Hello Again, Idaho!

We went out to Idaho! After a couple years of going out there so often, it was sad we hadn’t been out to see Bonnie since Bryn was 5 months old. It was, as always, my perfect idea of a vacation – just hanging out with dogs in such a lovely, secluded area and just disconnecting from the world. Asher and Bryn were perfect travelers, they behaved themselves and made themselves right at home. It was interesting to me that Bryn was SO HAPPY to see Poppet and Beckit, and just had no use for Rooster and Asher – that girl loves her girlfriends. At 13 Poppet was actually kind of flirty with Asher, which was cute, and after telling him off for a few days, Beckit even was nice to Asher again. It’s very clear that our next dog will be a girl, the masses have spoken (not that it will be any time soon!).

It was interesting to see what Bryn did on the sheep out there, as she was SO BAD when she went out to Bonnie’s for training back in the summer. That’s when she would sneak off to get in with the sheep, refuse to recall and then told Bonnie continuously, “You’re not my mom, you can’t tell me what to do!” Who knew my little princess was such a … princess? Anyway, while she did come back with some lovely inside flanks, she also came back panicky with her outruns. I can see why now, as adorable as her little legs are, they are not good for covering ground. With the sheep at Bonnie’s having a MUCH bigger bubble than she’s used to working with, she simply can’t cover the sheep at that distance, so she would panic and slice in to attempt to stop them instead – which obviously doesn’t work. So, yeah, I see it – little legs are hard!

I was actually really pleased that Bryn was listening as well as she was out there. We ended up switching from even attempting outruns to working inside flanks, and her tension as she would worry about losing sheep was very high – BUT, she would still listen and stop and was trying really hard. She did get fired once for panicking and running around like a maniac, but she was actually being a good girl to the extent of her ability right now. Open field trials may not be in Bryn’s future, but being super cute always will be.

I also was very careful about making sure she stayed with me, after her history of sneaking off and getting into livestock when she was staying with Bonnie. There were goats and angry mama cows and I didn’t need Bryn to get herself killed. Now, it should be said, I felt like she was not being naughty – but I also didn’t give her the opportunity considering her history. I loosened up a bit at the end of our trip though, no bad Bryns emerged. I still think she’s perfect.

Asher is growing up, he also was a bit of a mess at first not being worked on sheep like this for quite some time, but I was so super pleased he needed so little work to get him back to thinking about getting off the sheep. It even transferred to his long distance lifts! I think if he could actually get some regular practice he would be a nice sheepdog. Well, assuming the sheep didn’t face him. OMG, that boy is SUCH a sissy – we were working three rams and as soon as one turned and looked at him – didn’t even so much as stomp, Asher turned tail and ran. Even with back up dogs Asher was not having anything to do with standing up to those boys. That Asher is such a soft touch, which I love about him, but moving sheep when you need to? Yeah, don’t come looking to Asher for help. I really am okay with that aspect of him, my boys have always just been the sweetest, squishiest boys and I love that about them. If I need to move a sheep, I’ll just go get Bryn 😉 I have Asher with the stride and the groundspeed to cover, and then Bryn to move those sheep if they decide to pick on my sweet red boy – a perfect team.

And the big news, we’re getting sheep! Not actually on our property, but a friend with a lot of sheep experience is going to take care of the sheep, then we can come work them at her farm which is about 30 minutes (of lovely rural roads) away. So 6 sheep, a mix of young border leisters and blue face leister boys. I’ll be able to stop on my way home from classes to practice, and I’m hoping to start practicing at least 2 times a week, hopefully more. That has really been one of our major hurdles to making any progress in herding. I hope I can actually train Bryn – she’s ready! Very excited this worked out, and much better than having to deal with sheep on my property.

The sheep are very sensible and seemed to settle right in. We’ve worked them once and I was pleased Bryn was not being a total dork. She could actually work them in the small sorting gates without getting too bitey. We’re working on driving and staying calm and not slicing – it’s a process. These sheep have not been worked by dogs much, so they’re very curious – which means they turn and face the dogs. Which, of course, Asher just melts with. So either this is going to be really good for Asher’s self esteem as he learns he really can turn sheep – or it’s going to teach these sheep they can just walk all over him. He was doing better at standing up to them, but for some reason he’s way more wimpy around sheep than he used to be these days. Not sure what that’s about. Very nice to be able to work on practical skills with both dogs, I think that’s really helpful.

It’s an exciting Fall, Asher is starting obedience classes, we’ll be able to start actually making some progress on sheep, and there are all SORTS of agility trials coming up! I think Asher is ready to actually start running like a grown up, Bryn is also progressing … sometimes. Navarre definitely misses it, I swear I’m going to finish that damn MACH someday – but it does actually require both entering trials AND running my own damn dog.

