Suddenly Winter

Oof, man, winter just ARRIVED this year and never stopped – November is usually such a nice month! It’s either been freezing cold with east winds or pouring down sideways rain. What happened to the gentle drizzle of Fall? I’m just hoping it’s getting it all out of its system and the whole winter isn’t super cold as well. I like my moderate weather! Still better than being hot, I guess.

Went to another one day AKC agility trial, Bryn is definitely getting better with the whole trialing thing, she’s connecting with me at the end of runs! Still doing the fresh chicken at the end, and she’s still REALLY into that. Running her is still somewhat ridiculous, but that might just be our thing. She goes from charging away from me for no reason to not really pushing on when I want her to. Ah, baby dogs. Her weavepoles remain solid, her contacts remain … not so much. She had a … relatively nice jumpers run in Excellent. A good Bryn course, but she was still sort of winging out randomly. Ran past a jump, but I’m blaming myself, I chose to lead out with a push as she’s so shit with rear crosses, but didn’t trust her commitment enough to lead out far enough – so hey. Still, reasonable – and happy! And connected at the end. Standard she just CLOBBERS the second jump as I led out to handle it stationary with a k-turn and she obviously didn’t understand that one! But did some LOVELY weaves while I moved away laterally to get down the dogwalk, super pleased with that. She jumped the dogwalk though, and aframes remain very leapy as well. So we stayed for the fun match afterwards, and got our 90 seconds of dogwalk training in, which isn’t much, but she improved, so hey.

I handled the jumpers course the same way with Asher, but led out farther as I trust him … and he ran past a jump! Ha! But put him back on the startline and did it again with no issues (knocked the last bar which was a triple though). Standard he was a good boy, did the lateral in the weaves with one of his ridiculous LEAP into the contact on the dogwalk things (which is better than leaving out a stride and missing!), but then I OVER pulled him past a jump afterwards as I assumed he wouldn’t collect. Go figure. He did good though. I was pleased with him overall, though there was no collecting, of course.

Now, Navarre I was ready to strangle – I swear he’s doing it on purpose. I was thinking he was doing weird things because I wasn’t handling them correctly, but at this trial he has a nice standard run and then BREAKS HIS STAY on his jumpers run – which he has NEVER done – WTF? So put him back, but I’m frustrated as there is no reason he shouldn’t qualify on AKC courses, it’s like he has a vendetta against them. We’ve had randomly coming off the table while I’m just standing there, coming out of the weavepoles to come to me when I’m right next to him, breaking his stay, coming into me for no reason and missing the next obstacle – WHY DOES HE KEEP COMING INTO ME FOR NO REASON? I’m a bit baffled, and annoyed that his agility goal right now is ‘just qualify’, which is a really lame and not fun goal – especially when he keeps doing random and unpredictable things all the time!

So I’ll admit the Navarre thing really colored the weekend, as I was frustrated with him and I don’t want to be – agility should be fun! I really don’t care about qualifying, but, once again, trained dogs have nothing to really work on other than qualifying. I suck at running trained dogs. But it is pretty silly that between THREE DOGS I have so little to show for trials recently. But the baby dogs are doing nice stuff, Navarre has no excuse though.

We have one more AKC trial this year, another one day trial, but expectations are LOW, let me tell you. We’ll also do some UKI in my arena, which should be novel.

I am on Operation Contacts with Bryn at the moment, and we are working contacts in as many new locations as we can. I was surprised to see how sloppy she was in places she had been solid before, in Sherwood and Hopewell. I do think the sloppy performance I’m ignoring in trials is transferring over. We are going back to basics though, and we went to Elissa’s over the weekend and worked there. She was very leapy and no criteria at all until she had her lightbulb moment and recognized what she was supposed to be doing. So it’s in there, but it took a while to get it to come out in that location. More work to do. She also still won’t send to a wrap since our attempt to work Justine drills, so that’s not helpful either. Girls, who knows what’s going on in their heads? Need to go back to look at turns and being able to cue them early, Asher is doing well with that, Bryn not so much.

We finished up AKC League, I really have enjoyed having a dedicated practice time with the dogs, even if I have to drive to Silverton to do it. The courses were super simple, but it allowed us to work in a new environment and both dogs by the end of the 6 courses were totally ready to come in and run without a practice run-through first, which makes me happy. I think it’s made a world of difference for Bryn as it’s the transition step she was missing between practice and trials. For Asher he’s still super high, but I can stop and get his head back into the game, which is really helpful. Bryn still flanks, and has a tendency to pull off of things, but at least I can mostly run her and her weaves look great.

