Kind of Springish

2nd League course this session was jumpers, and a really fun open course. It was a good course for a flanking dog, as Bryn actually ran it clean. Not efficiently, but clean – so that’s always novel. She was VERY barky and sassy, even in her pants, even with it being warm. Sometimes she baffles me, I can never tell when she’s going to feel sensitive. Truly, no issues other than some wide flanking turns, always nice when she throws me a bone, she’s such a fun little thing.

Asher, on the other hand, kept screwing up the weave entry – which we practiced before hand, and could find it from much HARDER angles if I sent him back into the poles … go figure. Bryn couldn’t weave last week, Asher couldn’t weave this week. He also clobbered the broad jump and knocked a bar. Jumping was … not great, but could be worse. He had a lot of fun, and got to go swimming in Lori’s pool afterwards. I wasn’t sure what he would think about that, but he loved doing lots of sedate paddling. Asher loves water, but in a very calm and loving way – not the crazed lunatic way he can love other things. It will be really nice to have the pool to dip him in with the hot weather ahead. We have 8 more weeks to go (4 courses) of league this session. I have really been enjoying it, especially with the fun courses.

Working on my new schedule this fall, going down to just one day up in Sherwood. It’s hard because I love all my students up there, but it’s time to focus more on Hopewell. It will be really nice not to have two days to commute. And just overall trying to balance my schedule. I feel like the ramp up for getting the arena built, classes started and getting set up here is over – time to ease back and not work so hard for 2024, I think. Because, yes, it’s JUNE – the year is half over! Good lord time goes by quickly. Want to make sure I don’t miss the time I have with the animals and people in my life, you only get so much time. Of course, at the same time everything keeps getting SO MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE. Good lord, what a weird time.

Carol came out and did a powdershoot, so I took all the dogs – OMG, so cute! I love having my dogs photographed by someone else. Carol even got Haku to look like he was JUMPING (which, uh, he can’t really do). The magic of photoshop.

Then I’m working on setting up a shoot with a local photographer I really admire, they did a model call and I was like, “pick me!” So now we’re off to go do some dramatic things by inaccessible waterfalls – I’m very excited! I really hope my dogs behave …

Bryn’s season was pretty uneventful. I really wanted to go hiking and ended up taking both dogs during some ‘peak time’, with the assumption I would trade off having one or the other on leash – but no, they did fine. Mostly because Bryn does NOT want to have Asher babies, that’s for sure. Now, Haku babies she’s ALL ABOUT – and he does not return the feeling. But, yeah, if Asher so much as looks at Bryn she goes after him. He’s never been rude or anything, but she will not tolerate him. So that’s handy! He had some sad howling when separated, which is kind of cute. Still keeping them separated, of course, but we appear to have gotten past all the sexy time. Bryn is mostly just cranky when she’s in season, she definitely told Nancy’s Roo (Asher’s half sister) to go to hell for no good reason when we went hiking. Normally Bryn is pretty neutral to friendly with dogs, so this is Cranky Bryn is sort of hilariously cute in her grumpiness. Everything Bryn does is adorable!

Haku had his third Legend infusion, and now we’ll go to once a month. I THINK it’s making a difference, he’s able to get onto the bed using the bench at the end of the bed again (you know, mostly). He’s continuing to hike without issue and we are now stocked with galiprant for daily use (just got that refill, so any improvement was due to the Legend and not the Galiprant). Operation Keep Haku Moving is going well so far. And I really like the new vet, who saw no need to do a bunch of bloodwork and things, and agrees that even if it is affecting his liver (which we see no signs of), keeping him comfortable is still more important. Knock on wood, really like this new vet in McMinnville, so we’ll try to go there in the future.

Got two truckloads of sawdust delivered to amend the footing in the arena. So far it’s great, I’ve found sawdust to be the best thing to add to agility footing – and it does keep everything much more moist, and no dust. We’ll see how long it lasts, I’m hoping a year. I’m open to amending in other ways, so I’ll keep researching.

I continue to have a some baby (animal) fever over here. No good reason for it, we’re a full house and everyone is getting along really well. But I have seriously contemplated multiple puppies and even a kitten recently. Haru really does need a friend, I just don’t want 5 cats! I think I may have to go into Crazy Cat Lady territory though, I figured he’d chill out as he got older – but he seems to be going the other direction and the other cats do NOT play – at all. So lots of him jumping all over them, which they don’t appreciate. So, yeah, I have wisely not pulled the trigger on any potential baby animals … but I’ll admit I have been seriously tempted.

The main reason I am drawn to a puppy is for agility, which is always a stupid reason to get a dog. You never know if your puppy will even enjoy agility, or what physical or mental issues they may end up with. Because all dogs have issues. So maybe just a LITTLE dog, that barely counts as a real dog …

I may have actually contacted the breeder of a lot of borderpaps that I enjoy, as there is a repeat breeding on the ground of a dog I have in classes that I like a lot. I like her because she’s independent, opinionated and just has that strong sassy side that I love. And SO HAPPY, as most of the dogs from that breeder seem to be – so silly and wiggly. But, yeah, she’s kind of a PITA. And the puppy I’m interested in? Oh yeah, total PITA. Independent, doesn’t follow the group, doesn’t want to be caught … I like my girls to be free spirits, and boys to be devoted. But, yeah, probably won’t pull the trigger – I like independent, but do I really want to bring home a “project” instead of a fun puppy that loves to follow me around and interact? I may have also messaged the owner of a papillon to see if they have any interest in a sports mix breeding. Nothing really feels ‘right’ though, so I assume it’s just not the right time for another dog (duh!). I was really committed to that that Bryn/borderpap litter next year, so bummed it all fell through.