And then USDAA, big props to them for actually making a bunch of actual meaningful changes in their organization! I had written them off completely years ago – but then they come in with all these great changes that I very much approve of. Then they used the fairgrounds in McMinnville for their last trial (when I was in Idaho, of course!), and may do that again – how convenient! Courses looked fun at the trial too. So, yeah, I will check them out if they come back this way. Though they still have WAY too many damn classes, makes the days way too long. If they had asked me, get rid of Advanced all together, especially since you can move up whenever you want. Novice and Masters is all you really need. Then get rid of pairs, of course. I like Steeplechase, but is Grand Prix really necessary? Just let Masters standard legs work for those qualifications. They didn’t ask me, obviously.

Folks around here are trying to get ISC and UKI going, which is a harder sell, in my book. It’s such a specialized group you’re catering to. Still, I think if you CAN get it going, then people train to that level because that’s what’s most available. Right now we only have AKC, and that’s what people train to. So there are … three? UKI trials coming to my arena next year. There are quite a few ISC trials locally coming up too. Some of those courses just look crunchy to me, and I don’t have a dog that is really trained for UKI or ISC at the moment either. I am going to work on it though, especially as courses have gotten much more flowing. Most of my students are sticking to AKC and CPE though, much more accessible to a variety of handlers and dogs.

AKC Agility League has continued, which has been the perfect level for my kids, as the courses are super straightforward and nice and flowing. It’s actually quite refreshing to have a time that is focused completely just on training my dogs. With everything going on at the arena I’m always building for other people, or focusing on other things and the dogs don’t get priority time. I really should SCHEDULE time for them at home, instead of just sneaking in a bit of training here and there. Got Asher used to the non-rubberized teeter, finally – so he’s not falling off of it. He CAN look really mature and professional … sometimes. And sometimes he’s leaping off the top of the aframe (WTF, dude!). He’s getting better and better though, getting closer to that magical age. Bryn seems a bit more herself there, not too much flanking, weaves looking pretty good too. Contacts were poor, but we actually stayed a bit after to work on them and, yes, practice makes things better! Love my somewhat challenging baby agility dogs.

We went to an AKC agility trial – TWO days! Which was too much. Overall, I was happy with the dogs, less so with my performance. I was all over the place, running Navarre like he was Bryn, running Bryn like she was Asher and running Asher like he was Navarre. NONE of those worked. I have three very different dogs. Navarre SHOULD have been a no-brainer. The courses were very straightforward, all he had to do was keep his bars up. I ran very conservatively, trying to just run him without doing anything weird. And … yeah, turns out, we both hate that.

I have an issue running trained dogs, I just don’t have a lot of interest in it. I love TRAINING, and baby dogs are so much fun getting them past that stage … but when once they’re ‘trained’, I’m done, ready to move on to the next dog to train. I have never had any interest in trained dog agility. Now, if we were trying to do something, or there was a challenge or there was something for us to WORK on, it would be different – but running straightforward courses with a trained dog just puts me right to sleep. So I handle like CRAP, and then we don’t qualify for the stupidest reasons and it annoys me. So, yeah, Navarre may never have a MACH because I just don’t care. Unfortunately, I don’t have anywhere else to run him, as he’s retired from backsides and things because of his back. So … yeah. And it’s not that I don’t enjoy running agility, but I need something to work on, or to try … that’s definitely harder with Navarre right now. Damn trained dog. He even collects and everything! So, yeah, he didn’t Q in a standard because I was just so phoning it in he came into me instead of going to the next obstacle, and then in jumpers I OVER handled from thinking about Bryn and brought him in for a threadle. Alas. He was a good boy though, as he always is. Well, his contacts aren’t as nice as they used to be, which throws me – apparently you do actually have to practice them occasionally …

Now, I was really happy with Asher’s contacts at the trial (really everywhere these days), and just his obstacle performance in general. Two really nice dogwalks, two really solid teeters where I didn’t feel like he was in any danger of flying off like a crazed lunatic. Aframes looked good, some NICE weavepoles where he was actually collecting and thinking about what he was doing. He felt really comfortable, and not at all like trying to hold on to a water-weenie like when he was younger. Issues we had were a couple dropped bars and one SMACK that I stopped him for when he tried to go THROUGH the bar instead of over it into a tunnel. Jumping was … okay. Not great, not terrible, some collection relatively speaking – but still NQd from a back jump on a wrap that I damn well cued appropriately. He also broke his table stay to leave for no apparent reason. Then one jumpers run I didn’t wait for commitment on a blind cross and he didn’t read it (my fault!), and then the last run of the weekend I ran his jumpers course silently … well, other than one “ASH-ER!” when he blatantly was charging off in the wrong direction. He read all that pretty well, but apparently doesn’t know how to weave if I don’t tell him weave. Good practice, and he is definitely settling down. Not at all perfect, but I’m pleased with where he is – right on track to stop doing stupid things when he’s four. He remains a HECK of a lot of fun.

