A New Hope

Haku got to herd again! OMG, it’s SO RELAXING, I have missed him so much. Oh yeah, herding is actually FUN, it’s so frustrating with Navarre sometimes I had literally forgotten why I found it enjoyable. Haku brought it all back, we are out there together and that makes all the difference in the world. Just a breath of fresh air, we didn’t do much but it was super fun for both of us. Okay, I will admit, after driving Navarre around with all his PUSH, working with Haku who has NONE feels really weird. GET UP THERE AND PUSH, Haku!

We mostly just looked at driving, where the sheep were SO CALM – what a difference when Ian’s sheep weren’t scattering to the four corners of the universe! Haku lies down when I ask, flanks beautifully and is trying very hard to hold a line. Such a good boy, but, yeah, WALK UP, get up there and move those sheep! STOP LYING DOWN FOR NO REASON.

With Dave I ended up running Haku more than I anticipated, funny enough the sheep were squirting off far more, so I had to send him more on long outruns than I had planned. Have I mentioned how relaxing it is, he actually goes OUT … well, then comes in too tight, but it’s just a whole different feel. Nothing is going to explode with Haku, it may go a little wonky, but there will be no explosions. And Haku, who has almost no whistle practice and nothing lately, he was taking his downs – with the whistle he wasn’t even taught on! Oh, not arguing with your dog makes all the difference.

Of course, the consensus by those around me is not that Haku is better, it’s because I let him get away with anything and just smile and tell him he’s perfect. Because it’s true. There was much, “Why does Navarre get in trouble if he doesn’t respond immediately but you’ll ask Haku 6 times and never get upset?” And the answer is, because I CAN. You can’t let Navarre take an inch, but you can give Haku a mile and he’ll just bring it back. Because he’s awesome and easy – and perfect. I may have missed him just a little bit.

Anyway, so he pretty much seems exactly as I left him, only way easier because I’ve been trying to work Navarre for a month. We didn’t do much long distance stuff, which is what we struggle with the most, but anything under 100 yards, no problem. Driving was good, outruns were good, too fast on the fetch but would lie down. Now, keep in mind that while I thought he was perfect, no one else did. “He didn’t take your flank, aren’t you going to fix that?” and I’m like, “Naw, he knows what I actually meant”. So perfect.

I’m not entirely sure where this new found politeness came from, but now our issue seems to be he just keeps being way too polite and lying down all the time! We went up to Brigands to work on whistles, but got pretty much no whistle work done because I never had a chance to actually ASK him to lie down, and any whistle I did he just takes as a down whistle. So, no whistle practice for Haku, mostly, “Yes, walk up, keep going – walk up, WALK UP. WALK UP! Go! Stop lying down!” Certainly NO problem with being pushy on his fetches, he was too busy lying down. Admittedly, this was all relatively close up, he usually loses his downs at farther distances. But, yeah, he may need to lose the down for a little while, was he always this polite?

As for physically, it’s hard to say. This week we worked up to running in the arena, then running in the park, and then more running at herding this week than I had intended – it was supposed to be a shortened hike day this week too. I decided to skip the hiking after we did more running  in herding though. I continue to use his Assisi Loop, heat and cold on the wrists and range of motion stretches after activity. He FEELS so much nicer as I move him throughout his range of motion, his wrists have a lot more flexibility and his whole front is much less tight and restricted.

I still see the limp when he gets up from sleeping, but he’s been doing a lot of full body stretching on his own, which you don’t realize they’re not doing until they start doing it again. So if he comes off the couch a little off, he stretches all the way front and rear, creaking and cracking, and then he walks normal – often still crackling away as he moves after rest. The cracking started after we started doing laser, which I was told was the joints getting more lubrication and movement after being locked up for so long (or something like that). He was off today in action after herding and romping in the field. I have not seen more of the off movement since we started doing more activity, it’s remained about the same even after doing more. I was a bit bummed to still see the lameness at all, but not surprised as we did pretty much decide that it was related to arthritis, which is never going to go away.

We continue to gradually add more activity, trying to keep him from doing anything stupid. He doesn’t have a gentle speed though, so we’ve already done some fairly aggressive running without total breakdown, so I’m tentatively pleased that at least we did some good over the past month. However, he obviously lost a lot of muscle mass during his break, his little back legs are shaking after exercise, which never happened before. It’s a double edged sword, rest, but I think we made a good compromise. He needs to get back in action and we’re back to working on rear end conditioning at home as well. God I love that dog, I hope he can continue to do everything he loves for years to come.

As for Navarre, we continue to implement our new herding program. So far, it’s made a big difference overall. Compared to last week his entire demeanor around sheep is so much more thoughtful not only for me, but for the guys as well. He’s being downright polite for them! For me, he’s listening and much calmer and more thoughtful. I’m sure it helps that I’m calmer and more thoughtful, it’s amazing what having an actual appropriate response will do.

