Cruz- Cruz is in USBCHA Open now. We've only run Open once, and aside from outrun redirects, had a very worthy run. Carol continues to help me with ideas on helping Cruz both find his sheep, and not outrun like a bat of hell in the hopes of "just finding them". It's such a shame that #1 he was my first herding dog, so so much of his outrun trouble is due to lack of knowledge on my part, and #2 that I don't have a field big enough that I can work on helping him... The last time out at Carol's we worked on sending him. I did 2 things. One was to stop him part way out, let him lay there for several seconds, then send him on. This does 2 things for him. The first thing it does is make him think about me blowing the stop whistle, which results in him slowing up just a bit- which in his case is a GOOD thing. I feel like I can learn to judge when he should be able to spot the sheep and that's when I will stop him, give him time to look, and then send him. What I have pictured as the end result is hitting him with the stop whistle, but what he'll actually do is simply scan (and maybe check up just a bit, but not actually lie down) where he's going, and quite possibly kick himself out with no redirect. The second thing I did was to walk way out in the field (with the sheep standing up by the barn), turn and face the sheep and tell him look. I've used "look" before, but I think he was only giving me the body language of looking. So my job was to figure out what clue he gives me to say "I see them". Once I saw this from him I could send him- but not before. This way his reward for spotting them, is to be sent. I figured out his clue to me is that he starts to go on his own. It was a great drill that really seemed to work. Oh to only be able to do it several times a week!! :-( What's going to be great about that when he figures it all out, is that when he leaves my feet seeing the sheep, he leaves in a much more relaxed manner. He is still very quick, but there is true purpose to the run- he is thinking. I have noticed that same attitude with him the few times he has thought he was sneaking off to sheep (not his usual MO, but there has been the time or two). When he thinks he's sneaking off he is so relaxed and using his head. When I do this drill of asking him to look for sheep and not sending him until he shows me he sees them, I am being very, very watchful of how I send him. Lots of people (at least in the lower classes) send their dog with a BIG flank and at quite the decibel. What I need to do with Cruz is wait until I can feel he wants to go correctly and then just barely send him. Just enough that I don't create a bad habit of going before he's sent. I give him just enough of a flank that he is confident he's being sent, but does not feel like he has to run 100 mph to get me the sheep. From him right now I would welcome a "lope with purpose"! ;-) Our shedding skills are really coming along. He has it down, and I am not feeling so out of sorts now. I love working Carol's whole flock for shed work. We just keep peeling a few off a time until we're down to 5-6 to split one last time. Cruz truly knows the game, because if one of the "these" thinks it's leaving, he will do all he can to keep it.
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Deal- Deal's in Ranch right now. I had seriously thought about moving her up, but at the last trial she really hosed up her outrun and acted completely lost when I tried to redirect her. Outruns are not normally a weakness for her at all. She is typically one that I can trust to leave a little tight, then completely right herself once she spots the sheep. She usually runs a very textbook "pear". Also at the last trial I could not get her to come off the pressure to turn the sheep after the crossdrive panels. She was just a bit out of our "comfort zone" of distance and she just didn't trust me. Lack of trust is probably her only real fault. She is the only dog I have that I will (occasionally) hear me, yet do something different... She is much better than she was a young dog, and 90% of our training is butting heads-free, but she is a tough cookie and will sometimes just decide... In real life she is harder than my other dogs. She tolerates, but doesn't enjoy getting her nails trimmed (my others all jump up and down screaming "oh me, me, me, pick me!!"), I can just barely de-worm her as she clamps her jaw so tight. If I am able to slip my thumb in, she will bite down on my thumb like it's not even there! (she's not snapping or biting, she just closes her mouth, and if my thumb happens to be there- well then that's my problem as she sees it). She's quite dominant. There is not a nasty bone in her body though- she's just very self confident and willful. I love my little black bullet! So I decided she needed to stay in Ranch until that distance was more in her comfort zone. Once again I try to not get depressed about not having a field big enough to work on that kind of stuff.... At Carol's last time I worked on flanking her on the fetch line as well as driving. I figured that's what she would need, and I was right. She did well though. I worked on shedding with her too. She is a bullet of a shedder, which is good for her considering the amount of eye she has. She really like the challenge of the game, so she never hesitates to come thru! LOL!
