A Brief Trial

Well, it shouldn’t be a huge surprise, but not actually practicing obedience and agility means that things don’t go well when you only occasionally attempt to compete. Obedience I expected to be a trainwreck (but not as much as it actually was!), but I’ll admit I was still surprised when my dogs were doing silly things on the agility course. Almost like, well, we haven’t been trialing.

So, yeah, Navarre still runs around jumps at trials … unless we actually GO to trials and get him past that. Navarre took a backside cue as a push to an offcourse jump in Premier standard, ran around a jump in standard after a dogwalk turn (that I certainly could have worked more …), and then pulled in to me on a line in jumpers that I took for granted (okay, maybe my fault there too …). He also spontaneously rear crossed a triple, which was very odd, as I was using my wrap cue – I’m putting that one on him. So silly stuff, but he weaved without an issue, didn’t knock any bars, he just needed some more aggressive handling.

Bright was really making stuff up in premier standard, couldn’t seem to do a push OR a threadle and then ran past the dogwalk. She was really HAPPY, but, yeah, very goofy and not even remotely doing the same course as me. As Heidi didn’t get to run Dove, and 16 inches always conflicts with 20 in the other ring, I gave her to Heidi to run in standard and jumpers. Bright was SO HAPPY, not something she would have enjoyed when she was younger, but she loved getting all the spotlight attention and had a great time running with Heidi. She REALLY made stuff up for Heidi, all those backsides and threadles she didn’t want to do in premier she really made up for in the other classes! I just wanted her to have a good time as it’s been all about the boys and puppies and I think she loved it. Such a different girl she is these days, just so confident in herself and in agility. Love that girl. Apparently Heidi and Bright have actually trialed together before, which I don’t remember at all! They are a good match.

The courses were all perfectly doable, which always makes me feel silly for not qualifying, but it was pretty obvious we haven’t been trialing and need to actually, you know, work things. I wasn’t thrilled with the spacing in premier, but standard seemed okay. Jumpers was fine, just boring and ENDED with a tiny three jump pinwheel, which is just not fun. So the question becomes, do we actually enter more so we can get back into the trialing groove? Well, probably not. I’d rather spend our time and money on more interesting courses and seminars – where we can fuck up and fix it. I’d like to do some more seminars with Navarre this year, and hopefully some baby stuff with Asher. We will still enter some one day trials here and there (mostly for Bright!), but I can recognize that our lack of trial exposure may not make us super successful. It’s about having fun though, and they did. I think it’s time to stop entering premier though, it seems like you get a good course about 1 time out of 10 attempts, and I HATE the lack of flow they jam into them with the tiny awkward spacing and jerking your dog around.

Unfortunately, Navarre did NOT have fun in obedience – it was just shockingly bad and I feel awful for putting him in that situation. The obedience and rally in this venue is packed in like a sardine can, there isn’t even anywhere to stand. Everything and everyone is right up next to the rings and it’s loud and distracting. But, hey, it’s Navarre, not something that has ever been an issue with him. He seemed happy to warm up heeling between all the dogs and people jammed into the aisleways, but I could tell he didn’t seem in a good head space. It didn’t help that while I was waiting for the class to start on the absolute opposite side of the building, he was back in his crate … which was apparently unzipped on one side! So he got out and was wandering around – yikes! Thankfully someone knew him and put him back in his crate, but, yeah, that’s not what you want to hear – and I’m sure didn’t help (I’d like to point out that HAKU would have still stayed in the crate!).

I have seen a lot of goofy behavior with Navarre in obedience, but I have never seem him actually truly stressed and freaked out. I’m not sure if it was the screaming baby right next to the ring or what, but he was totally weirded out by the environment. He was afraid of one the posts in the figure 8, he didn’t want to go on one side of the ring – it was BIZARRE. This is not something Navarre EVER does. I would have left but he did seem to get more comfortable as we went along and got more and more into working with me, and I didn’t want to leave on a super bad note if we didn’t have to. So we finished, definitely not pretty, but by the end his exercises were looking much more normal. And apparently didn’t qualify because I did a double command or something. Which I don’t really care about, it was not a worthwhile performance, but I do find it funny that even with all that drama, we still managed to only actually not qualify because of ONE thing again.

