Happy Birthday Spot!

Learning Curve

Right now Spot and I are in that magic phase where almost every work session reveals something better, some improvement, some change where he is offering something I want; we are on that lovely learning curve of the beginner dog. I know from past experience that this won't last; we will have setbacks and training issues to solve and work through. But for now I am grateful that each outing seems to reveal a little bit more of what is layered inside him.

Our latest session was out in a smaller pasture. I am still using the long line on him. His stop is just not that reliable and I don't want to get into a chase-argument-disaster if I can't stop him when I need him to stop. Especially when I am working out there by myself with him. It's just a safety issue at this point. He is so eager... oh my goodness. He will stop if everything's almost perfect (sheep slowing down or halted, me on balance, etc.) But if it's not perfect that stop might happen or it might not. It's been hot here lately, and even just a few minutes of work session gets the dogs very warm. His tongue can be hanging down to his knees and he still wants to go on. I have to enforce rest breaks with water and shade for all of the dogs.

Out in the pasture I can do more fetching. Spot really likes the fetch part and I am hopeful that it will turn out to be very good. I have worked and worked on fetches with Coal and I know now how important that phase is!

A couple of times, when things blew up, I was able to put things back together and make lemonade out of lemons, as our trainer told me to do. If Spot busts through the sheep or singles one off (which he did twice in this session), then I need to move such that we turn it into a big cast/gather...and let him succeed in his mini-outrun and fetch from there. It opened up a long fetch for us that was really fun to work with. He will get it.

Ryme did the sorting, as usual. I brought everyone into the barnyard but one of the silly lambs hung back. I stood there and waited. Sometimes it is interesting just to let things roll and wait to see what happens. The lamb looked at Ryme. Ryme looked at the lamb. I just waited. Pretty soon Ryme trotted quietly out through the gate and around the lamb and brought her back into the group and laid down opposite of me. What's next? you could almost see the cartoon bubble over Ryme's head.

Coal and I worked on shedding, on the whole group. And driving the whole group to the corner which is a great exercise that Alun Jones started us all on, years ago. Coal is looking a little bit crisper in his work which is what I have been striving for! It's all about meaning what I ask for and getting it when I do.

In other news we sold our ram. The transfer went so smoothly that I have no antics to write about! We had prepared so well that it was a piece of cake. We were so glad we had halter-broke this ram lamb and trained him with a grain bucket to lead with us, a few times, last year when he was just a little guy. He hadn't had the halter on in many months but when we cornered him and gently looped the rope around his neck, he froze and let us halter him. It was not a scene out of a 4-H lamb show or anything but at least we could move him quietly and somewhat under control out to the buyer's truck. Very cool. I'm glad he's going to someone who will use him, at least for this season. I'm glad he's not going straight to the killers at least this time around. He's a nice guy and while we don't need him it's nice someone else will use him. If we ever get another ram lamb, which we probably won't, but if we do we will definitely spend a few minutes here and there acclimating him to a halter and lead. It made things so much easier. Again, a learning curve.

Offerings

Offering behavior...oh that is so nice when it happens in dogs! you can just see the little light bulb go on, and the little cartoon bubble over their heads.

Today's offered behavior, for the first time ever...Spot laid down outside the round pen before we went in. I have been asking him to lie down outside the gate so that I can manage opening the gate. It is just to establish some structure and I am not super picky about it...just do something resembling a wait at the gate for me and I will be happy.

We went to the round pen today to work and the little guy laid down right outside the gate without me asking him for it. So cute! I even had a witness and we both laughed and said "good boy!" at the same time.

Spot is ready to "graduate" out of that round pen at that training field, though. So that's the next step. Quiet sheep, but in a larger area. Everything is coming along OK with him. I am happy.

The other dogs were good. Ryme did all the sorting and then held a set of sheep for a couple of outruns for another dog-handler team. He is getting more comfortable with this job although I would like to have lots more mileage of him doing it.

Coal got to have two outruns with sheep held for him. He was good both times and I was very happy with him. But I could tell he is out of shape, physically. So we will have to work on that some more.

The weekends are definitely way too short!

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.