Circles and Circles and Circles

I haven’t had time to digest the video yet, but I know some people are waiting on Rippa Puppy updates. This past weekend we did three solid days of training.

We worked on Rippa’s outrun (she’s quit splitting them for the most part, and quit doing that “change direction thing” that I talked about earlier that was hard for me to figure out how to manage), on her obedience (she still doesn’t stop before pushing the sheep past me), on her outs, and on my ability to hold the sheep.

First thought is: why do *I* run more than everyone else at lessons? I forgot to ask Kathy about this, but I think it’s partly that I can (when other folks are retirees or injured or just not in shape) and partly that I have more high-powered dogs than some. You gotta MOVE to keep ahead of them. Kathy’s pretty nimble herself and she gets out there, but I think timing has a lot to do with it, too. I need to hustle to get where she was two seconds ago.

Second is, MAN, am I tired of saying “Out.” The thing that you have to understand is that our dogs were not developed to work 3-5 sheep. They were bred to work a huge flock. That pressure is really important because when you have a huge flock, the front animals don’t feel the dog’s pressure, but they certainly feel the pressure of their compatriots urgently pushing on them. So, at this stage in the game, you’re trying to teach the dog to stay out so you don’t end up with a mess. Rippa listens for the most part, but there’s only so much she can take. She’ll get up, control herself and then . . . munch! Those lamb hocks are just too tempting that close up! MOVE, sheepies! Rippa is very pressure sensitive, both with stock and people. I think this makes her a nice cattle dog, but we’ve yet to see. She does not like a lot of pressure up front.

I’ve been dutifully chucking dog food at Rippa at feeding time after she lies down at a distance and Kathy says she sees improvement, but she needs to learn that lying down is a good thing. She just doesn’t want to. She looks really guilty when I ask her to down and go to her. Funny little dog.

The outrun issue, for the most part, have been fixed. She will take direction indications (ie, my body and stick placement), but she still runs pretty fast and flat at them. I have to run to keep her out around them, but I can feel her getting more control of it as time goes on.

Overall, good improvement over the three days. I started not being able to figure out what to do and Kathy stepped in to get Rippa right for me. The difference is night and day. She balances up (walks straight along with the sheep) with Kathy handling her, and with me she wears back and forth (what it sounds like, checks the outside eye of one sheep, runs back, checks the other, repeat). Why? I have a hard time holding my sheep – which is also how I broke Fury so badly. The sheep get past me because apparently when I run out to her to push her out, I run into the sheep’s flight zone and Kathy manages to stay out of it, so the sheep stay pointed toward her instead of going wide around me. We’ll see in the videos soon and hopefully get a clue as to how to fix this.  

Happy sheepsies in the mean time!

Rippa and her first intro

So Rippa was exposed formally to sheep when she was about four months old, which is pretty young. The point was actually to get video of another puppy I was looking to place for someone, but we put her on the sheep there anyway. Here is the video:



Now, I have been working dogs on stock for about seven years on and off. Sometimes really consistently, others not. I can tell you this - I broke my first dog, Rippa's mother, who used to be really cute and natural, but I taught her to work against me instead of with me (more on this later), and we don't want to do that to Rippa. What you're looking at is the handling of someone who has no idea what to do to start a tiny puppy on sheep. I was just trying to get her to show some interest and see what else she would do.

With that said, at this point, even if my handling needs plenty of work, I can *see* things now, and I was pretty happy about Miss Rippa. Ecstatic. This video was shot on my birthday and it was one of the best presents I could have asked for, that feeling I had all day.

I like how she was looking at them, even if it wasn't "boing!" because she's a baby, and "boing!" is pretty dangerous at this stage. You can see her getting braver and braver and then . . . bam! I like how her first instinct with them is to go up to them to a point - a little natural caution there, but also awareness of sheepy space.

When I finally split the sheep to get her really going, she immediately picks a group and runs between them and the fence (a brave thing for a puppy to do - imagine you're that size doing that) and runs out wide around them to bring them back. Natural fetch, and nice space. I will explain terms later.

I like how she turns away from the sheep squarely, rather than into them, giving them space and her control. You can see her moving them and thinking about what happens when she does what - she splits two off and  then goes to fix them. She holds them on the fence - she thinks, she learns. And she's only four months old!

And when she gets them all split up and tries to fix it and can't, she chills.

Yup, I was really happy with this puppy. But then we "put her up" for a while to grow up and have fun non-livestock-type adventures.