Idaho Sheep Camp

We had a FABULOUS time with Bonnie out in Idaho, despite all the craziness in the world. I really debated whether I should go out there with the virus, but considering she lives so remotely we weren’t likely to see anyone, and we were both off from being around the general public for two weeks anyway, it seemed reasonably safe. If we happened to give the virus to each other, we would know before going back around people again. I’m really glad that I did go, especially that week it was just so much uncertainty and confusion about the virus and what the future held with state shutdowns and such not. It also was nice to have something to distract me and being so out there it all felt very far away. I spent quite enough time on my phone looking for more information, I imagine at home it would have been 10 times worse. It was remarkable, I stopped at the Pendleton Safeway both going out and coming back a week later, and the change from one week to another was crazy – it was like a whole different world of signs, masks, plexiglass and paranoia.

Just real nice to relax, hang out, play with sheep and explore Idaho with the dogs. I looked on a map this time, I actually know where I was now! And that Idaho has the deepest canyon in the country – take that, Grand Canyon! Asher got to play in his first real snow – and he was a fan, of course. He’s a fan of most things, happy boy. He remains super good friends with his cousin Beckit, who was his first ever friend back when we visited six months ago. Even his dad still liked him! Rooster and Asher had a weird flirty humping thing going on, they seemed to find each other very attractive. Asher has been humping the cats since he returned, he had a real sexual awakening in Idaho, apparently. Really fun to see him do so well with all her dogs, my asshole puppy grew up to have some serious dog skills. You know, unlike Navarre.

OMG, I seriously started considering neutering Navarre while we were there, he was just being a total obnoxious prick. Him and Rooster didn’t like each other much last time either, and it hadn’t improved. I had seen them both being obnoxious, but I knew Navarre was infamous for just plain enjoying getting Rooster’s hackles up. Finally I just put down the hammer on Navarre being allowed to interact with Rooster at all, and, yeah, what do you know – all the problems stopped. Rooster was most definitely NOT troublemaker, that would be Navarre. And he managed to piss off Beckit and pretty much all the other dogs. He’s pushy and doesn’t listen when they CLEARLY tell him to push off – poke-poke-poke-poke. He’s also remained extra horny since he returned, obsessively grooming the cats for hours on end, and, yes, poking them constantly too. So, yeah, tiny balls or not, he’d better shape up or they’re getting cut off. You only get to keep them if you’re not an obnoxious jerk …

Still, for the most part the dogs behaved themselves. Oh yeah, other than one incident of Asher MARKING ON THE WALL. WTF? He barely marks at all, much less in the house. Thankfully after that one incident, where I was so surprised I didn’t even believe that’s what he was doing at first, he behaved himself after that. Well, maybe a little shoelace chewed, but not too bad for still a puppy. I love that they just make themselves at home wherever they go, they were just like, ‘We live in Idaho now – cool.” Of course, they didn’t have much to complain about – every day revolved around them, herding and hiking and playing.

The herding was really fun, Bonnie was super helpful and gave us great exercises to work on while we were there. We have zero practice with practical sheep chores, such as sorting sheep and moving them from area to another. It was really enlightening to see how bad Navarre was at this! He clearly has no idea how to handle many situations, including holding a single or moving sheep out of a small area. And I’m not sure if he’s just uncertain or he’s afraid. It’s kind a hilarious if he does need to move sheep out of a small area he just sort of closes his eyes and dives in and hopes for the best. Navarre’s answer to almost everything is just, “Go fast and hope it all works out”. He has no clue what to do if the sheep turn and face him. Sorting sheep with him was really hard, as he wouldn’t hold the damn sheep – I used Asher, who obviously doesn’t know anything, and he was way more helpful! Navarre doesn’t know how to hold a single, he pretty much always does what is ‘easiest’. So that was enlightening to see, and he DID get better as the week went along – not ‘good’ but ‘better’. I think doing more real work could help him understand what he’s ACTUALLY supposed to be doing.

