Training Wheels Are Off

Spot, approximately 21 months

Spot and I have been working the big girls' and boys' sheep for the past couple of weeks. The more docile training sheep (Dorper/Dorset wethers) that we have been using primarly, have moved to another location, for another pup to get started. So Spot and I are using the Scotties and our work became more difficult. I keep reminding myself that we are working the advanced sheep and the reason we have Scotties is because they are that way.

Thanks to my brother for the phrase about the training wheels because that is exactly how it feels. You want to step up and move forward but after you take those wheels off, you feel a lot more wobbly and less certain, on that bicycle. Things can move a lot faster and go in different directions than perhaps what you had planned!

A month or two ago, I put the long line back on Spot when I worked him. I just needed some more leverage on my side of the equation. Mostly the line is just there.  A couple of times, I have caught him with it and it made an impression. Today I worked him without the line but I carried it with me in case I wanted to put it back on. I didn't need it. Too bad it was so hot out today that we had to cut our session pretty short. I think we could have made some more progress.  He's getting better and better, about many things. We can do a short outrun, lift, and fetch. I am having him drive, just a few steps here and there, whenever I can set up the situation. And we are working on stops off balance (that's coming along slowly but surely) and on flanks just with the verbal and less body positioning and language from me (that will take a while).  Spot really wants to please and that's my ace in the hole!

Today is Memorial Day, which means an extra day off of work, some time to rest, and time to remember those who have gone before. In our family it was not just about decorating the graves of fallen soldiers but also decorating graves of our family members who had passed away. It is a day of remembrance and thankfulness.  Going to and from working the dogs, I saw lots of flags displayed. I particularly like seeing flags hung on rural fences, mailboxes, and gates. I know it is extra work for folks to put up flags that are not just at their doorstep, like mine, but I appreciate seeing them!

Mother's Day Tradition

It's become a tradition to go to the sheepdog trial at Point Pleasant Ranch, for Mothers' Day. The Spencers always put on a nice relaxed trial day, and there is a potluck and the traditional Mothers' Day cake. This year was no exception and even with a full day with a lot of entries in all the classes, the day was fun and relaxed. They offered Nursery, Pro-Novice, Open, and Novice-Novice, which is a lot for one day but they pulled it off!  We stayed until the very end so as to support those in PN and NN (and also to miss the traffic backups that inevitably occur on Sunday afternoon/evening).

The Open course was outrun-lift-fetch, left hand drive, then Maltese cross with a turn in the center, then shed any two. Coal and I ran in this class and we had a nice run with just one pilot-error mistake by me, which cost us in the placings. We just barely skimmed the second drive panel, when I thought we were right on, which was too bad. Coal was taking every command perfectly. We ended up with a score of 85 which was good enough for sixth place. The winning run was a very smooth one by Judy L and Cam, with a 91. I was very happy with our work and how good it felt, despite my boo-boo!

Ryme ran much later in the day in the Pro-Novice, and we ended up retiring. It is just not his thing to wait all day for his turn at a trial. I knew he was not confident, the way he was hesitant on his outrun and then would not take my redirect. When he started to meltdown at the top, I said thank you to the judge and was on my way up the field as fast as I could get. A couple of good lie downs later, we brought the sheep halfway down the field, then turned them over to the exhaust dog. Poor guy, sometimes his wheels just do not stay on. He's still the best ranch dog, ever... less than a week later Ryme helped us to catch a two month old Scottie lamb who needed vaccinating, and he is worth his weight in gold for the calm way that he can do practical work like that.

I wasn't sure where Coal's and my run at Mother's Day would shake out with regard to the USBCHA points. But a couple of weeks later, when the webpage was updated, I was able to see that yes indeed, Coal did get one USBCHA point for that run. It is not a big deal to get one point, but for me that is a long-term goal attained. Now on to some other stake in the ground which I have not planted yet! :) It has been a long-term goal for us, competing only with ourselves, to get USBCHA point(s) at a trial other than Dunnigan. We have earned points at Dunnigan a couple of times, but nowhere else. Now we have a point at Point Pleasant. It's a new personal achievement, which doesn't mean much, but when you are breaking down your goals into small steps, this is a step taken. I have no intentions of ever taking Coal to the Finals, as he is just not that type of dog who can transfer easily to new fields and situations. But it is a marker that people understand that means more than just saying we are improving in our work.

The days are getting hotter, and a guy just needs to cool off!

There were a couple of friends running in the Pro-Novice who have either just moved up from NN or they have moved up in the past year. So we stayed to watch them, and their runs were very good! I was so proud of them. One of these gals, as we were walking over to check the score board, told me that she routinely used to sit and drink coffee on a Sunday morning and watch the BBC's One Man and His Dog, and never dreamed that she herself would be doing that very same thing, one day. It is so cool to hear stories like this!