Then I’m bursting with sheepdogs around here, Bryn and Asher got to do a general herding clinic over the weekend with Ian and Lora Withnell. Really fun to spend the whole weekend working with sheep. We are still not at all good at it, but I was happy with both dogs, they tried really hard and showed some nice stuff.

With Asher the themes are reoccurring at this point, mostly having to do with not feeling his sheep and being too damn biddable for his own good. I can’t really complain, I got what I wanted – a sheepdog that finally listens! But, yes, he very often just waits for commands and doesn’t really understand a lot of what we’re doing, he’s just doing what he’s told. I think for the most part he COULD do it on his own, if he understood what his job was. I do think he has a nice feel for sheep – not the BEST feel, but definitely a nice feel – he just doesn’t always act on that feel.

I sent a list of things we needed to work on … it’s a long list:

• Doesn’t look for sheep

• Comes in too fast (and often too close) on lifts

• Overflanks on lifts

• Panics with new sheep

• Turns away from any sheep that challenges him/can’t move sheep that stop

• Gets too close

• Flanks too fast, too big

• Slices inside flanks at a distance

• Brings back sheep when driving at a distance

• Let’s sheep escape

We’ve worked on all of those things over the last 4 years. Some of which are definitely caused by me, I’ll admit. We have actually been working on small flanks, and turns out he can do them – I just never actually asked him quickly enough. Doesn’t always stop him from moving too quickly and abruptly and startling the sheep though.

Was talking to Nancy at the clinic about whistles she uses and she has a ‘slow flank’ whistle, which I found novel. Now, Ian and Lora were not impressed with the idea for Asher as they really want him to slow down because he recognizes that it’s the right decision to keep the sheep calm. But after 4 years of trying to get him to slow down on his outruns/lifts with ZERO progress – I can’t help but think maybe TRAINING the behavior is better than this never ending quest hoping for him to figure it out by yelling at him. We did that getting on him at the top of the outrun for a LONG time – and it does make a difference … after about 3-4 attempts … and doesn’t transfer over to the next session at all. It was after not making any progress that last time we worked that I just went ahead and started to manage it – I still don’t like his speed and lack of control at the top, but at least he wasn’t just making a mess every time when I downed him every time.

Anyway, so I’m going to play around with basically teaching a steady cue for flanks. Which I don’t think will be that hard, he really can tone it down once he understands the job. It would be nice if he understood his job was to come in softly on top, but never made any progress with that.

Having him take more responsibility on his drives seems more helpful – I feel like he’s starting to get the concept that he can move to hold the line on his drives. So just working on small adjustments and making sure he knows he’s responsible for holding the line, not waiting for me to cue him to fix it.

The good news, by working on those skills over the weekend we tried a couple held lifts at the end, and while I did whistle him steady at the stop, he did lift MUCH nicer, and pretty straight and confident – and not too fast! He is cutting the top of his outrun off, but that’s a problem for another day. I was happy with him, yes, I may need to help him more than some other dogs, but I’m okay with it – I’m just happy to be able to DO the things, even if he needs a little help. We will keep working on his feel and getting him to understand he can make those changes on his own though, I think he can do it, once he understands. I always think more ‘real work’ would make a huge difference with his understanding of all the behaviors, but that’s hard to find.

Bryn also did well, I was never worried about her making a big mess, losing sheep or being a ridiculous baby dog. She’s still definitely a baby, but at least she has basic skills. We did end up mostly working on her flanks and getting her farther off the sheep so she doesn’t feel the need to rush and panic so much. Kind of funny, we ended up doing a lot of the work that Bonnie was doing with her in Idaho, working on getting the right shape on her inside flanks. If those looked good, we let her finish the flank and bring the sheep. She finds this exercise fun and I think she’s pretty good at it. She would get tight on the SIDES of the outrun sometimes, but he top and bottom looked good.

We did a few other things, but her driving looked really good, it was said she was more of a natural driving dog than a natural fetching dog – but compared to my other dogs, she’s been incredibly natural with her outrun! I was happy to work on it though, it definitely sets the tone for that initial communication with the sheep, and it makes so much difference when the dog is not rushing.

Had a few ‘serious talks’ with Bryn about her downs and stays, and she stayed cooperative for the most part. She is such a FUN little dog to work, and it is really her thing. I need to make herding a priority for her. I had some memories come up on FB from her BABY baby agility training – and, OMG, she was ridiculously flanky from day one. Like, SO FLANKY. I didn’t cause that, it’s all natural and so hard to combat. I still think we’ll get there in agility, but, yeah, the flankiness is real.

So, yes, need to make sure I stay consistent with keeping her off the sheep bubble and getting her to recognize she’ll have more control farther away. Also need to put some freaking verbals on her, she doesn’t even know her verbal flanks, much less whistles. I think I taught all my other dogs’ whistles on toys, but Bryn never did toy herding, so that makes it hard. Still, I have seen zero progress with her learning verbal or whistle flanks. I feel like everything is in her, she has such lovely feel and talent, if I can get her past her panicking and keep her down and steady consistent, she’ll be easy to run, I think. Possibly.

I wish there were more opportunities to do full weekends of herding, I think that’s highly beneficial and both dogs had a great time. Asher has his herding trial next Friday, which I’m not optimistic about it, but I’m hoping we can limp through a course at least once. We get two chances at PN and then entered a game with Flee with Asher doing the outrun portion and Flee doing the driving. We’ll see how that goes!