They are having International courses designed by Ashely for next year’s league in a smaller size, so I think that will be perfect to move to more interesting courses, so hopefully we can sign up for that. The last league course had two dogwalks, so that was good to practice with both dogs. Asher actually missed one, but has been overall trying super hard. Bryn needed a bit of work to get her to consistent, but I’m happy with what she ended up with. Not perfect, but definitely actually thinking about her job now – and her aframes looked super solid with no work. Bryn can also station solidly while other dogs are running and I’m judging – Asher … cannot. So good to know. This has been a great opportunity and a nice alternative to finding a class for the dogs, as all I really need is to work them in novel environment.

We still have the goal of trying to feel somewhat competent in our international skills for the Kirstin seminar we signed up for in February. So we have a goal, whether we make it is another question. Bryn continues to be weird with her sends, which is kind of important! Asher can do it, just never very efficiently, but, once again, that just might be our thing.

We also struggled with the sheep recently. We split off the lambs and they were just sour and surly and refused to move off the dogs. I’m not sure what happened there, but that was disappointing as they had been moving well. Bryn had to bite them to get them to move and we’re just stomping and coming at her, they were having none of it. Bryn was definitely struggling at driving them, so, yeah, Asher couldn’t do a damn thing. But, to be fair, for the first time ever I got him to at least bop one on the side with his nose in a cheap driveby – which is HUGE for Asher. We very much celebrated his bravery.

We took a break and came back and worked with the older sheep, who are sort of the opposite of the lambs now, super flighty. Easier to work with that! So Asher did great calming them down and getting them walking, Bryn had a harder time with that, but continues to keep her head and very rarely does the rushy slicey panic flanks these days. Sometimes her driving looks great, other times it’s pretty drunken as she keeps sliding from one side to the other instead of holding that line. Baby steps in the right direction though. Her outruns look fantastic about 80% of the time, but even when she’s tight she really gets gentle at the lift so there is no chaos. Need to just work on her actually knowing her flanks, so it’s less “Bryn COME – go-bye” for her inside flanks. She is ADORABLE when she’s herding, so stylish and intense – I love her so much and we’re having a lot of fun. I have two herding dogs now! She’s really trying very hard, and it can be huge for her to stop herself from chasing like when we’re sorting sheep or moving them and she has to watch them run away. Such a good little nugget who is very much catching on to the game. No issues calling off sheep and definitely no issues moving sheep, those lambs give her grief I have no problem with her getting them moving.

The biggest news on the month is Asher BIT A SHEEP! After working with the older sheep we went back and just tried to move the lambs out to the field from the enclosure. They were having none of that and coming at him and he bit one right on the nose! Holy crap! He was SO PROUD, and I praised the heck out of him – I honestly never thought I’d see the day. So that was hugely motivating for him, and he finally got those sheep turned and out of the enclosure into the field where they very much did not want to go. Go Asher! He’s still Asher, it’s not like he’s now all standing up to sheep, but maybe he can actually improve in that. We shall see. Better at moving the surly lambs, and just smiling from ear to ear after that session (in the pouring rain, of course – because that’s what this November is all about!).

We did go up to see Ron at Maddy’s, who we hadn’t seen for quite some time, and we hadn’t been on Maddy’s sheep in forever either. The dogs did well, the practice we have been doing did make a difference. Bryn is looking more like a grown up dog, all her outruns were decent, lifts were gentle, nice pace – she has such a good feel for sheep. I was really happy she was driving fairly well, and much farther than we had been practicing. I love how she understands how to slow sheep down when they start to run on the drive, she really does have such nice innate skills that make life so much easier. I am very cautious about not letting her get into ‘Panic Mode’ and at one point Ron wanted to see what she does when that happens, but she really didn’t do anything much bad other than sneak around and bring the sheep back. She had a couple rushy flanks, but overall almost none of that panicky slicing flank crap she was having issues with – so that was awesome! She most definitely doesn’t know her flanks, but she’s trying really hard, and, once again, I feel like she’s trying to team up and recognizes what we’re doing together. And she’s SO CUTE, good lord. I felt really good about her progress.

At some point I’m going to need to start thinking about whistles with Bryn, which is going to be a HUGE pain in the ass, as I want to do hers differently than Asher … but I don’t think I can remember two sets of whistles. So I’m thinking I may need to retrain Asher’s whistles. The goal is a shorter down whistle and change my comebye from high-low to low-high. Nothing drastic, but still will be confusing. I still need to actually work on making short-long flank whistles no matter what they are, which I’m terrible with, but I also get away with just doing a quick flank to an immediate walk on signal for small flanks. I can’t do a small flank with my down whistle because it’s SO LONG. Well, live and learn, we shall see what we get. But I suppose I should actually teach Bryn verbal flanks before starting to think about whistles!

