Little Successes

Well, it’s 1:00 in the afternoon, my kennels are clean, yard is picked up, horses feed and turned out to pasture, sheep are out grazing, I have posted another for sale ad for the mini on Craigslist, young dogs are crated and it’s time to start my training routine. First up today will be Weasel, I’m going to try to take that camera out with, I feel pretty good about what she has done in the past few sessions and am willing to venture that she will give me something good to photograph. Might be wishful thinking….
Interesting how a feeling can come to fruition…sorta like this Blog, I have hesitated starting a blog prior to now and placing if out into cyberspace for everyone to view for one reason, the thought of ridicule. Yeah me, some that know me also know that I’m not one to care what others think, I try to remind myself that what others think lacks importance. The blog is for me, so you ask; why not just write it down in a diary? It doesn’t work, I’m good for a day or so but soon find no drive to continue. My hope is that the thought of others reading will drive me to add more, a sense of expectation, be it the expectation of my training falling on it’s face or someone trying to learn from my successes and/or mistakes. So far, the feeling I had when I started this blog is coming to fruition, I am working my dogs more regularly and it is paying off, much like the feeling I had about taking the camera out with Weasel.

I'm so glad that I put a cord on Weasel today, if you follow it's path your can see that she was on a comebye flank, then she stopped and went away to me, and then stopped to drive. If she had been skipping stops the cord would not be laid ontop of itself.
I thought Weasel was going to split of the ewe and lamb on the left....

but look at that, a little turn of her head and flex of her body puts the ewe and lamb back in....yup little successes lead to big progress

Here is another cord story, she was walking in (pictures above), she released pressure and then came out on a flank. IMO, an awesome square flank.

Weasel: For the first time since the day I introduced Weasel to stock she was a joy to work with. Yeah, she still made some mistakes, blew up the stock here and there, but her approach was different. Typically she is beating feet, hell bent for election in an effort to take something to the ground, not today, there was some hesitation that has not been there before, she was actually thinking. At one point after finding herself in the middle of the sheep she took pause, the sheep all moved off and she elected to flank out and around as opposed to continuing on to take chase. That little moment lead to some really nice drives and she allowed me to show her that she did not have to flank all the way around the sheep and stop them to control them, but that she had the power to slow them, speed them up and steer them all without working so hard. I was even able to block her to the fence as the sheep moved off of her leading to a really quiet and controlled lift without her panicking. My goal is to keep building on her confidence and self control, I need to be careful to not overload her. Little baby steps from here on out.

Dixie: This is the first time I’ve brought Dixie out for a couple of weeks. I used her to help tend sheep earlier this summer, she was great at driving them both out and back home.. She is a littermate to Weasel and JJ, I plan to bring Ben out today also. Dixie did some nice things today, it’s almost boring watching her, flank, lift, drive, flank, lift, drive, flank, stop, flank. I gave her the opportunity to go out and crash stuff, but instead, flank, go to balance, lift fetch. She’s ready for some more real work, we will see how things go over the next few weeks, I might just enter her in the Rice County Fair trial to give her a chance to see different stock in a different place.

JJ: Did you ever have that feeling that you’ve been here before? Well, that’s where I am with JJ, I’ve been in the exact spot with Jake, and for the life of me I can’t remember what I did to get through it. He is at the stage of his training where he wants to do it his way or do nothing. I remember being here and I remember that it was a pivotal point with Jake, if I recall correctly I got Jake through it with a nice set of ducks. Sounds strange right, why ducks, well my sheep are not real challenging in the try to escape department, the ducks are more apt to want out of here. That allows me to set up situations where the dog really does not want to quit, they really want to control the ducks and will finally give and try the option I am requesting as opposed to doing everything their own way. You see, JJ is at the point in his training where he knows his flank commands, knows stop and knows walk up, but he only is willing to execute the commands when they are his idea, often times when I ask for the command he feels that something else is in order, and the wrestling match over who is going to lead the show ensues. Since the sheep are laid back and he knows that he can go and get them gathered back up I don’t have any strings to pull, he just says, that’s fine, it’s not that important to work today. Until he can take the commands I ask for regardless of the conditions he is not considered solid. I also know that if I can get him through this bump he will be a pro-novice dog. He has all the tools to get the work done; he just is not convinced he wants to use the ones I’m asking for. I often ponder if this is the moment in training that separates the successful trial dogs from the rest.

Willie working calm and nice

Willie: Today I put Willie back on a 25 foot cord. I set it up a few times where I knew that if I gave her a flank command that she would use her over the gate option. Before I flanked her I picked up the cord, gave her a chance to commit to the gate and then corrected her with a sharp jerk of the cord. It only took two of these corrections to get her mind to quickly leave that option, yeah she still looked, but without me saying or doing anything she would change her mind and flank up along the fence. I’m really glad that I waited this long, rather then putting the cord on earlier in the month to help with this lesson. Before today I would just keep calling her back into the work area. Since she has gotten ample and fair notice that the practice was no longer going to reward her, now it was time to let her know that it is unacceptable and she adapted well. I’m not so certain it would have been so well received 3 weeks ago.

Ben: I let Ben take the sheep back to the barn, he did a great job, first I had him bring the set from the square up to the yard then he went to the front yard to bring the rest of the flock in from grazing. I had lost site of him and feared that he was causing trouble, then the ewes came walking over the hill, my first thought, he has something down, he can get grippy when he gets excited….then I saw him gently wearing back and forth bring the flock down the hill.