Peaks and Valleys

Cash driving Cattle at the Southern Iowa Cattle Trial

This is a picture from a couple years ago of a dog that I was training, I brought him along as far as I could. He now is working out in Western Iowa. When I sold him my thought was that I had taken him as far as I could, but now I realize, I took him as far as I could at that time. I often ponder, if he was still here would I have him doing more?

Sharon came out yesterday to see how Jay was doing and take him for spin. The spin was short lived, it wasn't long before he was getting back into the swing of walking all over her, but he was maintaining a good relationship with the sheep. I think that I have made some pretty big gains in his level of competence with the sheep. He no longer is mindlessly blowing around them, circling just to show Sharon that he does not have to listen until the sheep get to a corner where he would just plant them there.

I'm seeing some rate and pace, he even proved that he could make good judgement calls with the sheep while I was being distracted by the pups, we were driving the sheep down the L pasture when Cecil realized that he could fit under the fence...here he comes to save the day!!! With his three littermate tagging along. Luckily, Jay kept the sheep on line down the middle of the pasture as opposed to letting them drift toward me, his normal trick, allowing me to round up the little monsters before they found themselves in a bad situation with the ewes. For the first time ever I did not have to direct all my attention to Jay in an effort to support him, he was supporting himself, and doing it right!!!

I have also expanded Jay's toolbox, he has an "in" command that I am using to help him index his flank and I can now reflank him to build him out further, evidencing that he is offering a square flank with just a touch to much pressure release, these are tricks that Jake developed while going down this road, it's so nice to recognize the landscape...I know how to get refinement from here, atleast on his flanks. He still is not in the right place on his flanks, but we are getting closer to the right channel, ideally, Jay will find the right place himself and I will not have to use either trick except for when we find ourselves in a situation we should not have been in.

This new thinking Jay is kinda of a nice dog. I can stop him when he makes a mistake, help him through figuring his way out of the mistake. We even had a couple of nice situations present yesterday so that I could begin introducing a proper Look Back. Normally Jay is so locked onto his sheep that it would be impossible to get him to even consider that he should look someplace else, or he might glance and then take off on you to go circle his sheep, he just was not open for any dialog.

But yesterday, I saw change. I could put a little pressure on him and you could see him wonder what it was I wanted, his head would tilt and swivel. I could have a silent conversation with him speaking only in pressure and release until he suddenly turned his head and looked at the sheep behind him. That was when I would say "Away to me", he was off like a shot, he knew exactly what I wanted at that moment, go flank around that set, totally forgetting about the group he was previously working. His flank was perfect, I didn't even have to remind him to go deep at the top or to honor his sheep before he lifted them. It was a good moment, and the fact that we were able to repeat the moment made it great!

If I can just build in good decisions on Jay's part it will be so much easier for Sharon, then her job is to just conduct the orchrastra, rather then worring about tuning the instruments. Thinking about it, I've been here before also, with Jake. It was at that point where Jake was not in need of constant tuning that Wayne could take him over. Yeah, he needs a tweek here and there, but it's minor stuff that is easily adjusted. Getting the dog to the point in training where you can reward it with silence and the stock rewards it with compliance is a really great place to be, the dog likes being in that place and will fight to get back there. As I reflect this morning, I am realizing that I need to get my dogs into that place earlier, not as a whole but within each element. Show them how rewarding being right is.

Jay will be with me at least through the end of this week and possibly next, Sharon is thrilled with what she saw last night, exclaiming "He is working like the dog I want to see", I teased her by saying "There's a dog that you want to go out and buy".

JJ: I went back and working on one thing with JJ, his stop. It's kinda a strange thing, I've noticed that he just has not been with me lately, but that changed when I gave him one thing to focus on being right with. That was when it all made sense, if the dog starts to go wrong you stop it, but if you can't stop it then you have to correct him for not stopping, when is the dog ever going to be right? Funny thing this stock dog training, it's not about following a book or someone else's program, you gotta find your own program. You have to learn these lessons on your own, when you identify something that works it sticks. Eventually you just integrate it in, it turns to second nature which leads to forgetting that you do it. It's not that you forget to do it, you just don't have an active awareness of it anymore, it's automatic.

Riley: I've not spoken about Riley before, she is JJ, Ben, Dixie, Jill and Weasel's mother. Riley has talant, Riley has will, Riley uses her talant and will to do anything but what I request. I've place Riley on the back burner, she comes out when I think I have learned a new lesson to see if maybe that lesson will be the key to her engine. Well, I hate to get my hopes up, but she gave me more willingly yesterday and show the highest level of work ever. I have her trained, she knows her directions, even her inside flanks, she has a stop, she drives, she fetches, she gathers, I just can't get her to execute the requirements when I want them. I went back and repeated JJ's lesson, just gave her one requirement to get right and made sure that I was not going to accept anything short of 100% compliance. Once she submitted to the fact that I was not going to give she began offering me more right answers. Time will tell how long she will stay on the front burner, I even had a fleeting thought of taking her up to the fair this weekend with us, is it possible that we could get that much change that quick.

As I reflect while I'm typing some words are flowing back to me. Nearly 2 years ago during my lesson with Marc as I worked Riley he threw a statement/question at me, "She knows the requirements left, right, stop and walk up, when are you going to hold her to the requirements?". How strange it is, did it really take me two years to finally hold her to one of those requirements?

Bea: How frustrating it can be to work Bea, one day she is willing to work with me the next she is not. I think I just overloaded her yesterday and she froze up again by placing more expectation on her then she was able to succeed with. This little dog is going to hold me to finding the pieces of the puzzle and being careful to place them in a precise fashion. With her, it's all about peaks and valleys, though last night we were off the road and bogged down in the ditch.