So, thanks once again to all who helped to make yet another year's Mothers' Day tradition.

Dogs Eating Local and the Last of the SoJos

Recently I had a chance to buy some mutton/lamb from a local friend processed from cull ewes and a wether who decided that dog training was just not for him. That wether may have made a bad choice! But it was a good one for my dogs. Processed by a local butcher, it was a chance to get nice clean food for the dogs. We got one-third ground meat, one-third chunked up meat, and one-third bones. I mixed the last of the grain-free SoJos samples with the first package of the ground meat that I thawed. This made a lot of food for the dogs so I am parceling it out over a few days. Needless to say, they love it. It's nice to be able to mix in some fresh food with their kibble even if that doesn't happen all the time. I am still a believer in fresh food for the dogs and if the day comes when I can source enough of it at the right price again, I will go back to it. Meanwhile I feel the dogs are doing okay on their kibble, plus all the other variety that gets thrown in from time to time. I'm still mixing Fromm Gold with NutriSource grain free. All the dogs look good and seem healthy, crossing fingers and paws! :)

My friend made an interesting point about her cull ewes. If she sells them on, then someone else will no doubt try to breed them, even though they shouldn't be bred for various reasons. Either they had trouble lambing, or they were poor mothers, or they couldn't raise a lamb due to a damaged udder, or something. It is not good stockmanship to put that ewe into that situation just because we don't own her any more. By having them made into dog food, she takes the ultimate responsibility for their outcome. It was a viewpoint that made for a lot of thought on my part. That said we bought cull ewes from her years ago, for dog training, and they were some of the best dog training sheep we ever had! :) But then I think she knew that we were not in the lamb-raising business and did not intend to be.

 

 

Coal says thanks for the great meals; Yum!

The days are getting longer as we slide into the second half of May. This makes for more dog training time in the evenings, although we are also sliding into that dreaded time of Foxtail Danger. As always, it's a mixed bag!

Ribboning Them Out

This guy is learning to shed.

Ryme is very happy about learning to shed!

Ryme is very slowly learning to shed. Only recently I felt confident enough to try it with him, ribboning out the Scotties and the white training sheep, and the two ewes with their lambs, all of them forming a sheep style conga-line that winds gently, waiting for an opening, making it bigger myself, then calling Ryme through and having him lie down. Then the next step, when sorting sheep to work, ribboning them out again, calling him through, having him take this group this way and that group, thatta-way. It's all so cool and unexpected. I am just thrilled by the willingness to work with me and improve his skills. It's not perfect, don't get me wrong but it is a milestone that was completely and totally unplanned.  The other night he chased down the group that was supposed to be let go but I forgave him and called him back onto his work and it was all OK. He doesn't know. I know he doesn't know. It's a learning process for both of us, which is what is so cool about it.

Yes Ryme still barks too much and he is sometimes a pain at home. But his work is getting better and better. The key to trialing him in any venue will be stopping him at the top. I don't know if our shedding will ever get good enough for trial standards but for now, it's farm-standard and just fine.

Wonders never cease and things with these sheepdog continue to amaze me!

This 'N' That...

Yesterday we had a small RESDA novice workday to help novices learn more about RESDA trials and what is entailed in running a RESDA course. We had more mentors than handlers, though, as we ended up with about five or so mentors, and only two students/handlers! It was still a nice day though and I enjoyed collaborating with my peer RESDA handlers. It was so neat that while we all have different types of dogs, we come from different paths to this activity, and we all handle and train somewhat differently...but we were all pretty much in agreement as to the discussion most of the time. I found that really cool although I guess five people who volunteer to be sheepdog mentors on a weekend morning are bound to be somewhat cool folks- lol! :)

Our two students were at very different levels as were their dogs but I think they both enjoyed themselves. Unfortunately one of the dogs got stung by a bee on her foot so her participation was limited really fast. The one lesson was, always have Benadryl available in this time of year or whenever there may be bees hovering about. The clinic format started with introductions, questions, and then walking thru the RESDA course step by step, without the dogs. Then each student ran the course with their dogs and one of the mentors judged the runs. We followed this with suggestions for improvement and the dog who did not get stung by a bee, did a second run and showed improvement. After that two of the mentors ran their own dogs through the course and tried to show what we are talking about and looking for. It was not as easy as it might have appeared! :) All in all a good format with plenty of time for questions. I hope we can do it again with a better turnout.

This evening there was time and daylight to get all three of my dogs out to train a little bit before dark. Spot was being fast and furious and somewhat exasperating but I was glad I did not give up. At the last we were able to set up a little drive, and he drove the sheep, with me walking parallel, for a little while.  It's not anything earth shattering but there is always that very cool moment when you realize you are driving with your pup for one of the first few times...and how great it feels.  Spot is a project, that's for sure! :) But we're trying.