I was actually incredibly pleased with Navarre and what we were able to do. It helps to have zero expectations with Navarre and herding, but whatever else happened, he was trying. He was trying to listen, he was trying to be correct – which is something that was not happening six months ago. He HAS changed, and we were able to work together without me wanting to strangle him. Too much. It helped to be able to see how much he honestly didn’t know how to do. He has never had great feel for his sheep, and it was very clear that he was struggling how to be correct without using his trademark ‘just rush the sheep and make it happen’. So, yeah, same issues as always, but we could actually work on them, at least up close.

Navarre had a distance that he was comfortable working with me, and had a limit of number of times he would take direction. If you nitpicked too much he would just stop listening. If you asked him to do anything farther than say, 75 yards, he wouldn’t listen. On his driving it was funny, he would go about 75 yards and then bring the sheep back no matter how much I tried to stop him. He clearly thought that was far enough and that obviously I couldn’t be trusted with sheep past that point. But the two main points I continue to focus on were there most of the time – which is lying down when I ask and not running me over with sheep. Well, as long as it was in a 75 yard radius.

As long as I had those two things, there were a lot of things we could do. We also worked on his outrun, which I know he CAN do, but usually chooses not to – so he did get better with that … for a certain distance. He even did some flank whistles, ironically enough, mostly only understanding his ‘away’, which is the one I’m worst with. Whistles … yeah, I think they would get better if I just used them all the time, but my whistling was all over the place. I don’t blame him for not understanding!

Navarre and I definitely made progress over the week, mostly in just learning to work together. We saw Dave when we got back and I worked Navarre and he said the difference was huge from before and after the trip. I’m much more confident and Navarre is listening much better. It’s a start, a tiny baby start where we’re having fun and not just frustrating each other. We did attempt to do a faux pronovice course on our ‘graduation’ day in Idaho, which was just way too much. Too much distance, and too much ‘fixing’, we need to just stick with our basics and slowly work towards putting things together. Basically he just needs to do the same exercises as Asher, and I actually want to work with him. So a very positive experience for both of us, working every day, working real world situations, breaking things down and making sure I am totally consistent with what I expect from him. He’s not a dog you can be wishy-washy with, you need to be black and white. That’s my goal.

As for Asher, he did GREAT – such a different feel than Navarre! Asher is still somewhat pushy, but nothing like his uncle. He also got to help with the sheep chores and, funny enough, was more helpful than Navarre! I do think he has a better feel for his sheep, and at least at this point, I think he feels more confident with them as well. Hopefully we can keep that going. So he got to be exposed to all sorts of different situations, and my biggest worry, which was that he was going to lose his sheep, only happened once. Like, immediately. He seemed to take the hint after that, much more gathering and much less scattering – when there are no fences you can’t be doing stupid things.

Bonnie says I’m way too much of a pushover with my dogs in herding, which I hear a lot and I still find funny. So we worked a lot on getting Asher to back off and give to pressure, which required more pressure on him than I’ve done before. He did leave a couple times, especially if Bonnie was trying it. He’s a big softy at heart, but I do realize if we can fix these issues now, we won’t have to argue about them constantly for the next 10 years. That’s me, a big softy though.

My goal for Asher was to work to get him started with an outrun so that we could start working without the drama when he dives them. And we did it! He gave me some very nice baby outruns on our ‘graduation’ day, though they are still a work in progress – he still can’t really give me the distance I want to see starting from a standstill, but if he’s in motion I can ‘slingshot’ him farther distance anyway. He did great baby dog work in general, he is understanding not to push the sheep past me, definitely understands how to balance them to me and understands how to do WITHOUT running around like a maniac like some other dogs I could mention.

I was super pleased with him and we had a lot of fun together, I think he’s going to be a really fun herding partner, because he actually DOES want to be part of the team, instead a sole proprietor … like some other dogs we could mention. Such a fabulous experience to have with him at this age, can’t thank Bonnie enough for our ‘Sheep Camp’!

Oh, and I got to meet Rooster’s brother when I was out there – who is hilariously short compared to Rooster and his long legged offspring! Dev is super cute and fun: