Put Me In, Coach

Spot says, "Put me in, coach! I'm ready to play!"
The John Fogerty song is perfect for Spot right now. 

Oh, put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be Centerfield.

He certainly can be centerfield and that's where we want him, right? On balance, behind his sheep? I know next to nothing about baseball but it sounds good to me.

We worked in the big round pen at our other training place, one night this week. Ryme and I sorted off some of the mature adult ewes to work and they were as if charmed...marching around perfectly for a puppy. We're getting somewhere with downs, call offs, and even flanks based on body language. Fun! Above is Spot's photo, sticking his head through the fencing into the round pen wanting to go back in again after his first turn.

We're making progress. One topic that my trainer and I have discussed over the years, is how we continue to expect more of young dogs. Just when they start to give us something ,we want it more, and better and crisper and sooner and more often. The poor dogs never get a chance to just do it at one level and we are asking them for more. It doesn't seem fair, but of course on the other hand a lot of times they just start to give and offer us* more as we open up new opportunities to them as they master one thing and then the next. Spot is definitely offering it.


*Put me in, coach..........

Where Were We

Where were we?
Spot's next work session after our lesson was pretty Western at first. He had to wait several hours in the truck while we vaccinated and wormed our sheep. It was nice to get that chore done, although the dogs thought it was pretty mean to bring them to the sheep place and then not get to work until much later when all of the humans were too tired to last very long.

Still, I did work Spot out in the pasture, and used the white ewe (I realized later) that he couldn't handle, before, mixed in with the white wethers that have been the standard fare for Spot all along. So there is a lot of progress happening even though while it is happening sometimes it seems I am just trying to stay on my feet. The newest thing was that while he would stop for me, he got up from that stop at 90 miles an hour coming forward onto the sheep. Oh my. Things did settle down but by the time we got to work after the sheep treatments, it was hot out, and Spot got too warm very fast. Lots of things are going to get settled out later on...is all I can say. Meanwhile the enthusiasm is the big plus sign.

Coal frustrated me when we were sorting Spot's sheep out though. Grumble! The next night I focused only on Coal, and did not work Spot (Ryme got to do the sort). In that scenario, Coal was good. I will keep at it with Coal! I think it helps to have a focus-dog for the session and not try to do it all with all of them on the same day. I am learning my limits.

Ryme is doing small chores, sorting, holding for others; last week at his monthly chiropractic appointment we were told that he was very stiff. His chiropractor looked at me with a very ashen face, saying "I do not want to scare you but he feels like an old man who has aged overnight". Yikes. We are making some changes in his diet for fall that will address things in a "warming" fashion (as in Chinese medicine). And he will just get easier tasks for a while. He is not lame. But on Saturday I could tell he was just not "right". And so the saga continues for Ryme. :-( He has been lame the past two winters. We are trying to avoid that for this winter.

At least Coal got a fairly good report from the chiropractor; even his feet were good. And given how hard the ground is right now that is super-positive news!

Pretty soon it will be time for Spot's and then Coal's birthdays. I do not anticipate party hats will happen but maybe there will be some homemade doggie treats.

Completely off topic, I just love this sapphire blue heart from San Francisco, in a photo taken recently by a friend:

Spot Lies Down

See Spot. See Sheep. Run Spot Run. Listen. Listen Spot Listen. Down. Down Spot Down. Good Spot.


A good friend sent me the above text in an email Friday night. I asked her if she had considered writing a children's book? Oh wait...where have we heard that before? :-) 

Spot and I had another sheepdog lesson with our trainer. Our assignment from last week was for Spot to lie down when I ask, when we are working with the sheep. I worked with him three times in between last weekend's lesson and this weekend's lesson. I wasn't too sure how effective my efforts had been, in asking Spot to stop. At our home fields, he was stopping fairly well especially if I asked him in the right place; but, one never knows how their kid will actually perform at the recital. 

But when we started our lesson, Spot stopped! Spot does lie down when asked at the right moment, on balance. He knows it. Now just to fine tune from there. The lie down gives us a lot more freedom to create other situations where Spot can blossom as a sheepdog.

