Well it's even ickier today than yesterday. Yesterday actually wasn't too terribly bad. I worked with a few dogs, got the yard picked picked up, went into Windsor (twice) to get feedstore stuff, etc... Yes, went to Windsor twice. I can be a spaz sometimes, and left my check card in my back pocket of the jeans I had on Friday... My check has to be direct deposit now, so I'm back to having the check card and no cash... Got to the feedstore only a few minutes before they closed and no check card. So I had to come home, write a check and leave it for them... Ben had me to go to the grocery to rent one of the Rug Doctor carpet cleaner for the boys' rooms. They work a lot better than any of the steam cleaners I have bought. I hate carpet, but it is nice in the kids' rooms. They probably need a steam clean once a year or so just to pull out some dog odor and dirt the vacuum leaves behind. I'm thankful the rest of the house is hard wood. As we re-do the house, we're putting down the hardwood looking laminate. It's beautiful and a snap to keep clean! We did just "buy" a big area rug for the living room and looks very nice. I'm going to get a matching one for the dining room area. (it's one big open room). I can get the 2nd rug because the girl at Lowe's did not ring up the big rug right. She had already scanned the smaller $14.99 doorway rug and when she scanned the big rug, it beeped but did not actually ring anything up. She looked at the screen and it said $14.99. Guess she thought the 10'X8 rug was $14.99. I didn't know if it had rung up or not until I looked at the receipt in the car.
I called Ella this morning and we decided to skip today. Just too icky. It'd be different if it was January- you'd know it wouldn't be any different in a week. But being that it's only October, we still have some friendlier weekends left. It's the kind of weather that's okay for an hour or two, but not really all-day weather. It's not even 50, breezy to gusty, and drizzle. This afternoon I'll work with the dogs I didn't work yesterday. It's cold in the house (56). We are too low on propane to turn the heat on... Brrr! That's probably part of my reason for not wanting to be cool all day- I know it'll be cold in the house when I get home! I have to call tomorrow so they can fill the tank on Tuesday. Tuesday the only day they deliver out this way. (they're only 12 miles away) I'm not a fan of the new management at the local southern states, but to get a new tank with a different company is not a task I feel like undergoing at the present.
The dogs I worked with yesterday did well, although I'm currently a bit lost with what to do with Ivy. Being much like her mother, she loves to flank and hold. Unlike her mother, she is doing it still at nearly two (although Gwen had much more under her belt at 2 than Ivy will), and more so than I remember Gwen doing. I remember Gwen doing it as a very little pup, and then not again until we started adding distance to the drive. I don't remember her doing it on just a fetch. Yesterday Ivy would cover when I'd send her, but as soon as the sheep were set up nicely on the fetch, she'd lie down and nothing I said or did would get her up. I made sure I wasn't facing her on the fetch, I made sure I was still moving so she'd have a reason to get up and move them forward, I tried not saying anything, and I tried a lot of encouraging- all with the same result; Ivy on her belly. My ewes were wonderful, and were giving her no reason to stall out. The only thing I could do to get her back on her feet was to walk into the ewes so she'd have to cover them. She would do that and she would do a great job at getting the fetch lined back up. But with the same results. As soon as it was pretty, she'd belly down and not get up. I've tried using a line before, but it was a mess. She'd either get it hooked somewhere, or it would never be where I needed it to be. I'm sure if she knew what "walk up" was, she'd do it for me, but how can I put a verbal on a behavior I can't get from her... ? And, more importantly... is this something that's worth working thru, or this something that will forever be a huge hole? I don't know. The good news of the day was that she never skated away to get under something and she never left me to pretend to get a drink etc... I did get a few fetches out of her, and tried to quit with her doing that, and before she had decided I was asking too much. I do wish she would quit watching the cats. I don't know if that behavior is carrying over or not. I hate to kennel her all day just because she watches the cats all day. But if that's adding to her behavior on sheep, then I guess it's for the better. She watches the cats just like she "works" sheep. She flanks and holds, very rarely walking in.... She's not sticky on a flank, she likes to flank. She's a control freak like her mother I fear. She will keep them to you till the sun goes down, but she's worried about actually moving them for fear of losing them. Hopefully with short, successful session of keeping control of her sheep in a fetch the light will come on. She works very different than her sister Wren. Wren is a perfect balance right now. All she's going to need to really "learn" is an outrun. The rest is just naturally there. I really, really hope Ivy comes around because I like her very much. I think she is a wonderful young dog. She has the most perfect temperament. Not one you find in Border Collies too often. She's also very nicely built and cute as a button. I sure hope stockwork isn't where her "package" is lacking... :-(
