The Cobblers Kids have no shoes...

One County Fair trial down, two to go....

Yesterday Wayne and I took the dogs up to the Rice County Fair in Faribault, MN. The trial is a small one, but always fun. Sharon also joined us with Jay, both her and him showed evidence of some great changes. They didn't win their class, but they won in other ways, Sharon was tickled to get Jay to stop and to go when asked, not perfectly but way better then in the past . I also noticed that Jay never went into his mindless running circles around sheep mode. After the trial Sharon approached me to ask if Jay could come back this week, her husband suggested that she ask after seeing Jay work so much better then in previous trial. Jay will be coming back tonight to continue training, I plan on using him in my training demonstrations this coming Friday and Sharon will run him in the next two County Fair Trials, Saturday at Mason City and Sunday at Greenfield.


Wayne had an awesome run with Jake, he won the open division. Wayne was a bit concerned after watching many dogs have a difficult time with the sheep, the sheep at this trial are renowned for testing a dog. A few dogs had great difficulties lifting the sheep off the back fence, others had problems keeping them together. One dog even spent most of his run walking a ewe backward (nose to nose with it) down the arena. Wayne's concerns we unjustified, Jake step up and took control of the sheep, the only dog of our that had issues with the sheep was old Vicky, but that's another story.

Vicky is officially retired, she had a terrible run, in part due to all the noise. The run started out rocky, she couldn't find her sheep in the arena, then once she found them she either chose to not hear me or could not hear me and pretty much had her way with them. I threw in the towel and called her off without making the first obstacle, no sense tormenting the sheep for the next guy.

My run with JJ was a train wreak, though we got through the course. Boy was he strong and on the bit. I've been concerned about how tough I have been on him over the past few months and eased up.... mistake... the bugger is going back to boot camp, ASAP!!

Bea had a nice little run, she can blame me for costing her the class. I moved her over during her drive allowing the sheep to miss the panels, this was a point/time trial and the loss of that many points hurt really bad. I should have trusted her and just let her take care of the line, she had it undercontrol, but I just had to fiddle with it.

Riley....where the heck did that dog come from??? Wayne entered Riley just to see if they could get around the course...jeeze...the pair won their division. Riley worked at a level that I have never seen before, I had a feeling it was there I just have never been able to get her to bring it to the table. Every now and then in the past I have seen little glimpses of what could be, well yesterday the door flung wide open, the bright light blinded up. It is quite amazing how making a little training adjustment can change a dog. If you had asked me Wednesday I would have told you that Riley was looking for a new home, I had tabled her months ago after being unable to build distance on her commands. She knows them all, she just has been refusing to comply with anyone, opting to do everything her way. Thursday and Friday I tried something a little different with her, I would not let her work unless she obeyed, I did no get angry with her, I just stopped her when she gave me the wrong answer and then would let her try again. I also made sure that she did not volunteer for work, she had to wait until I told her what I wanted. We spent more time not working sheep, probably 80% of the training sessions Riley spent not working sheep but working to do what I asked, stopping or returning to me. This program short circuited Riley's escape program, she is the one that will clear 6 foot fences to avoid requirement, the last time I tried to trial her she flipped me the paw, after refusing to stop at the top of her outrun. She proceeded to totally quit her sheep, leaving to sit on the set out persons lap (Thad Fleming), that was over a year ago.

Both Wayne and I had a moment of heart failure before his run began, as he was waiting for the sheep to be set he lost track of Riley, she was lying behind him...was... next thing you know she is off loping across the arena to go visit all the spectators. We call Riley our social butterfly, she literally flits around all happy to see everyone. I thought for sure she was going to slide out through the gates to find a soft lap to land on. Wayne kept his cool and coaxed Riley back to him, the sheep were set, he gave her a Comebye, I expected her normal flutter around that she does, teasing us with the "Should I work today...or should I go find a shady spot", but, that was not there, she hit her stride and went right to work, she was hooked, hooked in a way that we have never seen before.

Time will tell, maybe I have finally figure out how to communicate with this little dog, it will be interesting to see if the glass ceiling has been shattered or if maybe we just peaked through a little crack. Marc has told me over and over, if you don't get to the root of the problem you will come full circle back to the problem. So here we go, we are back on the road with Riley, will we just keep going forward or are we going to come back full circle?

I had quite a few moments of frustration yesterday and as I am typing now, I wanted to celebrate Wayne's successes, but it was tough to do. While he basked in the lime light with the dogs he ran I wrestled with the short comings of the dogs that I ran, granted I set him up with the dogs that would offer him the highest chance of success, I have to admit that there was a twinge of jelousy, even though I trained these dogs sitting watching them win is not the same as winning with them. Brings to mind the old saying, "The Cobblers kids have no shoes", much the same as the "Horse Trainers own horses never get road". I see a trend beginning, the dogs I'm training for others to run are doing well, my own, well..they are suffering.

I guess it's time to get back out into the training pens, Jake already had some work this morning handling the sheep for the vet. I need to get Riley out an continue our exercises that we began last week, I'm going to continue working her twice a day. Jay will be here this afternoon, his session today will be to refresh our working relationship and continue to build on the foundation that I established over the last couple of weeks. Hmm...wonder how much I'll have left for the dogs that I was going to trial this coming weekend...