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Gwen- Gwenie's come a long ways in the driving department. It takes more to lock her up now, and together we are finding ways to work through it both before and during those tense "no sheep movement" moments. The bottom line with Gwen is that she is a control freak and she is so worried about that stupid bubble, that she doesn't want to "poke" it sometimes when she needs to. But she's getting much better. She's better about just marching on, and she's better about walking in rather than blasting in when everything comes to a halt. The biggest improvement was when we back tracked to long fetches with her. What appeared was that she didn't have a lot of pace. She was (is) very quick on the fetch because she doesn't think she has the ability to push if things slow way down. So I worked on that. Teaching her a walk... Oh she thinks I'm crazy. (Gwen is the fastest thing I know, and she does everything, everything, everything at lightning speed) I've also been working corners with her, watching for those relaxed flanks. Last week here at home I worked everyone on penning. I haven't done this in a really long time and my young ewes wanted no part of it- so that was great. My pen is close to the paddock and barn so there is a lot of draw- yet there is no hot pursuit if they squirt past the pen, so things can stay relaxed if the dog stays relaxed. (my place isn't big enough to ever get far enough away that there is no barn draw) I had been doing corner work with her, and she was seeing no reason at all to slow her flanks down, so I thought I'd try the pen- a reason for small, quite flanks. I was really, really impressed with her. She took little flanks and never, not one time got stuck on her belly. She also never busted in, and trust me when I say these little girls were really hard to get in! It was a ton of fun! I think I need to be very cautious that I am not blowing exciting sounding flanks to her. I think I need to just barely blow in the whistle for her. She such an over the top dog. She's not freaky, she's just SO incredibly intense!! I think she has oodles of potential and she is all heart. :-) She'll stay in ProNovice until she's really, really confident driving. No sense in adding the increased distance of Ranch on the drive. She has the best outrun of all of my dogs and is lovely at the top. She has never needed any work on that. She is fabulous at spotting sheep and spots them in nano-seconds, so that's wonderful. I just need to be patient with her driving so I don't add too much stress and go the wrong way with her. Did I mention it's a bummer I don't have a large field? She is going to shed just fine. Surprisingly, for as much as she doesn't want to disturb the bubble, she is very willing to come thru. Shedding is another practical exercise for her to only take steps, rather than a big sweeping flank. I'm confident she has all the pieces of being a very nice Open dog. I love working her and she never gives less than 100%.
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Toss- Toss has made such huge strides in the last year. He has really matured and generally, we have really, really good training sessions. He is a different dog to work than he was 15 months ago. At Carol's he was the star of the day and I couldn't have asked him for more! He did a couple very nice, big outruns. In trials he will often times hesitate when I first send him. He'll start out, then look back at me (at only about 25 yards out) with that look of "This? This is what you want?" He acted like he was going to do this (he doesn't do it here at home of course) at Carol's and rather than encouraging him on, I just kept quiet and took one little step to the left (I sent him right). It worked, and he went with no other hesitation. Whistle work is a big part of his training right now, it's the only thing that I feel is holding him back from running well in Ranch. His drive work at Carol's was stellar. I just let him keep going and keep going as long as he was responding and keeping his flanks square. He was WAY out there and still taking most of his command via whistle (vs. voice), so they're coming along. Toss is such a fun-loving, playful boy. He's a clown off sheep and is always looking for some way to have a good time. He plays with the tire swing, swims in the pool (which includes diving for dive rings), runs with anything he can find when I ride the atv with them, and when I used to do agility he was a mad man for the drive building games and tugging rewards! He's a dog that makes you smile even on a crappy day. He is my love bug as well, he adores me. I have a hard time not believing that is a male dog thing, but maybe it's just been my luck. Cruz, Toss, and Jim think I walk on water and act as though they'd be happiest if we never had to part. My females are dedicated no doubt, but there seems to be a different connection with my boys. Toss' deep connection with me is honestly what kept him here through his "rough" years when I didn't think he was my type of working dog. I knew he would not easily adjust to anyone, and that very few people would tolerate some of his quirks (most of which he has now outgrown). Toss has taught me a lot about patience and not making judgements too soon... Jim and Cruz could never go to someone else without a HUGE amount of adjustment either. Cruz stayed with Carol once for 3 days. Cruz loves to see Carol, but even with her he was not overly comfortable. My girls (except for probably Kit) could go with someone else and never miss a beat I'm quite sure. Interesting... So anyway, Toss will in ProNovice until I feel like he knows his flank whistles down pat. I'm sure by spring he'll be ready for Ranch.