Asher also did well at Maddy’s, this is his happy place, he’s super comfortable at this field on these sheep. None of them were facing or challenging him, so Ron always thinks I’m making it up that he can’t move sheep. We did try having him hold the sheep and stop them as the other dog came in for the lift, but he didn’t have an issue with THESE sheep. He started a bit tight and fast on his outruns, but quickly relaxed and was doing some fairly nice deeper lifts without rushing – good to see! His pace was good for the most part and the sheep are very calm and relaxed with him. He’s also good at getting the sheep to slow down, but more by never making the sheep feel like they need to run. We ended up working taking him back and forth to different fields to spot different groups of sheep, and he’s TERRIBLE at that. So that doesn’t bode well for any future trials. Ron did think we should try another trial and that he looked ready for it. There really isn’t anything around though, I don’t want to do Ian’s winter trials because of the surface and Asher being a maniac on his outruns. We could do Fidos, but that’s a big drive in winter and my car does not do snow/ice.

Asher is continuing to enjoy obedience. He’s still a big floppy goober about it all, but he’s definitely enjoying having the one-on-one time – and doesn’t think it’s stupid! We have a couple more classes and then we’ll see about practicing this winter. So far I think he’ll enjoy competing, but you never know. I have scheduled FOUR classes in January that I’m teaching that I’ll also be running my dogs in, which I have never done before. The goal is to make sure I actually get those things trained! So international skills, sequencing, jumping and contacts. Fingers crossed this is actually enjoyable and not feel like I’m just frazzled and not able to focus on my dogs. I usually take January off, but I figured I’d try this (and do some puppy stuff!). Hoping to get in a lot of sheep time, agility and obedience practice this winter. Hard to believe that 2022 is almost over, it’s been one hell of a ride – time to start thinking about what I want to do differently in 2023!

I saw an article about how even with inflation/recession that Black Friday was bigger than ever – but I think that’s exactly WHY it was bigger than ever. I know I put off buying a bunch of things until they were inevitably on sale over the weekend. Who can afford to buy them when they’re not on sale anymore? I did get the cats a new cat fountain, which I do like for cats, but I thought Marvin would just love it. He did play with it a bit, but then was sitting in the dark bathroom again, waiting for sink action. Go figure. The cats also got some new toys and the dogs got a bunch of supplements that were on sale. Joint supplements, MYOS, salmon oil – so exciting! They may have gotten a few toys too.

Christmas tree is up and still mostly intact, Haru certainly enjoys knocking off all the ornaments, luckily I only have a few that are actually breakable. Well, I HAD a few … Such a cute little nugget, he’s now kind of harassing Marvin and I’m having a hard time feeling any sympathy since Marvin has been such an asshole to the other cats. Haru isn’t actually doing anything, but Marvin turns into a crazed lunatic if Haru tries to lightly play with him and Marvin SOUNDS like he’s in a full on fight as he spits and runs away growling and hissing. And Haru is like, “Are you playing?” and runs after him, which makes Marvin even more mad. Once again, Haru is often NOT EVEN TOUCHING HIM, but Marvin gets SO MAD. So it’s really funny that Marvin has such a stick up his ass. He’s basically taught Haru that his signals mean nothing since he acts like such a crazed lunatic even if Haru just jumps up anywhere near him. Meanwhile, Dragon and Fizzy have been playing with Haru and he’s starting to snuggle a little bit with them too, which is cute.

Still fun to play a bit of training with Haru, and what I SHOULD be working on is teaching him to station and wait his turn, so I’m not tossing him off the counter 14 times every time I’m getting his dinner ready. But instead he has an adorable shake and has learned to offer a jump! You know, the really important things. I feel like he finally turned the corner and realizes that his behavior makes the game go, so he’s actually ready to train things now. I should, uh, actually have a plan and think about what I want to do with him! He still enjoys playing in the arena and we occasionally walk around the property too, he’s got a pretty good recall and is so at home wherever we go.

When I got Bryn everyone asked if I was going to breed her to a Papillion, because she looks like a borderpap. I don’t have any interest in breeding borderpaps, but I’ll admit I am a bit tempted to breed her to a borderpap and make borderborderpaps! So mostly border collie and a little pap 😉 I have a couple in classes and they are adorable, and, quite frankly, look and act like tiny little Bryns – right down to the high pitched yapping. At that point who knows what you’d get, but I know if I breed Bryn to a BC she’ll make normal sized border collies – which is fine, I like normal sized bcs! But I do like having a smaller dog, and there’s a good chance that if bred Bryn to a borderpap they’d be most likely more Bryn sized or smaller – and SO CUTE (and yappy!). It probably won’t happen, if I want a bordepap I should just go get one from someone who is breeding them – but I’ll admit I’m open to the idea for when it starts to come time for me to a get a new dog. I think they’d be kick ass little agility dogs. Still looking for a good match for her herding-wise, as I do like herding, hence why I probably won’t do the borderborderpap thing. It’s fun to think about though!