Oddly enough, this worked better with Ian’s sheep than Dave’s (who are more sedate), which Dave explained as when Navarre is actually listening and not pushing through everything being ‘good’ means that the sheep actually stop moving so much so Navarre feels like he’s not doing his job right. So Navarre was more willing to listen at Ian’s than at Dave’s. At Ian’s I switched dogs probably … 5 times? And Navarre got to work quite a bit before getting ejected for not lying down when requested. At Dave’s Navarre would get like 30 seconds before I removed him, as he would often just blow me off the FIRST time I asked. Hence why Haku got a lot more work than I intended.

I think Dave is more on board with the program than Ian, partly because he takes no shit from the waiting dog (aka, Navarre), unlike Ian who was not thrilled to be holding an obnoxious worked up Navarre. Ian is okay with the concept, but wants to put the dog away where they can’t see or hear the action for 30 minutes, which doesn’t work well for my sheep schedule. I am also more willing to completely eject a dog if they really understand what the rules are. While Navarre is grasping the concept that there are suddenly rules involved to stay in the game, I don’t think he really understands exactly what they are and that they apply ALWAYS. Ejecting him just once without letting him come back I think will make it hard to show him what exactly he needs to do to be successful.

We practiced our new plan again at Brigand’s today, and it continues to go better with us overall. If Navarre would actually listen he really would be fun to work with. But while he’s better, he continues to try to herd ‘through’ me rather than with me. And I still don’t think he really understands why he’s being ejected, and that it really has anything to do with him and not responding. And the hard part is that Haku was being perfect, but I didn’t want to do overdo it with him, so I felt bad for trading him out.

A work in progress, Navarre was still too fast and excited today, but there were moments of goodness. He was taking his downs at the top of his outruns (in a small area), which he wasn’t doing. But as we were near a fence getting him not to rush the sheep flanking near the fence and lie down there was hard for him. Oddly his lack of responding to his down was in flanking today. He likes to keep it interesting. However, his whistles are getting better. So we now have a pretty solid stop and walk up, and, at least in a logical situation, he’s getting his flanks as well. My whistles continue to be erratic, but, hey, I’m trying. And it keeps me nice and neutral and unemotional.

We’ll keep working with it, I want Navarre to step up to the plate and work with me, as I would be so much easier on him. Herding people are not into successive approximations of success, poor Navarre is pretty much ALWAYS wrong no matter what they’re asking, and he’s trying hard, but I think that’s just what herding is. I get being consistent, but this whole training by negatives is not one I think I’m ever going to get on board with. If I could find a way to get Navarre to actually include me in his herding party, he could play with Fun Herding Heather, who has much less rules and much more forgiveness. Still, Navarre continues to love herding and holds no grudges towards anyone, he’s not complaining. His favorite thing ever.

2 more weeks until the herding clinic, then we’ll cut back on herding again. I considered going up to the herding camp at Fido’s, but it’s so long, expensive and they want you to camp at the site – which is so not my thing. We’ve been getting a lot of exposure on our own this year, and Haku’s journey is a little different than what I expect with Navarre – and I don’t want to take Navarre, that’s for sure. Maybe next year.

Oh, and Brightypants played with sheep – voluntarily! Up at Brigands we went over to watch Carol and Demi work and Bright was all, “Let me in there!” and I laughed and decided to just let her run around a bit while Demi was working. Funny enough, turns out that Bright would actually follow and circle the sheep and walk up … just behind Demi. Okay, she was probably just herding Demi, but for Bright to actually voluntarily go near sheep has never happened. But she does ‘know’ her flanks as we play that game for exercise, and she was very brave … right behind Demi. Never would have guessed she’d do that, but she had SO MUCH FUN, and she so wanted to go do it again! We’ve tried having her out with my dogs while they were working, but she didn’t do anything like this – just hid. I don’t think she trusts the boys to protect her, but she totally thinks Demi can handle those sheep and was right there backing her up! I hope we can do it again some time, not because I think Bright will ever actually herd, but she really did enjoy it – and Demi was surprisingly patient with her little border collie sidekick.

Meanwhile, back at agility I have decided on our first trial back in April, which will put our trialing break at about 6 months. We have still been playing around at the arena and I feel pretty confident in our skills. Maybe I shouldn’t, when it comes to Navarre, but he’s almost 4 and Bright’s at the perfect age where she just knows it all. Soon we will ride again! And we should have a mix of UKI, USDAA and AKC trials this summer as well. Hopefully some fun courses, I do love agility.

And, OMG, I totally need to practice with Navarre for his obedience trial! Apparently I’m planning to cram the week before. But I do have in my mind I want to ‘finish’ our herding experiments with the herding clinic, and then move on to obedience.  And a lot of our herding this summer will depend on how Haku holds up, I’m a lot more cautious about what he’ll be able to do, and Navarre isn’t ready for prime time. (A long, long way from Prime Time …)