So, yeah, goofiness and thinking it’s stupid is one thing, actual stress and fear behaviors is a whole other ballgame, and Navarre is NEVER like that. So he is now retired from obedience. I’m not saying we won’t go back to it when he’s old and needs something else to do – much like with London who ALSO thought obedience when he was stupid when he was young, but fun when he was older. But I don’t do sports to freak my dog out, and it totally freaked ME out to see that side of Navarre. I still don’t know why, but I can easily fix it by never putting him in that position again. I feel bad, my big squishy marshmallow of a dog – he’s a dog of opposites, always has been! In herding totally hardheaded, in obedience apparently a puddle of squish. And agility he had a GREAT time with, even after all that drama, so I’m really glad it didn’t carry over to other venues. Haku loved his obedience, Navarre never did – and that’s fine. We will stick to agility and herding!

I don’t think Asher has ever been to the Albany fairgrounds, at least not that I can recall and definitely not for a long time. So a big new adventure for him, especially in his current, uh, easily distracted teenage state as this is such a big show of conformation/obedience and agility. I was really pleased with how he did though, it took us a while to actually get into the facility, but he needed a chance to really look around. Once inside he was willing to heel through the crowds and not try to jump on everyone he saw. We played at the practice jump and he was focused and having a great time (and biting my damn fingers, but that’s another issue …). Even got a chance to measure him, 21.5, at least at this point not even close to 22 – so … maybe? Navarre grew a LOT after even 18 months, but Asher has certainly been doing his growing early, so maybe he’s done. Hopefully. We shall see.

So kind of a weird show, and definitely not successful on paper, but we still had fun and it was such a lovely day and really fun to see everyone. I’m still glad I entered, even the obedience – it gave me information and I can now CLEARLY say Navarre can leave that behind. Next time I’ll be a better handler who remembers to aggressively handle ‘Trial Navarre’ and stay on top of ‘Creative Bright’.

As for herding, the boys were put to the test – we went up to Brigand’s to see how both Haku and Navarre would do working for Carol. It has been so long since Carol and Haku trialed, and Haku has gotten WAY naughtier and doing his own thing as he’s aged. I kind of assumed he just wasn’t going to listen at all but just run around like a dork. And Navarre, well, he’s Navarre and has never worked with Carol before. Both boys really surprised the hell out of me by actually behaving themselves!

Haku was totally listening and trying his hardest. He struggled with commands at a distance, either from lack of hearing or from lack of practice – but it was farther than they would need to work in a AKC arena trial. He still has all his normal Haku issues on sheep, but not trying was not one. So one last hurrah for Haku, he was approved to head up with Carol in April. He’ll be just a couple months away from 11 years old at that point.

Then Carol was fully prepared to really bring down the hammer with Navarre, but New and Improved Herding Navarre just didn’t need it – he was actually LISTENING. And not even resenting the interference! He wanted to be correct, even with someone he’s never worked for. Holy crap. No issues lying down, at all – and he was even voluntarily slowing down and not acting like a pushy obnoxious dork. Who IS this new Navarre?! I didn’t even recognize him! So, yeah, if THAT Navarre shows up to the trial with Carol, I think they can do quite well. Navarre has ALSO been approved for the April shows, which I’ll admit I never thought Carol would actually agree to. Hell hath frozen over, apparently. Navarre has actually grown up. He’ll be FIVE this April, hard to believe. If he behaves himself for Carol at the AKC trial, maybe that will give him another herding outlet …

As for MY herding project, I just wanted to play with Asher a bit and thought he would be fine on the flightier sheep we were working Haku and Navarre on. OMG, he most definitely was not! He has always settled down and actually thought about what he was doing after the initial blow up, but he never did with these sheep in this arena – he was just chasing sheep. And, no, he could care less about me yelling to get him to stop – which I tried. He WOULD lie down though, which amused me. So we had to get some tamer (much more appropriate!) sheep and he did better. But, yeah, boy has he gotten pushy – he’s supposed to be my easy boy! But I was really happy that he was so much better at lying down when requested compared to when we had introduced the concept at Fido’s.

I think once he knows what he’s supposed to be doing on sheep he will do it, as he is a good boy. But, yeah, he has no concept of feeling the bubble of sheep and rating himself AT ALL (huh, who does that remind me of?). And, yeah, outruns – forget about it. But fingers crossed we will be getting access to appropriate practice sheep soon and we can start making good habits to counteract the, uh, bad ones I’ve already given him.

Asher and I had fun working on our neglected agility foundation behaviors this week. Not surprisingly, found some things he really needs to work on – such as just balancing on a fitbone – omg, so much shaking! All the dogs are getting their fitness on again, though ironically the dog that I’m actually focusing on is like a freaking rock for all the exercises. I can’t find any imbalance with Navarre, he can offload onto any leg or side without an issue. So, hey, that’s not a bad thing. We will continue to work on it.

