is flat. I think this is because of bad habits and what not and obviously Sherry hasn't seen how she started, but she has a theory that it's conformational/genetic and that she's been breeding away from it. She says, "think about it like a quarter horse is fast on the straight and a thoroughbred is fast on the curves." It's an interesting perspective that I literally had not even considered. Time to do some research!

Anyway, since she is her mother's daughter, and I trained them both, it's kinda hard to say right now what is her and what is me. People ask me if sending her to Sherry is something I regret because she's not coming along that fast - no. I have realistic expectations of what one can do with a dog this far along in training with my handling. What I DO know is that Sherry knows what she's doing and I can never make excuses for myself or her - what she is and what Sherry can get out of her will be what she is. And if I choose to breed her and who I choose to breed her to will be well informed. I care very much about the path I have in this breed, and that's invaluable.

Anyway, she says that Rippa really needs a lot of round pen work to get her habits better. She didn't take her "out" or much of anything, and if timing wasn't right, she'd take it out on stock, which I knew. I quote, "she is a heat seeking missile." Yup.

The big theme of my bad handling is that when she's bad, because I couldn't emotionally or expediently fix it, I'd lay her down and get my bearing, and so Sherry's having to stop her from laying down but instead fix her own mess and not lose the stock. The goal is to get her to be rounder and move out wider. She's not that naturally a wide working dog, but combined with her fast and intense up the butt style, she has a lot of power and needs to learn to work with it.

Basically, what I'm getting from Sherry is what I knew: that she needed a smaller arena with more dog broke stock to work some of this out. Going from a round pen to a huge area just didn't work for us and while no one's handing me a gold star for doing what I have with her, I'm giving myself one.

It's been interesting hearing that she's not handling pressure in alleys and tight spaces because that's exactly what I've been doing with her. That and just taking sheep for walks. Sherry says it's like she's never had that. Maybe it's a new handler and new situation, or maybe I was bandaiding bad foundations and it worked "enough" for us.

She thinks what little trialing I did that made her be mechanical didn't hurt things. She was like, "So THAT'S why when I told you to just let her work, you wouldn't." That this week is all about working her with loose reins and earn trust to take care of her stock. "You can't work this kind of dog with your guard up," she told me.

If you have followed my path with her, you know this has been a major issue with me. Stockdog training is so hard, but it is also therapeutic. Rippa is truly a gift. I have to learn to work her and all my future partners with my guard down and my trust high.

I miss my brown dog. I hope she's having a nice time.