In our first little session, Spot was so good that I wondered where this other dog had come from who had replaced my puppy! Then later he got a bit more excited and I realized it was still my puppy. Whew - no alien invasion! 

We were opening up opportunities for him to cast around the sheep. He did a very baby mini tiny outrun-lift-fetch! Or so I was told. It was very mini and it happened very fast so it's quite possible that I missed it, in my efforts to remain upright. Working a puppy continues to be a very physical experience! Overall I am very pleased in Spot's progress. There is plenty there to work with and as someone else commented, "he's very willing". We'll have another training lesson in two weeks, I hope.

Meanwhile Ryme and I got to help hold sheep for someone else having a lesson. I am beginning to teach Ryme how to set out, and hold sheep for others. We have done it a few times at the home pasture. This was our first attempt at branching out. The first outrun, Ryme blew it and did not stay. But he was not heinous and called off rather quickly. The working/lesson dog seemed not to care one bit about Ryme's indiscretion; whew! The next couple of times, Ryme was fine. Now just to get lots more of these experiences. Then Ryme will really have a job to do, whenever he is needed. 

Ryme waiting to hold another set. Tar weed and stickers - oh my! should have used Show Sheen.

It's pretty relaxing being the sheep holding person for a lesson. There is a lot of time in which the trainer talks to the student, and in which the working dog needs a cool-down or break inbetween exercises. It gave me time to just breathe and appreciate where I was and be grateful after another long and hectic week.

This is my happy place. Blue sky, not too hot; endless fields (or so they seem from this vantage point). With luck Spot and I will be training out here come winter time.

August Chewy Review!

During August, Chewy offered another treat product to us for review. This time, it was the Natures Variety Instinct Raw Boost Minis. Chewy sent us the chicken flavor. These treats would be great for training because they are very tiny, and you could give a lot of rewards without feeding the dog too much food. The "minis" name is very appropriate!

All of the dogs love these treats. Even the picky guy, Ryme, who showed no hesitation in gobbling up his treat(s). Let's just say I am VERY popular when I pull out this treat package. The boys will be quite unhappy when these treats are all gone.

If a person had a dog who needed to be coaxed to eat, after surgery or illness for example, these treats would provide an excellent appetizer, I should imagine.

Overall we have always had good service from Chewy and if a person wants to order dog food or supplies I have had good luck with them.

What's In There? and From the First Whistle

What's in there? What's in the dog that is natural, organic, essential? What's there that bubbles up to the surface when we leave the dog alone a bit to see what he's got? 

We had chore duties tonight so I let Ryme go out to bring the sheep in for sorting. He cast out and was relaxed in going into a tight corner to bring the sheep out, without a word from me. The sheep were munching happily near the fence on some green branches that the neighbor had pruned from a tree and tossed over, for the sheep to clean up. The sheep did not want to leave those lovely green branches. They haven't had anything green in a while--just grass hay and dry pasture. But Ryme simply convinced them without a word or whistle from me, to come on towards the barn for sorting, even scraping Scotties with horns, and silly lambs, out of a corner that they do not want to leave. Ryme can do a lot on his own in a familiar location with a chore that he knows. That is what's in there. The lambs get sorted from the others, so they can be fed extra. Ryme is handling the silly lambs very well. He seems much happier than a few days ago but I still sense some tentativeness.  I'm staying really quiet and just letting him work.

What's in there? Does Spot know the words "lie down"? I think he does. Our training assignment is to get a lie down on the sheep. Tonight I decided I was too tired from a Monday to do the "pasture aerobics" that we did yesterday, that is, working Spot in the open. So we took a break and went back to the small pen to work on his stop and some other things that will eventually make Spot more grown up in his work. No leash to go in and out of the pen. No long line on. Working on the lie down. I'm saying the flank words as he goes around but not forcing or commanding him to go one way or the other - still his choice pretty much at this point. Stop and walk up, and flank, and start over again. The stop is in there, when the pen keeps everything quiet. Good to know...it's in there. Even if it flies out the window when we go to the pasture! :-)

Coal's assignment (or mainly, mine) is to make sure he obeys commands correctly "from the first whistle". We're kind of in boot camp mode, right now. I'm working on getting Coal's stop back (I know it's in there!) and tuning his flanks back up, for starters. It's in there. Coal is already behaving better after our lesson Saturday, some tuneup on Sunday, and more tuneup this evening. I'll keep at it, just being really clear about what I am asking and what I will settle for (which is only the best). He can do it.