Agility-wise, Asher has now been introduced to dogwalk entries, and, not surprisingly again – not very confident with his body. So definitely a skill he needs to work on, but he thought it was pretty fun. He also much prefers to turn around on the board going to the right, not the left, so working on that awkwardness. Been working some wing/tunnel discriminations that he tries so hard with! He loves his tunnels so this kind of blew his brain in the beginning, but then he was so proud of himself when he nailed it. Still needs work as we mostly only worked on the wrap portion, once we mix it up more I imagine we’ll have to take some steps back. Working on some send and go with one jump and multiwrap with a little more height. He may not be the bendiest thing, but he’s trying. Introduced rear crosses and need to add them into some sequencing. Used him as my natural motion threadle intro demo dog and he was a rock star, he’s really starting to get the tunnel threadle and has now started them on jumps (just rear crosses on the flat, really). Position changes around equipment are doable, but sticky, slow and often need repeating. Been practicing teasing with the toy while asking him to target my hand off to the side – which works, but, oh, so much teeth! Circle work now looks good, come to hand is really nice, go-on is not an issue.

We need to get back to proofing his stopped contact on his training board with speed and into and out of tunnels again. Also proofing tables at speed and running past – and staying with all FOUR feet – naughty puppy. Need to introduce a tunnel collection cue, which is something I haven’t actually trained before. Going back to looking at bypasses again too. Introduced the tire this week, which really stressed me out – for god’s sake, THINK about what you’re doing! But he never actually did anything unsafe at all, I just kept expecting him to. Worked up to sequencing with that as well as some rear crosses. His rear crosses with speed into them were ridiculous though, he got real creative and would rear cross, run out and circle around the aframe, and then return. Ugh, couldn’t get him to STOP doing that for some reason. But I was also using toys, which I really shouldn’t have been. But, hey, at least I didn’t throw it! He did start to figure out rear crosses though, man does he have such a huge freakin’ stride …

I think Asher is really going to like agility, but I have the sneaking suspicion that he’s not going to be easy. It does make me feel a little better that Flee does all the ridiculous wide outrunning too – it runs in the family. Flee looks great though, very fast and focused – someday Asher will catch up to her in focus. But, yeah, the boys are much less mature than her!

Asher’s running contact flatwork class starts this week, so that should keep us busy as well. Been working a little bit on his herding flanking with a toy, but it was interesting that he’s gotten much ‘tighter’ to the toy. I see a theme here … but he can now do inside flanks on a toy, so it’s something.

The other dogs continue to be, as always, very hard on Asher – even Haku. Asher has started offering a casual over the shoulder hug to the other dogs when, say, we’re getting ready for dinner or they’re obnoxiously trying to scam my dinner. This is something Haku is VERY used to, and has no objection to when Bright or Navarre does it (with way more enthusiasm!). I totally recognize it’s a ‘rude’ thing to do in dog language, but all the dogs are used to being hugged and do it quite frequently. But when Asher so much as lightly touches Haku outside of a ‘training’ situation he will turn and give Asher a full face snarl – which Haku almost NEVER does to any dog. Bright and Navarre still play with Asher daily, but continue to take him down to the ground for any real or imagined slight. Bright will chase him down to continue to correct him if he tries to run away, she’s not satisfied until he’s down on the ground on his back and completely still. Bright and Navarre continue to do extreme ‘muzzle biting’ until he freezes. Now, keeping in mind they have never actually hurt him – but they are rough on that puppy. I would say more now than ever, and I just don’t know why. They LIKE him, they really do (and Asher adores them!) – but he’s not allowed to put a toe out of line, and I have never seen them treat a dog like they do Asher. So extremely strict! I assumed they would lighten up as he got older … that has not been true.

Back to some herding lessons this week, the dogs were very, uh, excited. Just worked them on the 2 heavy baby dog sheep with Dave. The good news, Asher is getting better at lying down without a fight. But, yeah, still very pushy and not really feeling the sheep or pressure from me either. I did have Dave work him to watch to see how he helped Asher be more successful. While I understand the dangers of teaching the dog to give too much and to back off the sheep, I just don’t want to have TWO Navarre’s, I want to be able to actually work Asher without a fight so we can enjoy herding. So, yes, I want to put some control on him now, rather than worrying about diminishing his push with more difficult sheep. My goal is less to create a perfect herding dog and more to have fun with my dog. We will have a lot more fun if Asher if we’re not fighting. So the plan is to set more firm boundaries with Asher when he’s young. I can always complain about it later.

