Hey, Look, Winter!

I don’t think I should be allowed to work Navarre on sheep without supervision. We went out and practiced at Molalla last weekend and, OMG, just so much not getting anything done. Still, while we couldn’t seem to do a damn thing on my homework list, somehow Navarre has managed to become a useful herding dog at least. Maybe it’s not perfect, maybe he thinks he knows better than me how to get it done, but he gets it done none-the-less – and without worrying the sheep. And I never thought he would be at all useful. We felt a hot mess, but it’s a bigger, more impressive mess than I thought he’d ever be able to manage.

Couldn’t work much on driving because he just would not slow down and kept spreading out the sheep, and you can only lie a dog down so many times before he starts just ignoring you. I felt like his outruns were better, which I was trying NOT to practice – but as we kept grinding to a halt butting heads trying to drive, we did a lot of it. Not listening to flanks, too fast, too close – and today he was back to sliding around and bringing me back the sheep on his drives whenever he could … and then pushing them past me once he finally did. Why keep bringing me sheep if you’re just going to drive them other direction?? He had no answer to that one. And, yes, I literally asked him that – I don’t have long conversations with Haku when we’re working sheep – I have a lot more to say to Navarre, apparently.

Still, you have to start somewhere – no place to go but up, right? We were also going to look at putting his whistles on sheep at Heidi’s place over the weekend, but didn’t end up going down there. Navarre was most definitely NOT responding to any sort of whistles in Molalla with the exciting sheep. I COULD get him to lie down when we walked far enough away from the sheep, but not so much when he was actually in contact. So screw the whistles for now, we have other issues. Our goal remains to feel somewhat like a team for the herding clinic in April. We still have time, thankfully.

Herding is definitely less fun without Haku, I must say. Good thing Navarre really likes it, and I like making him happy. Both Ian and Dave seem to think Navarre can do everything Haku can at this point – and maybe he can, but it’s not the same. I miss Haku. Down in Scio this week Ian got to explain that, yes, you do need to lie down for whistles – even when there are sheep around. So, a little progress is that department – but definitely not one of Nature’s Whistlers. Then I got to work on driving, and did poorly as I just was not super focused. Even got my flanks backwards and everything. Ian says I’m making Navarre anxious when I get frustrated with him, which makes him do obnoxious things, which makes me frustrated with him. Yeah, that’s a tough one to fix. Have I mentioned I miss Haku?

Out in Molalla Navarre did much better with his outruns, which is mostly what Dave worked on with him. It was nice to see that Dave had the same issue with Navarre where he would keep bringing sheep back when driving though. Still, Navarre can do some pretty cool stuff … for other people. I love how gentle Navarre is picking up his sheep, which, funny enough, Dave doesn’t particularly like. Ha! But I have no worries that Navarre won’t push when asked, so I have worries about him being TOO gentle. Gentle is good with Navarre, for me anyway.

I remain frustrated with Navarre when I try to work him, not a fun phase we are in, so I’m just not really wanting to work him at all. But you don’t get past this phase without working through it, so I need to just be zen about it and do it. I don’t like arguing with my dog, and EVERYTHING is an argument with Navarre at this point. Heck, just lining up next to me is an argument. Apparently Navarre is even too pushy there too, that he’s just, once again, trying to get past me to the sheep.

Dave says that if I can get Navarre to give space to me in every day life, he’ll be better in herding as well. Which is kind of interesting as Navarre is my only dog that doesn’t scramble to get out of my way, he’s very trusting like that. Such as when I’m in the kitchen, he’ll just sprawl out in the middle and I walk over him. So, yeah, apparently, not at all down with the concept of giving to my pressure. So we worked on correcting Navarre for not responding and trying to get him to respond without me having to go ALL the way into him to fix it. Fun times.

We also got homework from Dave for whistles, as at the distances Navarre’s now working he needs it. So, it’s on the list, just need access to sheep that won’t go anywhere and I can look at getting Navarre to respond to whistles around sheep. Which means I should probably practice my whistles, it’s hard to go from yelling to whistling one after another, let me tell you. I feel fairly good about the whistles when I’m just practicing them by myself. That is not what comes out under pressure though.

Meanwhile, Maddy has come out to work on Haku twice now, who is just crazy hyped up these days. He whines continuously the entire time, so I have a hard time trying to say if he’s uncomfortable or just spun . She found a lot of things on his back, specifically shoulders, I think it’s really helped. We’ll get to see her again next weekend as well. We continue to stretch, Anne made up a fabulous new long cornbag to help with his heat compresses, we also do ice and heat on his wrists. Started the new food, supplements are now all on board – including finally his elk velvet. Oddly, I think it may actually have made a difference! We use his Assisi loop at least twice a day and we have his back on track coat and wrist wraps on when I leave him. Haku is finding every hidden toy in the house … and then I take them away, poor guy.

We had his … forth rehab appointment, I think it was. He was a little calmer, I think because we were the only dogs in the room at that point (usually there is one dog being lasered while the other dog is in the treadmill, so lots of dogs and people). And his fifth appointment … he pooped in the water treadmill. OMG, I never thought I would have THAT dog – it’s the worst thing you can do, they have to drain and disinfect the entire thing. What a nightmare, I felt so bad! As to WHY, I have no idea other than he’s had zero action so maybe it just really got things moving. But obviously the goal is to make sure that NEVER happens again. I tried my best to get him super excited at home, but not doing anything physical, before his last appointment – and, knock on wood, no pooping. He will forever be a treadmill pooper in my mind though, ugh.

I see less off movement with Haku, so maybe we’ve turned a corner. Most of the time I see nothing at all, but it’s still there. I honestly don’t expect it to ever go away, the consensus is that it’s not an injury, just a byproduct of his arthritis in his wrists. We can, however, make him more comfortable and be more proactive. The goal is to see what improvement we can make doing everything I can think of this month, so there isn’t a constant question about it all. Poor guy, hard to leave him out of the action like this. It’s not forever though, we’re about halfway through.

Meanwhile, I helped with a sheep shearing last weekend, which is not something I’ve seen before or knew anything about. And, no, I was not very helpful – but it was interesting experience. Crazy to me that they haven’t found a less physically difficult way to shear sheep at this point. Other than the invention of electric shears, it’s still done the same way it was since the dawn of time. So incredibly hard to be holding on to these giant sheep and bending over ALL DAY LONG. It takes a lot of skill and a lot of strength, I can’t imagine doing it for a living. Shearing sheep is not for the weak at heart.

I also know nothing about fleece or wool, so I had zero idea what they were looking for in the different fleece types they collected – or what they did with them afterwards. I am definitely not a knitter. Sheep are really dirty though, especially when they live at Ian’s, which never seems to dry out. Something like 175 sheep, and an awful lot of rams, maybe like 50? Once the more experienced shearer got into a groove, he was down to about a sheep every three minutes. The less experienced guy took a lot longer. It was really rather fascinating to watch. I helped a bit with fleece sorting, sweeping and wrestling escapee rams back into the chutes. I imagine it must feel good to be a sheep and have a big old fleece removed – they were all grooming their sides and scratching and feeling good. Probably less into it at night considering the continuing unseasonably cold temps we’ve been having, poor little guys.

Oh, and Broken Leg Sheep is doing fine, he was hanging out with his buddy, Other Broken Leg Sheep. Sheep are accident prone, apparently, but they had little splints and seemed to be doing okay. Made me feel better.