Quarantine Ends

It’s been an unsettling last couple months, for many reasons. With everything going on the whole Quarantine time for me has flown by and it’s kind of crazy to be back to classes next week. I’ve been very busy with the online classes, which has kept me in touch with everyone on a daily basis, so this hasn’t really felt like ‘isolation’ to me, as I don’t normally go out in public much anyway. So back to classes and hopefully everything will go smoothly.

Asher is getting to be a hiking beast, he used to at least start to settle down and trot by the end of the hike – but not anymore. He just runs for 4 hours straight. Nutball, he can be such a spaz. The hiking has been really good for Haku, I think it’s actually helped his arthritis – though he certainly takes it easy compared to Asher. And Navarre does a little of both, depending on his mood. They’ve gotten to continue to see their doggie friends, herd, swim, hike, go to the park and get trained WAY more than they normally do to be demo dogs for all the online classes. It’s been a little doggie paradise for them around here, it will be an adjustment for them to go back to ‘normal life’.

Though they’re going to be SO EXCITED to see the arena. They do love their agility, though god knows when we’ll ever see a trial again. Asher will be probably be ready to trial at that point! By the time we get back Asher will be 14 months, old enough to start doing a little bit more. Still haven’t decided how I want to teach his running contacts. On the one hand, Navarre’s turned out pretty darn nice without any props. I like the IDEA of training flatwork with mats and then transitioning to the equipment – but mats and a dog of Asher’s craziness and size are a huge pain in the ass to train without them sliding all around so we’ve done zero work on it. Basically if I ever want to work on it I have to nail a mat to the ground, and then I would worry the nails would get pulled up – meh. And I’m not sold on mats anyway and dogs (especially big dogs) getting mincey to make it happen. Asher can’t turn on a dime, he’s going to be like Navarre, like steering a truck, so hitting a tiny target requires a lot preparation.

We have done very little agility during the quarantine, just a little bit of flatwork and TINY little bit of one jump work. Navarre without practice is so ridiculously wide I could knit a sweater by the time he comes back into me, and Asher will probably be similar, but hopefully not as bad. I know I could help this if I worked on it NOW and really make sure he understands how to drive straight to me and not drift. I’m in no particular rush with Asher (even if there were trials), and he’s not the most, uh, gifted of athletes – so we’ll get there when we get there.

If Asher is an agility washout, knock on wood, he’ll have herding to fall back on. He continues to do surprisingly well. Admittedly, maybe I don’t have enough perspective, but he’s been very easy compared to both Navarre AND Haku. Another benefit of the shutdown is having the time and resources to do a lot of sheepwork this month, and he has made huge strides. He continues to be very easy, so willing to partner up and has great feel for sheep (well, compared to Navarre!). I have no grand expectations to set the herding world on fire, but, knock on wood, I think he’ll be a really fun dog to actually get to progress with.

We actually took a last minute trip out to visit Bonnie in Idaho again this week along with sister Flee as well. So fun to see both siblings on sheep, they are such good dogs that try so very hard. And Asher and Flee are also good friends these days, they are adorable to see together. I was excited to show Bonnie what progress we had made since we had seen her back in March, Asher had been doing just lovely outruns and we had just started working on driving. Ha, well, plans changed as on Bonnie’s new super running sheep Asher lost all his nice skills and was diving in and splitting and chasing sheep like a baby dog again – go figure! I thought he might figure it out, but after a couple days we went back to the round pen and let Grandma Bonnie widen him out again. The good news, he did finally get back to showing some good behavior.

It was cute, after all the craziness we went down to Dianne Deal’s place for a lesson and we were all prepared for the new slicing and chasing Asher, and instead he was on his best behavior! Heh. He did great in this new location, new sheep and went back to showing good understanding of outruns, pace and feel. Dianne said he was ‘Just like Rooster’ which I thought was fantastic, as Rooster is SUCH a good boy on sheep – and I really want a good boy! We worked the crazy Bonnie sheep one more time before we left and he did MUCH better, so that was good to see.

So he ended up working through a lot, including some of his stress, displacement behaviors. It’s hard to know what the right response is when he gets frustrated and runs off, but we worked on just not letting it happen and he got through it. He does have good bounce back, but it is his natural reaction when frustrated to run off and simmer down for a while. Which is fine in some places, but not in herding – we’ll lose the sheep! Which was a whole other story including losing the sheep and finding them in a herd of cows with their babies and a very long walk for Bonnie and Rooster, but at least that time wasn’t Asher’s fault (thankfully!).

