My girls are currently at a funky stage. Clare is explainable at the moment as she's in the peak of her heat cycle. But Ivy isn't in, and has been kind of downer lately. She's not been her (or her parents) typical die hard self. She wants to work sheep, but when I start asking her to do things that she maybe doesn't think is so cool, she skates off and basically quits. She doesn't ever quit watching the sheep, but she quits doing anything productive. I'm not asking her to rope the moon, so this is disheartening. Her parents are biddable, yes- but both have die-before-I-quit work ethic. When I think back, this is the age when Gwen started to really question her ability to walk into the bubble on the drive (Gwen had oodles more training at Ivy's age), it's also the age that I nearly gave up on both Kit and Mary Jane for similar behavior. Interesting. I made Ivy hang with me the last time that she was on sheep, but I have since just let her be. I think this was a good thing for both of us. For me, I've been able to sit back and think about the other dogs when they were her age, which has made me pretty confident in deciding this is simply a weird stage/age for my type of dog. I have made one management change with Ivy. She is a clever pup and comes up with things to keep herself entertained without getting herself fussed at. (iow- she doesn't dig, chew, bark, chase etc) Her favorite being watching the cats. I mean, border line ocd watching the cats. She stares at them, flanks them, etc. Basically she knows where as many as 3 of them are at any given time. I never see her out doing normal dog things, she is laying somewhere staring at a cat. So she is now kenneled. Bright dogs are like bright children. It's both wonderful and miserable. All BCs are smart, but some are above even that. I own a few like that. Gwen and Cruz (Ivy's parents) are 2 of them. Ivy's littermates Wren and Keele also do "interesting" things to keep their little wheels turning. So hopefully housing her differently until the cats die off (no more cats when these are gone- they are so dang destructive and into everything!) will help redirect her determination and fascination. I'm sure age and maturity will help all on it's own. I know she needs to be "entertained", so I was really prepared to start to get serious with her sheep work... She's been put up for a week now. I was going to give her more time, but I'm going to work her today. But I'm going to work her in the small sheep paddock so she does not have anywhere to skate off to. I think if she can't just easily fling off, she'll stay focused and happy to work. I decided the last time I worked with her that I was done treating her like a pup. In other words, no more just going off to sheep when I really didn't send her, no more not staying put when I step away so I'm in a better position to help her be right on a send etc... Time to grow up. That in it's self should give her brain more to wrap around. Ella is coming with Wren today. I haven't seen her on sheep for several months now. I know Ella's been working her, so I'm excited to see her.
Well, it's 9am now so I better out to work with some dogs. I'm anxious to see how Ivy does today. I've been working Kit on a regular basis and I'm very happy with her. She's going to be a lot like her sire, Toss. She needs an outrun. Everything else for ProNovice is there. She has nice flanks, pens well, and drives nicely. She flanks nicely on the drive and will give me inside flanks with very little body language from me. She has about a novice length outrun. She's like Toss was in the way that with too much distance she tends to go tight, make a mess, fix the mess, then bring them to me pretty as a picture. LOL! She's better at fixing her own messes than her daddy was at her age. At Kit's age Toss would single one off and have quite a good time.
Off to get everyone worked. Hopefully I can remember all their names and what I'm currently working on with them without having to go back to my picture flip book! LOL! Sorry, that was ugly, but I couldn't resist!! :-)
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