This morning I awoke early, 4:00 am, thinking "I have to get dogs worked". It has been brutely hot here, heat index over 100. Our next trial (Great Western Bank Sheep Dog Trial - Tingley, IA) is this coming Saturday/Sunday. I was able to put off getting up until 4:30, but simply could not take it anymore. I went about the business of making a pot of coffee, getting dogs out for their walks, moved some sheep over to a work area and then came in to make breakfast as the sun was just starting to peak up from the east. Wayne was still working on waking up, Lilly jumped up to finish the job.
Immediately after breakfast I got Wayne to go out and work Jake. I've been training Jake for the past year after Wayne came to the realization that he just could not work with him. He's a sensitive bugger and needs support, we were new to training border collies and really did not know where to support him. This past winter Jake and I really started to click, I moved him up to Pro-novice and felt that I was in a good position to make a run for our state year end high point dog, but...Wayne decided that he could get him handled. I opted to hand over the reins and Wayne took back over. The two of them have been doing a great job, Wayne moved straight up to the open division. His first trial this season was a point/time sheep trial, he was right there at the top of the class right up until the shed, that was as far as they got. Last weekend he took Jake to the Iowa Cattle Dog trials, both had a nice showing but the pen got the best of them.
This has left me in a bit of a bind for the season, the only other dog I have ready is an old retired dog, Vicki,. I brought Vicki up from Missouri a few months ago hoping that Wayne could learn from her and trial this season. It only took one little spin around the field for him to decide that she and him just were NOT going to work together. I have to admit, she's tough and her own ideas as to how things are going to be. Working with her and a few of my other dogs is what brought me to this blog today. I came to the realization that I need to document where we are, what I have done previous to day and what I did today.
So here we go:
Jake: Wayne worked on his shedding, I stressed to him the importance of defining a good reference point for Jake. Wayne has a tendency to be half hearted in his body language, I think it really caused their originally relationship to go off into the ditch when Wayne first tried to train him. The biggest thing I noticed was that he would just bear claw his hand along with a bent wrist and bent elbow, this made the appearance of a lack of committment as to where he wanted Jake to come in, you could see the confusion in Jake along with the bear claw motion turned the lead ewe instead of helping to define a cut. I finally got Wayne to try to flatten his hand and try to drop it purposely between the two front sheep the the rear two...A Miracle, a perfect shed, Jake walked in and drove his two off across the pen!!!
Willie: This is a dog that I have in on for training, we just call her Willie... She has a tendency to get stuck and go off and do her own thing. In the past I have been driving her through her sticky points, today I not only made sure that she flanked until I told her to stop, I also worked on showing her that her flank has to be in a specific place (based on the pressure of the sheep), as she found that place her flank got freer and freer and her ability to take a flank in either direction improved. We did some driving, need to do more of that and also made sure that I was clear...when I say stop, I mean you stop!
JJ: This is a son of Jake from last April's litter. I entered him in the Novice division a couple weeks ago where he proceeded to show me that he has inherited his daddy's stubborn streak. Today was the first day I put him back to work, I decided to just let him be after the trial until I could get a good bearing as to my next step with him. He played the "gotta get around and stop them, then bring them back" game on me at the trial, I was able to keep it in check until we got to the pen, where he handlely prevented the sheep from escaping into it (errrr). Today's lesson was about finding and maintaining the right pressure on a flank, if the sheep are close to the fence it is your job to reduce the pressure to allow you to get around behind them while causing the least amount of stress. This little exercise also addressed another issue that turned up at the trial, he was a wearing machine. Today as he started to regulate pressure he also focused in on the balance point of his drives, so much easier to handle a dog that his looking for one place instead of being all over the place.
I'll have to see how the next couple of work sessions go, I might just change my mind and enter JJ in the Novice on Sunday, he could use the expirence on different sheep and in a different field, I just don't want him to think that trials are all fun and games, and push Deb to the max time. Even with his bad behaivor at the last trial he still pulled of a 2nd place, but in my mind he was at the bottom of the class, TURD!!
Vicki: Ahh yes, Vicki...Vicki had a come to Jesus session today. When I trialed her two weeks ago she pulled a 3rd place finish out of her butt, but she also blew me off on a flank command that would have lead to a line taking the sheep through the cross drive panels, she elected to go into business for herself and went into auto fetch mode. I was able to save it for the next obstacle but I am holding a grudge. Today her and I went out and I let her know that for no reason is she to dishonor her sheep, she tends to bulldoze into them when she goes into auto fetch and fails to go as deep at the top as she needs to. At the end of today's session she couldn't get any deeper at the top, fingers crossed that a few more sessions like that will make that little hiccup history. If anyone ever tells you to go purchase an open level dog to learn with, tell them to blow it out their ear. Yeah, maybe if you can work with the previous trainer it will work, but dang, I gotta know how to train her in order to keep her right. If I had no idea as to what I wanted or how to go about getting it the old rip would have her way with me and my sheep.
Weasel: Last but not least little weasers, what a little pirrahna!!! I've been doing alot of thinking with her, she has so much of her daddy in her, but then again she has so much of her momma in her. Last weekend I utilized her in my sheepdog demos, on a cord, can't trust the little rip, and I mean rip, she's all nice and sweet until the pressure gets to a certain point and then...Fury unleashed!! Rip and tear and try to take them down to the ground. I've been trying to be easy on her, she is still a baby, but today I decided that it is make or break. I went out to the training pen equiped with a lariet and I showed her that leaning on, charging or trying to escape pressure were all wrong answers...give, yield and think, those are all right answers. I will have to teach her when the right time to lean on pressure is (while driving) but she has to learn that you only go so far, if things start blowing apart you gotta let off on the gas and coast, she don't like to coast. White knuckle is more her style, grip and hang, throw a nasty growl in for good measure, what a little beast!!! Surprising the little girl seemed to figure it out. I ended the session with the sheep between her and I, I would then walk toward the sheep, the sheep would lean a little on her and then think of scattering. I would try to read her intentions, if she leaned a little back on the sheep it was ok, if they started to scatter and she leaned more she found the loop of the lariet thrown down hard in the path she was getting ready to take, a couple of those corrections and she was releasing to control vs. trying to latch on. She is the biggest reason I am starting this blog, I need to document what I did and what I was looking for and when, if it works and turns her into the dog that I think she can be I will want to reflect, same is true if I fail.
Well, I guess that is all for today, the temps are climbing and we have more storms brewing. I have a few more dogs to bring on line but I'm waiting for them to tell me that they are ready, Dixie and Ben, they are littermates to both JJ and Weasel
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