The adorable Brynnywinnie had some good stuff too – including getting ALL of her weavepoles the first time – holy crap! Was just thrilled with that, that is huge progress. Contacts … meh. She was high and not at all giving me what she always does with her contacts at home. It’s not a priority yet, as I do think once she puts it in gear in trials that will come together too, she’s pretty freakin consistent at practice, knock on wood. She’s just a bit geared down in trials and that makes everything feel a little different. I’m not unhappy with her attitude though, she continues to get more and more into the game and feeling like she knows what we’re there for, even if she’s not running 100%. She had a BEAUTIFUL Open standard run on Saturday, that felt really good. She was connected, no flanking, did a really nice tunnel threadle, nailed her weaves coming off the dogwalk – super pleased with that run. Also had a nice Open jumpers run on Saturday, just knocked a bar on a turn – flanky on that run though. But then finished her jumpers title on Sunday, with a refusal from a ridiculous flank (which made me NQ Navarre as I was then super paranoid about a corner that should NOT have required any weird handling!). So onto to Excellent with the Bin-Bin! And no more Open jumpers conflicts, which is always a pain. Now I can have 16/20 inch conflicts constantly, but those are easier to manage. Bryn knocked a bar in standard on Sunday on a serp, she could use more work with jumping challenges.

The big news on the weekend with Bryn is that we found something she was willing to be rewarded with at the end of her runs – freshly cooked chicken breast. I cooked one up the night before to try a really high value food reward, and, yep, she was SO EXCITED about it. Our end of runs were still somewhat disconnected, and she keeps trying to run through the fencing to get to the chicken (and bounces off), but she was happy to come into me when I called her and was getting the idea of going together to get the reward afterwards. It’s still SO WEIRD to reward the dog that doesn’t like to eat with food, but she’s the one that gets to make these decisions. She will still play with her toys, especially before her runs and at the practice jump, but after an actual competition run, give her ALL the chicken – she’ll take your fingers off. Girls, they are mysterious. Love my Binny – I know she will get there, and even with the flanking she is so much fun.

We have another (just one day trial) in a couple weeks, which will be Bryn’s first trial down in Eugene – and her Excellent debut! She just needs one more standard leg to get out of open standard too – so hopefully she can keep her momentum going. Do the weaves! Don’t flank around the jumps! Keep the bars up! Be adorable!

As for online classes, I am struggling with Bryn. We went out and worked our Justine homework, and it made Bryn WEIRD. So that made me stop working on it, because at least she was HAPPY before. This was easy stuff, just extension/collection figure 8 with a tunnel with distance multiwraps. All stuff she already knows how to do. And she started off gung-ho … and then just started to refuse to move when I sent her to wraps. Sigh. Don’t know why, but she’ll still do it, just stands there looking at me. WHY, BRYN – WHY? We have had issues like this before when I attempted to put more technical skills on her, which is why I stopped. I’d rather have happy and no skills to sad and careful skills. Still, she has started out very suspicious of a lot of things we’ve trained, but once she mastered them she really shines and loves them. Stupid things, like all that recall to heel work we’ve done. I don’t like seeing her look less than happy though, the process of getting there … hmmm. I want to get there another way.

It FINALLY started raining, October 21st – good lord, that was one hot dry October. It definitely could have been worse, but that was a rough start to Fall. I feel like we’re going to go straight to winter though, that is some CRAZY rain! It is a big change, and marks the beginning of the end of 2022. I’m currently planning into 2023, and that feels weird. This year was BUSY, and will continue busy. So many things happening, so much change at the property – I LOVE all the amazing things Heidi has done. The flower garden directly outside my front window makes me so happy. I love that she gets such enjoyment from the property – and I get to enjoy the fruits of her labor. We definitely had better luck with the vegetable garden this year, but instead of contending with the heat dome like we did last year, this year that cold wet spring really caused issues. Lots of figs this year though – yum! Living here for almost 2 years now, it feels more and more like home. The arena and teaching at home continues to be such an amazing blessing, it still doesn’t feel real – and I know I’m still not using it to its potential either. So nice not to commute all the time!

Haru continues to be amazing, and much like Bryn, he’s too cute to actually do anything wrong. He’s definitely been accepted by the other cats, but still doesn’t sleep or snuggle with them. Occasionally they will groom each other a little, but he is way more of a people cat. I don’t mind that! I haven’t done that much training, but we do a bit before every meal. We’ve been working on waving and shake – which are adorable. Still waiting for him to OFFER behavior, but so far he only offers his tunnel behavior – and that tunnel is getting pretty small for him! He’s a lovely cat and I’m so happy that I decided to take the chance on another kitty. Marvin turned FOUR this month – still an asshole. Dragon wouldn’t give me the time of day until he was six though, so we’ll see. I love having a kitten in the household though!