Spot Update April 2014

Spot is still with us even though he hasn't been mentioned too much in the blog lately. While at times I feel like contacting Barnum and Bailey to see if they might need another circus dog, because he is such a clown at home, Spot is slowly but surely coming along in his training, now age almost 20 months. I was thinking of it as just chipping away but today the thought came to me that instead of chipping away it is more positive to say that I am getting a toe hold. All I need in most cases with Spot, is just a teeny toe hold and that gives me the foundation to build from. It is taking us a while to get our act together but we are making progress. Each little toe hold that gets chipped away gives me somewhere else to go. And we know I have to keep moving! :) 

While there are many 20-month young dogs who are ready to run in a trial in nursery this is not the case for us. We are still back in the beginning to intermediate stages of getting started, but it is getting better and better. Luckily I don't have much of an agenda, time-wise, with him. As long as he is trying - and he is obviously trying very hard - I will keep at it.  He has such great potential if I can just hang in there, give him the right opportunities, and not mess him up.

He can do a beautiful (short) outrun, lift and fetch. His feel for sheep is amazing. His stops are getting more reliable especially if on balance; I am working on getting him to stop in other places. Sometimes he will, sometimes he won't - which goes for my big dogs as well! :)  We have some lovely quiet sheep who have been great to train on, but I have to challenge myself to work Spot on some of the other sheep just so I get he and I both used to it when the quiet sheep move on. They are destined to go and be useful to start all over with another young  puppy so soon we will be saying goodbye to them, and hello big sheep/ Scotties! To that end I put Spot on a bigger group mixed up of quiet sheep plus Scotties tonight. They were faster than what he is used to but we managed it. I think we will be OK.We have a lot of time and miles to put in, Spot and I.

RESDA Slaven Trial 2014

The latest RESDA trial was at the Slaven ranch near Zamora on their home flock of commercial ewes. It was a traditional RESDA fetch course but held out in a large field. When we first arrived at the field, it was not too windy but soon after the trial course was built, the typical Zamora wind picked up for the rest of the day. Drat! But that did not squelch anyone's enthusiasm.

This year the RESDA club has not been using pre-drawn running orders, but drawing for run order out of an actual hat at the trial site that morning at the handler's meeting. This makes for an interesting time of it as you need to keep track of what number you drew and pay attention to which number dog is running so that you know when you go. For those of us addicted to little sheets of paper showing running orders, it is cold turkey at its finest! But it seems to be working. For whatever reason this change was chosen, it sure does make one think and pay attention. I for one liked the pre- drawn running orders but if that was a huge source of stress for some folks, then I am also okay with drawing out of the hat. Whatever works!

Mainly I entered my two boys to get them run time experience on the commercial ewes, and to have a chance to test our training in a trial atmosphere.   Beyond that, the number one goal is to get them stopped on the fetch! :) I am glad to report that all of the above worked out well for both Coal and Ryme.

Coal was up ninth and he started out with a fairly good run, only to find when we went to the first panel, that the sheep from the run before us were still on the field, having failed to get into the exhaust area successfully, and the judge called our run quits when the two sets of three sheep joined to make one group of six. We would have a re-run at the end of the trial. Drat! It was going pretty well and I know that reruns sometimes don't go so smoothly for some reason.

Ryme was quickly up twelfth (or at least the inbetween dogs time seemed to go fast) and he did a beautiful outrun, lift and fetch. I was really thrilled with this as the three sheep were being let out of livestock trailers, not set, and just allowed to drift until they settled (or not in some cases). Ryme has not seen this particular scenario but he handled it well. We had to make several tries to get the first panel. We were working on the second panel and had made a couple of tries at it without getting it. I noticed that his tongue was hanging out the side of his mouth. It crossed my mind what our doggie chiropractor said to me last week, (and she has said many times before) that Ryme "has the body of an old man dog" so I elected to retire. In RESDA you keep your points earned up to that exercise and it did not look like we would gain many more points. There were no chutes and only two pens for the whole trial. It was more important to me to save Ryme for another day, and let him be successful instead of running him ragged to where he might blow up. It was a good feeling to be so confident with him!

There were 20 dogs in the trial. So Coal and I ran again as number 21 and we had the first set of sheep out of the second trailer load which was nice. It was a good set of sheep who were willing to work together and work with us. One was an older ewe who was pretty compliant but there was also another ewe who was kind of a runner, which made things interesting. The third ewe was trying to decide which of the other two to buddy up with! No chute -- like everybody else -- and timed out at the pen, for fourth place in the overall which was a great way to end up the day.

Results and some photos are posted on the RESDA website.

The first place winner was far and away the best run, Rhonda and her Craig dog who won this trial also last year. Craig just handles these sheep and this trial field beautifully!

It is probably time for a Spot update (he has not run off to the circus yet) so maybe that will be the next post, or at least coming up soon.