Coal fetching some sheep to me, earlier in July

Ryme Updates; and Sonoma County Fair

Sonoma County Fair sheepdog trial was last weekend. I had entered both dogs but it was not a good day for us. First of all as usual it was very difficult to get in the gate. The poor woman who was working at the security point at the gate we were supposed to come through, got really unhappy with me and some of the other folks in the club. There was plenty of space for us to park inside the arena area. I don't know why it is so difficult with this issue and this event. The other fairs make it so much easier for the sheepdog handlers. Sigh. I am not sure that I will enter this one again but we'll see when the time comes. It was not a real positive way for me to begin this annual event.

Coal ran in the third position but was too sticky-eyed (I have let him slide on his compliance with commands also) and we timed out at the second panel. I think that same thing has happened to us a couple of other times at Sonoma County Fair. The second panel is up top of the arena, near the letout, as with most RESDA arena trials. It is a tough spot for a dog to let go of the pressure enough to let the sheep pass in front of them (and between the handler and dog to complete that panel). It is really tough for a dog like Coal with such strong eye.  That said, I am not making excuses, he should have given up the pressure for two seconds anyway and we might have been able to complete the course. The sheep were harder than they were at the Sonoma-Marin Fair, where we did better. They were from the same sheep provider so I am not sure of what the difference was in their behavior.

Ryme ran late and by then there had been some nicer runs (the early runs were mostly tough goes). He did OK on his outrun, began the lift, and then one ewe broke back over him to the letout. That was enough for Ryme. He just doesn't handle it when things go wrong. He drove them to the fence and held them, looking over his shoulder for me as to what to do. When a few whistles didn't convince him to go around and fetch them, I retired and we fetched them to the exhaust. Not too fun for either of us.

Ryme is going to get some time off to just do simple chores, help me feed our sheep, run in the pastures, and so forth. I still have the goal of teaching him to set out, and hold sheep for other people. We've done that a few times and will try to find more chances to practice it with willing handlers. I just think that trialling with any type of consistency is likely beyond his scope.  He'll still have plenty of work to do if he wants it.

Chiefie's New Bed; and More Spot Updates.

Chiefie got a new bed last weekend when I went shopping at Costco. Normally I don't do any impulse purchases at Costco because it just gets too expensive if I don't stick strictly to my list. But in this case, I made an exception. Chiefie deserves a nice cushy bed! He is 11 years old and has his aches and pains. And these beds were a pretty good deal (under $30). I think he likes it!

Of course the other dogs had to try it out too.

Even Spot has taken a turn in the new bed: Spot has only dragged the pillow to the bed, out into the yard once. He got a speech from me about that. Phooey!!! It has not happened again (yet).

Coal moved too quickly for me to get his picture.

As for Spot's sheepdog training progress, we had a second working session in the pasture this week. It went OK. It felt a lot more "Western" to me but I think we accomplished a bit more. Our great backup person and her dog(s) were helping us again. Maybe we are confident enough to try it on our own next time? Maybe.

And, Spot had his first lesson with our sheepdog trainer today. It went OK. He did no worse than in our "home" pasture, and possibly a bit better. It would be nice to think that Spot will just get better and better. In reality we know that won't happen"; there will be ups and downs. But it's nice to think that the overall curve will continue in a positive direction. I have to start getting a down on Spot so that we can make some more progress.

Coal also had a lesson today; it was much overdue. We are sadly out of synch and he needs a major tuneup. I just hope it's not too late. I am going to do my best to try to re-tune him and get us back where we need to be. It's one of those things where the curve didn't continue endlessly in a positive direction. Life got in the way. I am hopeful we can fix it. The goal will be doing better at the Hopland trial in November.