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Mary- Mary Jane has been running at BC trials in Novice with Ella. (Ella co-owns her) They've been doing really well. It has given Mary a chance to work for someone who's not going to put quite the pressure on her that I seem to. Working Mary has been a great way for Ella to get some experience before it's time to get serious with Wren. Ella's been working mostly on getting a solid stop at the top and getting Mary to get off the pressure in areas like the top of the outrun and during flanks at a pen/chute. Mary's made big progress with this. Mary really is a very, very nice dog and is so incredibly natural. Getting off that pressure really is her only weakness, and she's so much better than a year ago! I've been working her more and more with good success. She hasn't gotten stressed and I haven't gotten frustrated... Or maybe I haven't gotten frustrated and so she doesn't get stressed... ;-p I mentioned to Carol that I was going to get her on solid whistles before I go back to doing much driving with her. This way my tone is not an issue. As hard as I try, some times an irritated tone comes out when I work her, and she is so very in tune to that! I get frustrated, she gets mushy, I get even more irritated, and she gets even more fragile.... it was a familiar scene. So letting her work for Ella has been great. It gave her a chance to forget about the usual cycle and it gave me a chance to watch her and see what a really great dog she is, think about my own attitude, then work her with a different one!! I took her to Carol's last time and we had a really good session. I worked on that stop at the top, as well as flanking anywhere I wanted her on the fetch line, then stopping and walking in a short distance, then flanking again. Mary will run with Ella in novice for now. She could nicely run ProNovice with me, but running in Novice with Ella and having enjoyable trialing experience is really important for her right now. Plus it gives Ella that much more experience. It's nice to get a chance to get a little field experience with a well started dog before stepping to the post with a green pup when you're also green...
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The Girls- Clare and Ivy are simply maturing and learning how to be well mannered, well adjusted young dogs. I haven't "worked" them in probably a month, so it's probably about time for another session. They were both a little unsure the last time out. Oh yes, they both worked just fine, but I could see there was a low level of stress there. So given their age, I decided it was time for a nice long break. I have been there and done that with pups; thinking that at 18 months they already are what they're going to be... I don't think a super star suddenly appears from a POS, but I think if you have seen what you want to see from a pup, then it kind of goes away, that they just need some time away from stock. They have both shown me some really awesome stuff and that's not going to just magically go away, however I can slow their progress and hinder their self confidence by putting them on stock when they're going some sort of phase that's making them less than 100% confident. Certainly there are young dogs that are doing at all at their age. Some are doing that because they are truly mentally mature enough, and some are doing it because they've been pushed through their natural phases of insecurity. Gwen seemed ready and at 18 months was doing A LOT. But then we hit a wall with the "bubble issue"- therefore she's not any further along now as a young adult then she would have been if I had taken my time with her. And in hindsight, this bubble issue would probably not be as much of an issue because she would have been more mature and mentally secure when we started the drive work.... So I have no worries about letting Clare and Ivy go thru their ups and downs and giving them time "off" when they need it. They are both very much like their own mama. Clare is nearly 100% Deal, I see very little Toss in her as of yet. Vs. Kit who is nearly all Toss. Ivy is nearly all Gwen, but has enough Cruz that she is not quite as wild about flanking as Gwen was at 18 months. Although some of that may be my handling, and not allowing it.
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The Babies- Logan and Emma are absolutely a delight! They'll be 6 weeks tomorrow. Emma is something else! She is all attitude! She is afraid of zero, nadda, zippo! She is funny and full of life! She is a go, go, goer! They are both very, very personable and love attention. Logan is also very outgoing, just not to Emma's level. I try to let them mingle with all the dogs now every evening. (I'm walking around with the whole group) Emma is off playing with the dogs, finding the cats, etc.... Logan is having a good time too, tail up and bouncing around. He just hangs closer to human legs than his sissy. They make me laugh everyday! Right now they're in here raising all kinds of cane! :-) They go out in the puppy pen from 6am till about 11am when that area runs out of shade. I'm off today, so I brought them inside rather than putting them back in their whelping
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