Training updates...actually having fun!!!

Ben

I sware someone stole Ben and replaced him with a look alike that does not act alike. Ben is one of those push you to your limits types. He tends to want to run on his own agenda and could care less as to what you are interested in. But, over the last couple of weeks Ben has changed. Out of nowhere he began to execute a lie down like a pro, heck, I don't even remember teaching it to him and he darn sure was more interested in busting things up vs. lieing down prior to now.

I took Ben out into the apple orchard today, normally he comes in tight but not today, today I was fighting keeping him on contact, in some cases the pasture was not big enough. He did blow into the flock once, then was thinking about it a second time but instead stopped and lied down on his own, kinda weird. Where did this dog come from??? I'm hoping that he sticks around, he was actually kinda fun to work with.

Chip, Wayne's cattle dog was next. We did a little driving, a little fetching, worked on letting him track the heads in hopes that he will figure out that he can control both speed and direction from one spot. Overall Chip did a good job, it's slow going, but it's going.

JJ got to move the sheep from the orchard over to the square pasture. This job is usually saved for Jake, it can get pretty hairy, the sheep know all the hiding spots in the yard and on occasion have caused all kinds a havoc. JJ did a great job, in part because he was willing to listen to me and stop followed by taking the proper directions. We were able to thread the sheep in between the barns and into the court yard, around the gate and in.

I then took JJ out and worked his flanks and drives, asking him to flank towards me, away from me, in front of me, into pressure, off pressure, basically every which way but loose. I would mix in long drive, short drives, drives away from me, drives past me, drives that I helped him with.

JJ seemed to be enjoying it and got more comfortable by the moment with driving sheep, releasing and flanking around either direction to pick up a new drive line. We did a couple of little outruns where I flanked him on past the lift point and would ask him to drive the sheep across the field, then I would let him lift, fetch to me a little and then flank him off of the fetch to then stop him so that he could cross drive the sheep. Boy if I can get the handle on this little dog at the same distances I have Jake he's going to a blast to use, both here on the farm and at the trials. One of these days I'm going to have to get him started on cattle....

Bea was next. I ran her through the same program as JJ but not quite as intense working more on letting have some fun driving, but never letting her fetch to me. She still has it in her head that she should fetch me the sheep and leaks badly if I'm not careful. As I see her thinking of fetching less and less I will go back to letting her fetch a little, the key is that she is going to have to fetch at the right times and be willing to be flanked out of a fetch when I ask for it, that is her sticking point.

I'll try to post more updates when I come back in, next up is Jake. I want to do a quick run on the figure 8 that we will be excuting at the next trial to see how much work I'm going to have to put in to sharpen him up between now and then. We will be running the same pattern that is run at the Denver Stock Show, we won't be making it to Denver but it's always fun to go and run with the guys that will be going at the warm up trials. I can crash and burn just as easily 4 hours from home (Platte, SD) as I can 12 (Denver), besides it will be cheaper...

Update....

So, I took Jake out, sorted off 4 head, had him settle them up near the top of the pasture and called him back to me. I then sent him off onto his outrun, he came up a little short which I would expect based on the draws which actually set things up perfectly lifting the sheep right down the middle of the pen, some quick flanks and the sheep were spun around one cone and then acrossed the pen and around the other, with a major mistake...me giving Jake the wrong flank commands. Ok, so there's the hole, me!!! If I can keep the correct flank commands firing out we will be fine, hah!! I guess I better appoligize to Jake now.

The next dog out was Weasel, she did an awesome job for me. Each time I work her she shows me great things. Her future job is to be a goose control dog, but not just any goose control dog, she will be expected to have enough handle on her so that she can be used for round ups, pennings and to be able to drive geese off of nests. I'm just going to take things slow and easy with her.

After Weasel I pulled out Dixie. Dixie is also destined for a life as a goose control dog. I don't know is she will have the power that Weasel has but she's going to be a blast to handle. She is behind Weasel in training just now beginning to understand her flanks, shaping them is going slow but coming along.

My last dog was Ugh, he's another one of Wayne's Cattle Dogs. Today was the first day of his restart, he didn't take it very well. Oh well, gotta have one dog out of the bunch that does not excell.