This was also Asher’s first ‘solo’ trip, I thought he might be a bit insecure without his pack with him – but no! He got out of the car at Bonnie’s like he owned the place and was posturing and being a cocky teenager. Good lord. He, uh, got taken down a few pegs while he was there, which was probably a good thing. He was actually MOSTLY a good boy, except for one very bizarre marking incident in the house, where he was attempting to pee on Nancy. So embarrassing. Mostly the three young dogs (Beckit, Flee and Asher) just had a WONDERFUL time romping and playing together – they really enjoyed themselves. Flee learned to swim and Asher loved all the wide open spaces for running … and running. Love my big red dork, he just made himself at home. And was VERY submissive when he got home with Navarre. Go figure.

Mostly we have just done a lot more practicing on sheep while we’ve been off, but we have seen Ron a couple times too. We went out today and Asher was being a very good boy, back to working on driving and he’s getting a bit better – but still checks in quite a bit. But I could fade back behind him more and he was overall getting more confident. Though when the sheep turned to face him he didn’t know what to do! So want to work on that with him and Navarre, I want them to have the confidence to move sheep. So we’re going to work on some with a single and hopefully teaching them they have the power to move them if need be.

As for Navarre, yes, we are still progressing with sheep. He didn’t get to go to Idaho as I didn’t want to manage him, which is a big sign that I just need to get him neutered (which I’m mostly convinced it’s time to do). Mostly in herding it’s just getting him to do things that he already knows how to do for me. He’s doing much better on his outruns and CAN do some very nice driving. Sometimes he just implodes with his directions though, so that’s frustrating when he starts guessing. And always the struggle to get him off the sheep and slow down. But that’s nothing new. But we are enjoying each other and slowly making progress. He also very much needs to work on a single, he doesn’t hold one sheep at all, and is just looking around for the others!

My goal is by the end of the year to do a pro-novice trial with Navarre (somewhat confidently!) and Nursery with Asher. I was thinking maybe Ian’s winter trials would be good to shoot for, or maybe see what they have going up at Fidos in the winter (assuming the virus stuff has calmed down by then). I’m not sure if that’s an overly ambitious plan for either of them, Navarre has the skills but not necessarily with me, and Asher obviously will need to have learned a lot about driving by then! But it’s something to shoot for. I worked some penning with both dogs, which seemed to have very little to do with me and a lot to do with which sheep we used. We shall see what the rest of this year brings, and how much we get to practice once I go back to teaching.

Asher IS getting new siblings! Heidi plans to do a repeat of the Dove x Rooster puppies this year and I’m ever so curious if they’ll end up the same or different than Asher’s litter. People seem very happy with these pups, and from what I’ve seen they are all fun LEGGY dogs (I believe they ALL ended up around 21.5, boys and girls!).So that will be fun, we need more puppies in the world this year.

As for me, I just miss Bright and I miss having a girl taking charge in the household. It was especially hard to come back from the Idaho trip and she wasn’t there. I am considering a Bright relative puppy, and I know that intellectually that any puppy I get, related to Bright or not, is not going to be anything like Bright – I can’t help but just want to have a piece of her back in my life. Maybe the boys will even out once they figure out the new pack dynamics, but I just feel like we need a girl to keep the peace. And I miss Bright, the boys are just so … dorky. Which I love, but they are not Bright. I don’t know, we’ll see – I know what I really want is just to have her back, and I don’t want to end up getting a dog for the wrong reasons. Asher is doing great and we have so much to work on, I don’t need another dog – I just miss her.

Finally made the plunge and traded in all my Canon camera gear for the Sony a9 and one lens (135/1.8). It was surprisingly hard to let the Canon stuff go, it’s been with me for so long! But it’s true that I don’t necessarily use a lot of the lenses, and the Sony camera is just light years ahead of the Canon for action, which is what I enjoy the most. It’s a bit of a different look than the Canon, but I really am enjoying it, no regrets. Though I traded in my Canon 5DmIII and they didn’t want it – too high of a shutter count! That camera has seen some use, that’s for sure! Though it’s just crazy with the Sony a9, 20 fps is a dangerous thing indeed.

Sony lenses are expensive, but someday I plan to get a wide angle and possibly the 70-200 someday … but obviously not any time soon! I really do love the 135, it’s just such a nice range for dogs, not too close, not too far and such a lovely lens. Though no matter what the dogs still have to cooperate, and it doesn’t matter how fast your camera is if they won’t go where you expect them too …