Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Dogs

As much as it can be a bummer to work 30-40 hours a week, I'm glad I have an additional source of income now. I like raising and training, and helping new handlers, but I don't so much like selling dogs. Partly because it's a little hard to part with a dog you have a relationship with, even when you know you and the dog aren't cut out to be together. Mostly though it's the people. People are so unreliable. I've had dogs "sold" so many times, only to end up with it falling thru for numerous different reasons. I've even had a person pretend to be an interested person, only to find out it was just someone "fishing" for God only knows what.



I've gotten more and more business-like about selling a dog and it feels a little funny because that's not really my personality. I'm glad I did that with the "sale" of Kit and Sly though. They were to go to the same lady. She was buying Kit to put some goose work on and then turn her over to one of her biggest clients. Kit would have a stellar life on this HUGE property and live as pet when not "on the clock". Well... money trickles up hill in this situation and the company the man works for has not given him the money for the purchase of the trained dog, so he can't give it to the lady I was to sell Kit to, so she can't give me the money... She had already sent a small deposit- which of course she wanted back... I'm glad I wrote up a short, simple contract that stayed any monies put toward the dog were non-refundable unless injury or death of the dog occurred. At one time she had asked for me to get Kit spayed and she would send the money for it. This I would not do- again I'm glad I stuck to my guns. I tend to be very willing to do what people ask me and not stand up for myself- but I'm learning. She still wishes to purchase Sly when he's around 10 months, and he will be her personal dog. She wants to apply Kit's deposit to him, which although I could say no to, is fine. I did spend some money on Kit getting a HW test done and having her almost expired rabies boostered. But I would have done that anyway, so oh well.
Unless I meet someone in person and they want to take Kit and try her out, I won't be selling her. It's not worth the aggravation. If she's slow maturing like her sire (who she is 110% like) I should probably just wait her out anyway. She's a very nice young dog. She's tight and forward like Toss and gets just a little worried when I ask her to do it "right". So I maybe just need to do some easy stuff with her for another 6 months, not worry so much about her being tight, and just let her work. She was just 2 in April. Not all dogs are mature at 2, and given her sire's temperament, I probably haven't even scratched the surface on who she is really going to be on stock.



Toss will be 5 in Nov. and he is just now becoming consistent and reliable. There was always a good dog there, it was just masked by incredible immaturity and the inability to tone down the intensity when toning down was necessary. Now? Now, what a super dog! My friend and trainer saw the real dog in him when he was 2, and she kept telling me "he'll be one of your best in the end". I trusted her, but didn't believe her. "She likes a different kind of dog than me" I thought. Wrong. She's simply been there done that and I hadn't. All that forwardness I used to curse and all his always so dang tight'ness that drove me nuts. I now see that many times that's what you want to see in a young dog. Toss will make it "all the way" and do very, very well.
When I work Kit today I'm just going to let her work. I'm going to do this with her for many weeks and then re-asses what I have in her. I'm seeing now, that even though I am fair and nice to my dogs, I have put a lot of handling on my young dogs. I need to back off from that and let them simply work their sheep a little longer than I typically do. I believe I am partially to blame for Gwen's cautious driving. I see now that I put too much control on her drive too soon. Most of what she does is who she is, but I didn't help. If I had helped, I would have just let her drive and let her drive and not worried about where to. One thing I do see with her (I learn so much with each dog) is that she doesn't have enough gears. She has a stop, and a forward- but not really much in between. On the fetch we have just learned to work thru that, I control the speed of the sheep by hitting her breaks. She really doesn't have any pace (out in the open and away from me- she's good at pen etc), and the more I think about it, the more I think that's part of her driving problem. She knows she can't run behind them, but pace is very uncomfortable (because I haven't showed her how). That light bulb came on yesterday. She also does not like to stay behind her sheep. She likes to flank. She likes to always have control of their heads. So two big things there and I should be working on them in a fetch not the drive. Funny how you see things that are now so obvious, but you didn't see it a week ago.
Carol is currently working a dog that is pushy and doesn't like to pace or flank in steps when that's what's asked. He is similar to Gwen in the sense that he has a great stop and a forward, and not much in between. She showed me what she was doing to show him what "walk" meant (she'll put a whistle to it too). She's getting great results with him now. I'll have to do a similar type exercise with Gwen. She needs to learn how to not always work at warp speed. Again with the maturity I think. She appears to be so incredibly mature and talented, so I probably did a bit much with her. Now I need to back track. I was going to run her in Nursery this fall, but now I'm re-thinking that. I'd rather have her solid for Ranch next year and Open after that, than run in Nursery with a few big holes. I may even pull her from the "fall line up" completely, although that's probably over-kill. Gwen is a fabulous dog, and knowing what I need to do to help her be more comfortable behind her sheep will really be awesome. None of her puppies want to head like she did as a little pup. As a little pup she would go around, get their heads and then not want to move. All the puppies are nice and free and will already stay behind their sheep with very little body pressure- so that's great! It's really her only natural hole, as far as I'm concerned. I'm going to spend the summer working with her on staying behind her sheep in a fetch and learning some gears- also in a fetch. I'm going to drop driving altogether for quite some time, fill in some holes, and then see what happens with the driving. She's not entered in a trial until the end of August. So that gives us basically 2 full months of work. I'll go back to driving with her about a week before the trial.


I have to work tonight, so I need to get outside and work Kit and Gwen. After that I need to do some housework and I'll have take a nap from like 1-4:00, or I'll never make it till 3am. I was up before 7am both today and yesterday. Yesterday me, the kids, and 4 dogs were 75 miles away from home at Carol's by 9:30 and then not home till almost 4pm. I took care of the dogs and made spaghetti before Ella was here at 7pm to work Mary Jane and let Wren have a turn on sheep... Go, go, go!! Gotta suck the life out of those days off for all their worth right? I don't have another day off until the 1st, and it's only one day.

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