Today was the third day that Ricky took over all of the chores here at home. This is not only a test for him but also for me, can I maintain the changes that Marc made in his attitude while progressing in his training. As far as training is concerned he is trained, he has his directions, he has a stop, a walk up, he controls his stock, he sheds, looks back and has a variation of speeds and intensities that I can tap into with just subtle tone changes in my voice or whistles. What he lacks is experience and seasoning, dealing with adversity and coming out on top on the other side.
As I went out with him to do chores I noticed that he was doing an exceptional job staying in his place, just to the right and behind me, he is not allowed to wear or switch sides, it is his job to stay there until I give him a different job. We made it all the way to the hen house, fed the ducks and started to move on to the sheep barn, no slips on his part. For a moment I thought maybe just maybe we could make it through our entire chore routine without him slipping from his place, then it happened, the mistake. A quick correction and he was right back in his place, he almost looked embarrassed that he made the mistake.
We moved on and fed the sheep, I had Ricky move the ram and Tetra out of the barn, Tetra is known for taking a dog. Tetra and Rick had a moment of face to face time, typically day after day Tetra takes a shot at Jake before getting a nose or ear bite and moving on, she held true to her habit yesterday and the day before but not today, today she yielded and moved on with her twins. Reflecting back to the trial this past weekend Marc pointed out that Jake tends to blink when confronting a cow, he has a moment where he looses his nerve and the cow will try to take him reading the weakness. Typically Jake fights through it and wins in the end, but it seems to be a pattern. What I realized today was when Tetra changed her routine it was due to Ricky not blinking.
Before leaving for Marc's I had only rare opportunities to see it in Ricky, there was one cattle trial where he went eye to eye with a cow at a gate, the cow declared uncle and moved on. I had another chance up at Platte, SD during the trial but the cow elected to try Ricky anyway at which point he was almost stunned and didn't know how to respond. This past weekend at the trial we had two more opportunities, one was when we backed a cow backwards down an alleyway, the other was when a cow wanted to enter an alley with Ricky in it. She said no, he at first wanted to negotiate leave the alley way and go for a heel, I refused to allow him to negotiate and after three attempts he finally stepped up and bit her square on the nose.
Ideally I would like to have a dog that makes that move as a natural reflex, but I'll take one that develops it, calm, quiet, flat footed this is not open for negotiations attitude. Truth be told, Ricky may have originally possessed the proper reflex, but if I missed it and inapproaprately discouraged it I may have taught him to not use it.
Anyway, back to the original story, after completing sheep and horse chores Ricky and myself were returning to the house, he tucked in just behind me to my right, so close that I almost have to bend over backwards and twist to see his tail to confirm he is there, when I became aware of him creeping up. My thought was to wait for him to make the mistake and then correct him, but then I realized that I had quickened my pace in an attempt to hold my position just in front and to the left of him...wait a minute..I just caught myself trying to help him be right... CRACK...correction time! No Negotiations! I busted my dog in the act of bending and shaping me, the master of negotiators has been stopped in his tracks! He looked beyond embarrassed this time.
I have to say that at the moment I realized I was speeding up for my dog I heard Marc's voice asking my why I was doing it. As luck would have it I have seen the same situation occur over and over with other students of his, he always reminds us to watch closely, any issue that he helps his other students through will eventually happen to us and by not getting wrapped up in our own dogs and issues we will be able to learn from others and know what to do when our day comes.
On a side note, in an effort to keep our relationship from slipping Ricky is now living in the kennel. I know that bringing him back into the house will just give him more opportunity to shape me and get me to bend to him. This is a change that I will be making with all of my young dogs, they will get house time so as to learn how to behave in the house, but once they have learned the lessons they need to learn, back to the kennel to ensure that each interaction I have with them is positive from a training/relationship standpoint and of high quality.
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