Ready to Launch

The actual ‘summer’ part of Summer went by surprisingly fast this year. I had many plans and things I wanted to get done, but somehow here it is September and I’m scrabbling to get it all finished. Very much enjoyed my summer trick classes, and it was nice to take a break from agility for a bit. I’m excited to get back to it though, and things that seemed so far away are suddenly unexpectedly coming up fast.

Dogs are ready to get back to action, I think. They like hiking and such, but it’s not the same as ‘working’. I am solidifying my plans for what I want to work on with the dogs this Fall, and what trials to enter. I decided to put Bright into Performance in USDAA, no real reason not to and it’s not like we have many USDAA shows to go to. 22 inches is just that much more difficult than 20, and 16 is REAL easy. We’ll stay in 20 for AKC, and while I was going to just do premier with Bright after she got her MACH, in the end I think it’s nice to do more straightforward courses too. And Navarre will also get a little of everything.

As for skills, going back to working come to hand with Navarre and work on his chase drive. Bright needs tune ups on her contacts, stopping and running. Looking into an online handling class, just to keep me motivated. It really does feel like I haven’t really done agility in forever, it was so hot for so long this year that I stopped actually working the dogs long before summer break. I do not do well with heat, that’s for sure.

We have had some LOVELY unexpectedly Fall-like days this week, including even some rain, which is crazy in August. Fingers crossed that we have seen the last of the 90 degree weather, and hopefully won’t see again until next July. September can be a weird month, but I would love a nice Fall for once without the Summer That Won’t Die. We shall see!

Fig is growing at a crazy exponential rate at the moment. She was really butt high last week, and then VOOooosh, the rest of her caught up this week. She’s way outgrowing her male Visla puppy friend of the same age – and any other puppy the same age she’s been around. The good news on the puppy front, she’s been eating consistently! I started using a fish based supplement with the dogs and if you combine her food with that and water she just eats it, without any drama whatsoever. I don’t even know what to do with a puppy that just EATS.

But I think all around Fig is figuring out the rules of life and, being a border collie, is just sort of conforming without thinking much about it. And it’s been real interesting for me as the majority of our everyday life training has involved no traditional reinforcers at all. I’ve basically used all environmental rewards, mostly her access to motion and fun times. She can do some surprisingly mature things for a puppy her age that really has had minimal formal training.

The ‘formal’ training we HAVE done seems to go in cycles. Sometimes Fig is just into it, and we spontaneously train some sort of extraneous trick like hugging Bright because that’s what she was into at that moment. And usually for a few days if I invite her to come train (just once a day) she’s really fun and into it. And then she’ll just switch off, has no interest in the food and just wants to go party. So I put it away for a week until she starts engaging me again. When you CAN get her attention she picks up things very quickly. Tonight she learned about rear feet targeting and holding on with her rear feet while I stretch her forward, and backing up to find the target. Also learned to sit with front feet on a pedestal, and then we worked her first position changes with her front feet on a pedestal too. It’s not really about the food for her when we’re training, it’s a funny thing, there is food scattered all around me and she just ignores it. We’ve also been working stays in everyday life, including out of sight stays and some extreme distance. She’s not perfect, but she is getting pretty darn good.

We are also working on not biting dogs when overaroused out together. Which has been an ongoing issue, and Fig can be pretty good if I’m consistent. It’s been hard to be consistent because this week Navarre decided he just can’t handle me doing any correction whatsoever to the puppy, no matter how mild. So he’s been sulking and refusing to come near us when out in the field and walking behind me when hiking and being ever so dramatic. Not sure where that came from, he certainly doesn’t get this upset if I ever correct HIM, but for some reason with the puppy he just hates it. So much drama.

So I was worried about working him at his herding lesson this week as he’s been so sensitive to me. So Dave took him, but he needed to move these new goats out of the field we wanted to use so he brought Navarre in to help. Apparently these goats have not really been worked, and there was one goat that was HUGE … and not about to be herded by some upstart border collie. And this crazy ass goat was going right up to Navarre and then rearing up on it’s back legs, which made it like 7 feet tall – yikes! At the time Navarre looked more confused than anything else, but they got the goats moved out and the sheep moved in. And then Navarre was being so pushy and annoying. And I think he had some adrenaline from the goat confrontation then he took it out on the sheep and Dave. And when we went back past the goats to leave he decided he had a vendetta towards that goat. Anyway, it was funny how this whole incident kind of ‘reset’ him. When we got home he stopped sulking and hiding and was back to playing with the puppy and being his normal Navarre self. So, go figure, what Navarre really needed to be was challenged by a goat.

As for Haku (aka the Real Herding Dog), I talked to Dave about my goal of trying for border collie trial with Haku, which Dave said should be very doable, and certainly the Ranch and Novice classes. So we went back to working on driving today, which was a little rusty. I blamed all the AKC work and Dave was like, “You know you need BOTH skills, right?” But Haku was looking back at me and not wanting to drive way across the field at first, but he picked up confidence as we went along. There’s a lot more stopping to talk when it comes to driving. But the good news is that we can do it, and it’s not always pretty – but apparently that’s okay. Haku understands stopping and correcting his line. We had more issues with cross drives turning into accidental fetches, but that has been what we’ve been working on. We also discussed how border collie people will mock my herding cues, and how I really could care less.

