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.

Slingshot outruns and biting sheep

Video! We have video!

But first, a specific take home lesson Kathy gave that I cut out of the videos. As we said, I was going to try to take Rippa somewhere else to get some miles on her, so Kathy wanted to tell me something – if Rippa goes in to bite a sheep, I should not come down on her too harshly.

“Prevention, not correction,” Kathy says, “You think she’s not supposed to bite sheep but one day she might have to. They’re bred to grip and you can’t beat it out of them, nor should you.”

So there you go. Though, historically, it’s looked down upon in trial situations, there are, of course, situations when a bite’s okay. Especially if the sheep is challenging you. Having been head-butted, I can tell you, a weak dog that just gets run over is in for some headaches. Ah ahahahha.

To the video! I think you’ll be impressed that she’s only been on sheep twice (I think) since the last posting. Rippa is real interesting in that she really seems to digest what she’s learned or else mature into it as time goes on. She’s already way more under control than I ever really had Fury at.

Yeah, poor quality again, but you’d be driven nuts by the fence.

The interesting thing here is that the slingshot makes Rippa’s brain hurt a little. She would make a fabulous ranch dog because she likes knowing what’s coming. When you throw something new at her, she starts moving very slowly because the rules are changing and she doesn’t want to be wrong. Fury offers stuff quickly because she wants to please, she doesn’t mind being wrong. Very different, but I think it will be fun trialing her when she learns what the game is.

Good improvement and . . . the slingshot outrun.

 

Well, my camera is currently being held hostage, so no footage today. I am hoping to get it back tomorrow so I can shoot what we’re going to do, but we’ll see.

Wow. I have been bummed about not having time to take Rippa to lessons/not getting lessons, etc as I truly believe that you need real consistent work to improve, but she’s sort of proving me wrong. It’s going slower than I’d like, but it’s going.

Rippa’s an interesting dog. Not like her mother by much. Fury is very, “Okay, you want me to do something? This? No? This?” Very fast thinker, very fast behavior offerer. Rippa literally looks checked out, but the wheels are obviously turning because she seems to just “get it” whenever I start up a new lesson at teaching her. I have been taking her to the agility field to practice that and she is learning faster than Fury did because she’s not as urgent to please me RIGHT NOT. Which is interesting. I am thinking Rippa in the long run will be a nicer stockdog than Fury would have been if I did it right because she’s a bit more patient and think-it-through, which is what I wanted. Fury is a bomb little trick dog, though.

So anyway, after a week off, I took her up to Kathy’s and we went back to the duckpen for more miles. And I can see we are both improving a ton. Rips is staying off the sheep pretty naturally and I am making mostly the right handling calls. Not nearly as much circling and pushing, and a lot more backward walking, balancing, and rating. I am really proud of her and me. She gives me time to think so I can feel my handling improving. Fury just goes hard and then it makes me go hard. Here, I can chill a bit.

She also is downing nicely from far away – which was what I’ve been working on. Fury would always down too late and push the sheep past me, so we’re working on not having history repeat itself.

And then finally, Kathy was like, “Let’s see her recall.” So I left her in a down, facing the sheep, walked behind her and called her to my outside leg. No hesitation. She did it. No need to run at the sheep. Nope.

So, tomorrow, we try a bit of the “slingshot outrun” training which gets you that nice wide outrun.

You can see me do it here with Fury, a few years back:

The idea is that the dog swings wide around you and you act kind of as a . . . slingshot to send the dog. I LOVE teaching this. Fury loves it, too, she does it whenever we fetch. Rippa, however, doesn’t fetch, so we’ll see how that goes.

Well, Rippa fetches, but only if Fury’s not around, and not balls.

Miles to Go.

So, after about a month off, Rippa and I headed to lessons at Kathys. Today was only a one-off, and we won’t go back until next week. I have been thinking a lot lately about how my time is severely limited and I just really don’t know how I’ll manage to get Rippa out enough to progress her along.

We’ve been working out at a ranch a little north of town for events, and the owner suggested that his “cattlemaster” (oh man, do I LOVE that title) might be interested in meeting me. He has a herd of goats that he uses to train his (I think) McNabs on, and he probably would be cool with sharing them with me and maybe watching what I do because he just trains them to bring in cattle out of the hills. I thought this would be a cool opportunity to put miles on the Rippa dog. I have been looking into my own sheep, but it seems like I’d have to move out of town to make that work, and, well, I don’t wanna!

But, first I wanted to check with Kathy to see what she thought of the plan. She liked it. Said that it would be a good opportunity and that goats are pretty easy for people to learn on because they gentle up so fast, but, like geese, they can go sour if not managed well. She told me to go into this relationship seeing what his dogs do and just do that. Let everyone be comfortable with it. And if my dogs can’t do it, maybe he’d be willing to gentle some sheep for me to play with. I hope it works out. She said I could go out and do that at this stage and then come in for tune ups.

Because, well, the fact of the matter is – Rippa needs miles (just like Fury does), and paying $50 for forty minutes of lessons isn’t doing my wallet any favors. I also can’t take off enough time to do that. But this might be the solution.  I don’t think that it’s a good idea to put miles on a dog without any supervision (I did that, it didn’t work), and if you’re a novice, I think it’s much better to take “handling” lessons before you every try to manage your own training, but I’m glad to think she’s okay with me doing that at this stage.

So today we just put miles on. Kathy noted that Rippa was working better for me than she has and she was a lot easier on the down. Funny thing on that – Rippa is better at downing because she LOVES running Fury down when Fury is fetching and I hate it, so I started making her lie down and wait until Fury gets the ball and then she can go. So Rippa knows she’ll get to play if she lays down first.

Kathy also stopped me, midlesson, to explain how my stick use was affecting the sheep. I have been working for many years now, not really reading my sheep or thinking about my effect on their flight zone and I guess it’s time to fix that.

So here’s the deal:

With Rippa, I found that if I hold the stick flat out like this:

She is more likely to move out and stay out, instead of me pointing the stick at her. Kathy says that’s fine, but eventually I need to point the stick at her. My theory is Rips is fairly intense and she needs HUGE signals for her to not lock onto the mission and hear what I want.

But the thing is, the sheep are below the stick, so while I think I’m holding back my heavy sheep that want to stick close to me and are not afraid of me, I’m going way over their field of vision, and the stick should be here:

So now I have to remember the difference and stop fixating on handling Rippa and remember I am handling both her and the sheep.

Another interesting thing . . . Rippa sometimes lets the fence move the sheep so I have to help her get all the way around them to work them off me. So, what I do is tap the sheep in the direction I want them to stop going and go the other way. And it wasn’t working. Kathy was like, “WALK AWAY FROM THE TAP!” And I am thinking, I AM!

So she stops me and she makes me lie down and be a sheep and here’s what she shows me:

The grey is sheep and the brown is the dog. What I’m basically doing is pushing the sheep away because they see the stick and are like, “EEP, must not walk into the stick” while I am, indeed, backing up from the tap and then there’s Rippa who sees the stick that I’m holding out for too long and she’s also staying back because I am telling her to. Oops.

That stick position is SUPER important. It’s not a magic want you can just wave all over the place.

Boy howdy, do I look like a righteous bitch in these photos or what?