A Long long weekend

Three straight days of working dogs on someone elses stock, what a great thing, thank you Bob Johnson!!

I am quite tired this morning, Wayne is too, even though he stayed home here. He ended up being up most of the night Saturday with Wynonna, Wayne's 4 year old red ACD bitch, whelping. We have our first crossbred litter in over 5 years. We used our best Border Collie male on her, Ricky. The plan is to breed out many of the border collie traits over time but keep what our ACD's are missing and end up with a ACD simular to what Wayne used back in Colorado 35 years ago, it will be interesting to see if we can accomplish our goal.

I took Jake, Ricky, Patty and Angus down to Tingley Iowa for the weekend. Wayne's open dog, my young dog that I just started running open & nursery, a 7 month old pup that is just getting ready for training and then 5 month old Angus. I'm very please with everyone, well, except the pup Angus, he just does not seem to be offering what I would like to see. We will give him a bit more time, regardless of what I would like him to offer, I think he will still turn into a nice farm/ranch dog.

Friday evening, when the sheep were fresh, I was able to work on some shedding, actually I let Ricky teach me how to shed while trying to remember the advice Marc gave me when I was down in Missouri last week. It's a strange thing to have a dog that calmly parts the waters and then comes in clean and with conviction. So long as I did not try to force the shed things went well, kinda weird how the gap just appeared in front of me and all I had to do was call Ricky in. Great fun!!!

I had one major "wrong place - wrong time" moment with Ricky. I was waiting for my turn on the sheep in the arena, I had him off leash as he is pretty reliable at being in the place he s suppose to be, or atleast I thought he was. Anyway, a young pup split the sheep, ran them down amongst us watching, when they made their escape a ewe body slammed another young dog, the impact tore his leash from his handlers hand. Now there are two dogs after the sheep, the two young dogs ran the sheep back towards the onlookers, now being pursued by two handlers, one ewe sliced by me...Ricky couldn't take it. He leaped for a head and about took the ewe to the turf and then off to the races. Now three youngs dogs after 4 sheep with 3 handlers trying to stop dogs.

I was able to get Ricky shut down and back to me, but boy was he amped up. I kicked myself for not having a leash on my dog but then had to look at the upside, no sheep or people were injured, I got my dog stopped before everyone else, now I have to go out and see if he can let go or if he is going to be a brat when it is my turn to run. I just earned myself something test and train Ricky through.

Bob Fleming set the sheep for me with Dandy, as I walked out to set Ricky up for an outrun I realized that Ricky has never lifted off of a set out dog atleast that I know of, then I couldn't help but wonder if what just occured is going to carry over into my session. I figured that I may as well go for broke and sent Ricky on his outrun, it will be a good test. Ricky went out like a champ, came around to the top and initiated a lift as if Dandy was not even there. I flanked Ricky around on his Away-to-me side to make certain he was still free and listening, and asked for a cross drive, Dandy was still there and on that side. Ricky stopped about 15 feet behind Dandy and started to walk up, when the sheep started to lift Dandy got up thinking he was to control the sheep. Bob whistled to Dandy to stop, Ricky obeyed, Bob...hmm, note to self, need to get Ricky to ignore other handlers whistles.

Long story short, a bad expirence lead to success, basically I was able to gain some confidence in my dog, yes things can come totally unglued but my dog can regain his composure and move on like nothing happened.

On Sunday I took Ricky and Jake over to work cattle. I kept things simple for Ricky, only sending him as far as I felt I could correct him and trying to keep things positive with out totally protecting him. Nothing really special to report accept that Ricky handled everything presented to him and maintained decient to high quality work, not all perfect there were slips, but each mistake lead to success.

Bob and I worked some full length field outruns, he and his dog on one end of the field and myself and Jake on the other. Jake presented me with a couple of issues, he came in too hard once, which made him panic and resulted in him heading and stopping them. I got him straightened out and he brought the cattle straight up the field. The next outrun I sent him on I did some communication checks with my whistle as he made his way down the field, this seem to help him soften, he came around to the top much nicer and lifted about perfect.

It dawned on me that I had not been letting Ricky know that he is right while I was working him, which is something Marc was talking about last weekend. Give him the command and then confirm in a softer lighter tone that he is right as opposed to leaving him hanging out to dry. It will help me to make the change now that I see that Jake responds in a positive manner to the technique, it amazing how a little reward will help to form new habits quicker.

When Bob and I returned to his arena he and I talked about talking with the dog. He pointed out that some trainers do not like to hear all the extra commands where other whistle all of the time. I've heard other complain about all the commands, but now I don't seem them as commands, I'll have to listen closely next time I'm at a trial, are those handlers that use a lot of whistles not really recommanding but rather reaffirming or helping the dog.

I like the idea of helping the dog along with a softer tone from a training standpoint but my thought is that eventually I would like to be able to have a dog that does not rely on alot of extra talk from me. I guess my goal is to talk as little as I have to but don't do it to just prove that I don't have to and in the end leave my dog hanging out to dry, which is what I think some may be doing.

Reminds me of the saying, don't follow the marked path, hone out your own path and lead. It's not that I'm actually doing something that someone else has not already thought of, it is more that I don't fall victim to doing what everyone else is doing just because they say it is right. So many are just repeating what they are told and really don't have any personal proof or expirence to back it up.

I'm planning on giving everyone the day off today, I have some club paperwork to clean up today and get the shop ready for some leather work. I am hoping to take the ewes with the older lambs out to the soybean field tomorrow or Wednesday, depending on the mud, and then each day this week with both Ricky and Jake and start building more distance. I only have access to open field for a limited time, I'm sure corn planting is right around the corner.