Asher did do well working with Dave, he had a couple displays of, ‘Woah, too much pressure”, but he came right back to working. I also think that if Asher worked with Dave or someone else, yes, I could see that kind of pressure might make him too polite. But Asher is working mostly with me, and I am, as Dave says, way more of a doormat. I think it will be fine.

As for Navarre, it’s almost amusing how badly it can go with him. I just took him out on the same baby dog sheep and my only priorities were lying down and not running me over with sheep. Couldn’t do it. Not even with two tame sheep, never got him to get up softly out of his down and it took about 5 minutes before he was blowing off his downs and he was barely working in that period of time. SO PUSHY. And then all this self control was making him blow up the sheep. TWO SHEEP. It’s hard to blow up two sheep, but he could do it. So silly. But I didn’t yell, I just laughed – we’re a terrible team. We are still going to try, but thank god other people enjoy working with him, that’s all I can say.

Navarre was very happy to see Ian again, and they did some nice open level driving and fetching. It amused me greatly to see how they started out, the sheep had gone into the trees way at the other side of the field (about 400 yards away). Ian sent him out and Navarre couldn’t find the sheep so was obviously confused and would stop and look around. And Ian tried to redirect him, but Navarre didn’t believe him. So finally Ian called him off and Navarre STILL ignored him, as he was SURE there were sheep out there – and finally you could see him spot a sheep up in the trees and he took off (once again, ignoring Ian) into trees. It took a bit but finally you see him not only bringing the sheep out of the trees, but going back and collecting stragglers as well! He understands his job, he just feels people are making it unnecessarily complicated. So, yeah, this is not good for Navarre’s already enormous herding ego – as I’m sure he very much felt after that that he obviously knew better than everyone and he should just ignore people and take care of it himself.

Navarre struggled with his comebyes today, especially with the whistle, and he had more standoffs with the sheep that didn’t want to cross the ditch. It’s so funny to see Navarre with sheep that don’t move, it just blows his brain and he doesn’t have the slightest clue what to do. Ian had to come up and help him a couple times, but he seemed to a little bit more confident with this phenomenon than the last time it happened. I think he’s started to get the idea he can walk into pressure – but, yeah, that’s a lot of rams to be staring you down!

Navarre’s downs looked great though, which I’m totally taking credit for, and he did some nice pace with a lot of his driving. It’s interesting to watch Ian and Navarre at this point as Navarre most definitely does what he thinks Ian MEANS, not necessarily what he says – which is often correct, but also gets him into trouble a lot. So Ian will give a flank whistle to cover a draw, but Navarre doesn’t actually do it because he knows he’s already caught the sheep, and of course Ian can’t complain at that point. But then when he actually NEEDS Navarre to flank to turn them, it will take several tries to get Navarre to believe him.

Hard work for Navarre, but he was happy. Though I seriously might have to get him a bark collar for when we’re around sheep, as when I take Asher out he just throws the biggest shit fit and won’t calm down. What is it about Navarre and sheep that makes him into such an obnoxious dog? He’s not like this anywhere else, I swear …

Meanwhile, I was hesitant to bring Asher out with Ian’s sheep as I didn’t want him practicing scattering sheep to the four corners of the world. But they were tired from their extended marching around the field with Navarre, so at least they didn’t just run around willy nilly. And Asher didn’t do the same thing he did with the sheep at Brigand’s, he might have been a bit silly, but he was still trying to keep them together and bring them back. And then shove them past you, and the chase them again to bring them back, and then shove them past you … Yeah, he likes to push. Ian was having me run backwards once he went out to gather them, which certainly does help as you have more time to actually slow him down – but after being impaled by ram horns at top speed several times, I bowed out of this exercise.

So Ian worked Asher a bit, and Asher did finally slow down with a lot of pressure, but also kind of stopped working the sheep after a bit as I don’t think he knew how to be successful. Ian talked about trying to show Asher what he wanted him to do rather than stopping him from doing what I didn’t want, but I don’t know if Asher can really tell the difference at this point. He remains enthusiastic and still likes both Dave and Ian – so he continues to act a lot like Navarre …

Asher’s toy herding continues to improve, not perfect with his inside flanks, but he’s getting better and better. Starting to understand his ‘theres’ and just beginning to think more about which flank I’m giving. If nothing else I really like this game for teaching dogs flank commands. It also just amuses me greatly how endlessly amusing the border collies find it. I guess I could attempt to teach it to Bright, never really thought about it …