Musings...

It's been so nice to have 2 days in row off. I worked 11-8 on Monday, and got a lot of house work done before I left for work. I'm trying very hard to just buckle down on stuff, rather than fretting about it. I'm also getting drop dead serious with the boys about their treatment of this house! I think my new position at work is actually helping me here at home. My position requires me to find hands to get the jobs done, I am no longer a one-woman-show; I'd never get it done. This was hard for me (still is sometimes) and it's hard for me at home. I tend to either do it all myself, or just let it go undone. I felt guilty giving them chores, or even keeping up with their own room, and just like so many of the associates at work, my kids knew it and took full advantage of that. But no more. I can't and shouldn't have to do it all alone! Today I need to get the kitchen and the bathroom picked up. I hate the kitchen, I really do. It never stays right and to be honest by the time I get home at 6:30, make dinner and eat dinner, I sure don't want to clean up dinner! We've gotten better though and the most I let get left anymore are the pots and pans I used. But somehow the kitchen is still a disaster.... :-(

Yesterday I picked up outside and worked all the dogs. I had to fix the fence (again) because the ram busted it while I was letting Emma go around the sheep. He's becoming a real serious pain in the ass because I just don't have the funds to build him a shelter so he can have his own area. So I resorted to taking one of my dog chains (that I use to tether dogs when I'm training at someone's place) and chaining him to a tree in the paddock.

All the dogs worked pretty well. Toss is really coming along on his whistles. He wasn't wanting to give much ground on his "away" side when given as an inside flank to hold a cross-drive type line, but did eventually understand what I wasn't pleased with.

Gwen worked nice and didn't stall out. She was a little wild, but she gets that way if she is not worked a lot. She's a dog you could work hard everyday and she would not burn out.

Deal was very nice and if we can just get this shed thing figured out between us, she'll be ready for Open. She gets really intense and will often use her teeth. I need to consult with Carol on what I should do, because I hate to keep fussing at her. I don't want to make hesitant to come thru. I want to make sure she knows it's the grip I'm displeased with, not the coming thru. So for now the shed work is on the back burner with her.

Mary worked nicely for awhile and then started to slide. I worked on insisting she stop immediately on the first whistle. She doesn't like to stop- especially on the drive. What's interesting is that she has wonderful pace, but to get her honest about her stops is something else! I worked on driving sort of in a square, close at hand. She started out doing pretty well, but I could see I was losing her after not a lot of time. She went from walking thru the stops, to giving me 95% honest, and back to walking thru the stops. So I let her put them thru the chute and quit with her. Mary's such a nice dog, and she really is very talented, but there is just something about the 2 of us... She thinks I'm too demanding, and I think she's a bit of quitter...

Cruz seemed a little odd. I'm not sure if he was having trouble hearing me in all the leaves or just what. I think his body is finally getting a little older and he knows it. I ended up working on stopping and tight inside flanks. He's so funny because as soon as he knows I'm going to "drill" him on a task he goes into textbook mode. He knows where I stand and how I act when we have to step back and drill some tight flanks (his hole in the beginning) and he just pops right out there and doesn't really even watch the sheep- he goes mechanical, so I don't do that with him very much, but he needed to be reminded yesterday. It's not often I have to "train" him, I just have to work him and expose him- he just gets it. He was also not stopping sharply, which is why I think he couldn't hear me very well. Given his age and his honesty, I no longer ask him to lie down. If he wants to stand on a lie down whistle, he has earned that privilege.

Clare was very nice, she is maturing and I think she'll be very much like Deal- just not as much to handle. I've been very light with her as I could see I had a huge influence over her. It was me she was somewhat hesitant about, not the sheep. We did some short fetch work and short send work. She sends and goes around very nicely at a short distance. She likes to stay on her feet, and that is OK with me. In fact I don't think I've seen her lie down now that I think about it, but she has a very solid stand for such a youngster. She'll either be a dog that can stand honestly, or later, when she is more confident I will ask her to lie down, but for right now there is no reason at all to put that kind of handler pressure on her.

Ivy. She is my bummer story of the day. I can't get her off her belly. She'll send and fetch, but once everything is going nicely she plops down and I cannot get her up. I've tried various things. I've tried lots of cheerleading, no voice at all, I've tried just continuing to walk, I've tried to wait her out and stay put (she'll get bored right? Wrong.) The only way to get her back on her feet is step over enough that she has flank. But again, once she has them nicely going she stops and will not get back up. My sheep work nice and when she stops, they stop (and don't run off). If I keep walking the sheep stay put- so she should go ahead and get up and get them to me. If they were knee huggers and didn't even need a dog to stay with me, I would give her the benefit of the doubt. But that isn't the case. I'm concerned this is going to be a forever hole. That even if I get her through this part, it'll show up later when sheep stall out on cross drives and tough pens. I don't want that. I don't at all enjoy telling a dog to get up. I'm much better at reining a dog in. I feel like at her age this shouldn't be an issue. I feel like at her age I should have "yee ha" issues, not "get up" issues... I really like her as a dog, but if she isn't going to come on, then I'm going to have to make a really hard decision...

Emma was fun. She's really going to be a fun pup to bring on! She's so full of herself, yet she is a sweetheart. She's very smart and very stable minded. Her and Logan are both in here with me curled up taking their late-morning puppy nap. Logan is Ben's pup, so he has a forever home. In fact Ben told me if I could find Maddie (the Lab) a home, he was okay with that... Logan is an on/off pup and will melt into snoring sleep in your lap in about 5 minutes! Logan wants nothing to do with stock yet, but oh well.

Kit worked very well. I can now send her from my feet and she does an outrun instead of a bowling ball. LOL! I knew it would come, only because her father was the same way. I just kept it close at hand and did a lot of standing between her and the sheep until she understood. She understands now, so it will be great for her to get to work in the soybean field over the winter. By spring her outrun should be solid enough for ProNovice. She already has flanks and a stop and can do pens and chute work. She has a short drive and will even take an inside flank. So stretching out the drive work and outrun will be her winter work in the big field. :-) She is a very straight forward, hard pushing driver like her father, so I don't forecast stretching out the drive to be any trouble. Probably about time to start putting some basic whistles on her.

Well, time to get some stuff done inside so I can go outside for the afternoon. Maybe today I can just quick play with each dog and take some new photos of the dogs I don't have many of. I didn't take any yesterday because I wanted to really work them. It's hard to train and photograph. When I take their pictures I pretty much send them and then walk around.