Then, as Carol is a sucker for punishment, she’s taking Haku up with her to another 3 day AKC trial in September. He’ll be doing the intermediate course, which requires some driving and then the B course as well, which is the same thing he did before, but more spread out. He’ll also be getting a CRATE, because apparently he’s like a puppy that needs a lot of management. Hopefully we can make the whole trip much smoother for Carol this time. It’s a learning process. Hopefully he learns.

Getting Haku ready for that trial we’re doing a little cramming this weekend, Heidi is home so we took the practice sheep out for a spin. Well, first it’s lots of me watching Heidi move sheep around, because I’m no help whatsoever. I really have no stock sense, it’s a good thing I’m not a farmer. But Heidi has her ways, luckily, and separated off the Old Girls. We worked Haku first, and it was interesting that the sheep were not trying to kill me – which is not what usually happens. I think all this work with lighter sheep has given Haku a lighter touch with the heavies, and they appreciated it. Still, these girls are SO dog broke it’s crazy hard to get them off of me, and even if I do, they just want to come back to handler even if it means going THROUGH the dog. And, yes, of all the dogs they have the least respect for Haku.

Anyway, so driving did not go super well as the sheep just kept so wanting to bend back to me and Haku was overflanking and not holding his lines. Still, he was trying, and did some good stuff too. Later on we brought him back out with the old girls and two lambs that had never been worked before (who kept trying to break their necks running through fences). In fact, Haku didn’t even seem to see the lambs as sheep to be herded at first, but when he did he was so gentle and light with them, it was adorable.

Figgy also got to go chase some sheep around today, which is mostly what it was. She, uh, may be more related to Navarre than first anticipated. I’ve seen videos of tiny 8 week old puppies doing natural outruns and balance – yeah, not happening with Fig. But she is very keen on it, likes to stalk the heads and chase butts – a fine start for a baby. And funny enough how she is very strong on sheep, no fear, facing them down – then wouldn’t even go near the chickens, thought they were scary. Go figure.

And Navarre … dude, such a dork. He had been doing better, but he seemed to have carried his goat attitude to the sheep again, and I felt we were just butting heads again. It’s a good thing he likes agility!

We did end up taking Fig to downtown Salem today. I wasn’t sure how she would do, especially with the car chasing thing, but she only tried that a couple times, then just calmly watched the traffic (including so many loud motorcycles!). Figgy actually impressed the hell out of me, she really hasn’t been in this environment before, and she was a little like, “Woah”, but not overwhelmed, freaked or overstimulated. She was surprisingly level headed and relaxed.

She had no problem settling in at the restaurant, Heidi got her a plate of turkey and worked on her down and settle – and Fig was totally cool with that. She just watched the people and traffic ever so calmly, like this was something she did every day. She met lots of folks that walked by, mostly happily, but sometimes less so. I find it interesting to that it’s always the oblivious folks that she dislikes, and one totally oblivious lady brought her annoying fluffy white dog RIGHT up into Fig’s face – then wouldn’t leave. And Fig didn’t like the dog, and neither the dog or the owner had any clue whatsover. Fig was actually SNARLING at the dog and the lady is just smiling and continued to jabber on and shove her dog at us.

Very impressed how Fig handled herself throughout the outing, like a much more mature and older dog. She was pretty done by the end though, that was a lot of stimulation for a little pup. It’s amazing that change that happens with puppies around 4 months old, they go from being so much work for those first two months to suddenly having life skills and good decision making abilities and are more like dogs than infants. I am liking the dog that Figgy is becoming.

In other news, Marvin is recovered from his neuter and oddly just WILD these days.  Which I would have thought he would actually calm down (not that he was crazy before), but he is just ripping around the house these days like he’s on crack, and him and Dragon are just chasing and wrestling all the time. Oddly, not Fizban though. I think Fizban may be too rough, while Dragon honestly seems to love getting pummeled by tiny Marvin. It is funny that I got a ragdoll with the assumption he would be a bigger cat, to hold his own with the maine coons – but Marvin is just TINY, he’s not even half the size of the others, I don’t think he’s even 10 pounds and he’s a year now. He’s probably a normal sized cat, I’m just not used to seeing them.

So much more playful and, knock on wood, much more social with me as well. Talkative and snuggly and following me around. I’m really happy to see him coming back to his old self in many ways. Though I could do without the hair, which is falling out in CLUMPS after the neuter, it’s everywhere. He’s eating better too, and just such a nicer cat all around. Really makes me happy. And Dragon continues confident and outgoing without his CBD oil, not snuggly, but friendly and wanting a lot more interaction and pets than he used to. I’m loving my kitties at the moment (though Fizban is still the best, naturally!).