Clare worked very nicely yesterday. She is much more confident and can a little more direction now. She wanted to start out by rushing off on her own, and nearly did. In the past she has decided I was going to make her do it my way, she was going to forget it and bail. One thing I've learned from starting the number of young dogs I have is that they are all ready at different times, and that if they aren't ready one week you just put them up and try again in a week/month. Clare's been up for several weeks aside from one quick round last week. She left my side and got about 75' from me before she stopped. I growled at her pretty good. She stopped, looked at the sheep, looked at me, looked at the sheep.... I growled every time she looked back at the sheep and called her nicely every time she looked at me. I wasn't going to call her to me in an angry tone, but I was certainly going to use an angry tone when she turned back to the sheep. In the past this is when she would sometimes decide if she couldn't just run off to them then "forget it". I was proud of her for being mature enough to handle playing by the rules. I don't often use a line. I think it's harder to reach down and unclip it and still make them stay with you than it is to just keep them at your leg free of a line. I hate watching young dogs/new handlers make a mess because as soon as the leash is unsnapped the dog tears off... She finally came back to me and the rest of the session was very nice. She goes to the right better than to the left on a send. She likes to stand rather than lie down, and will come along quickly once she has a little outrun. She's going to work more like Deal than Toss, but I don't think she has quite as much eye as Deal. She is brave like Deal, so that's cool. I think she's going to be a very nice dog. As she matures she is less and less intimated by me, so I'm glad to see that.
Gwen worked pretty well, but I sure am anxious to get her back into the big field so I can work on long drives without the worry of pressure. She needs experience just moving them and moving them, with no worry on a direction. The direction part we have. It's the moving them forward and forward and forward that gets to her. She is doing a much better job at flanking them walking in even though her gut is telling her she's going to loose them. She's trusting me a lot more and I'm very mindful to not ever set up so she has reason not to.
Kit was wonderful and I'm excited to get serious with her and maybe have her ready in the spring to trial. She is a different dog than she was a year ago. She's much more confident in what she's doing. I'm finding my Toss pups are very long to mature, which is no surprise since Toss was unbelievably long to mature! Clare's more mature than Kit was. Clare is more Deal than Kit is. Kit is nearly all Toss, and Clare has a lot of her mother in her. Kit's long to trial is going to be for the same reason as Toss. Kit does wonderful after she has made one good mess to fix on her first send. Like clockwork, on her first send she starts out nice, then dives in to split the sheep in every direction. Same thing her father did- for a long time! Also like her father, she then proceeds to beautifully (with no direction from me) gather them up, and fetch them to me pretty as can be... LOL! It's like they have to get that one "yee-ha" out before they settle in. Now that she's more mature she will no longer be allowed to make that kind of mess at the top. I'm not going to dampen her spirit to work by shutting her down before she makes the mess. She likes to drive and will already take flanks on a short drive- even inside flanks. Like Toss, she needs to learn an outrun- a big scopey outrun is not a natural thing for her. If she follows in Toss' footsteps she'll take time to properly run 80-100 yards, but once she has it down close, it will carry over to 150-250 yards with little to no additional outrun training. Her and Toss are both what I'd call very direct and forward dogs.
So I need to work Deal and Toss today. At least I should. I do think I'm going to bundle up and run the dogs with the atv today. I should quick go take the stupid shampoo rental back, then work Deal and Toss, then get them all a good run. I need to remember to dump the stock tank before I do that. Sure that might feel good, but I don't think being soaked to the skin in 45 degrees is a wonderful thing. Of course I'm not a dog, but it just seems less than ideal. I plan on going to at one day at Long Shot in November. I'm anxious to see how Deal does in Ranch up there. She is so much better now than when we were up there last January. I'm trying to decide if I want to go one day with all of them, or both days with just a few of them... Ben will be gone and I'm scheduled to work that weekend, so it'll most likely be all of them one day. Well, I guess I need to get dressed for public and make my 3rd trip to Windsor for the weekend to return the steamer. Don't you think Ben should take it back? I do.
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