Summer of Herding

Ha, as soon as I break for the summer we’ve had the nicest weather – for weeks! I can go outside again, and it so feels like Fall. Maybe we really did get the worst of it over with earlier in the season? Fingers crossed, but we are getting closer to my unofficial start of Fall, which is the middle of September. Though I have very much enjoyed the evenings out here this summer, with all the crickets and the frogs – I love living in the country. Well, I do NOW, once it starts raining it’s going to be an absolute mud pit around here with all the construction. That will be an adventure, but, someday, things will come together around here. At least, I hope!

Been having fun training the dogs with my summer trick classes, it always inspires me to get back into training. The concept training ideas are totally new, so it’s been fun to play around with (like color discrimination, match to sample, big vs small, learning to read, etc.) What I didn’t expect about the concept training is how god damn clever the dogs are, I’m spending most of my time developing ways to get them to stop just beating the system and actually learn what I want them to learn! Bryn’s ‘Bang on Recall’ trick is just fricken adorable, that girl was born to flip over. She’s very much enjoying our training time these days.

While it wasn’t my intention to have a ‘Summer of Herding’ this year, it is kind of turning out that way. We have all sorts of plans to take commercial sheep to new locations and actually train our dogs to handle what they clearly couldn’t at the trialing clinic in Bandon. Super excited to break it down and help Asher be successful. We have already made progress at regaining his outrun. We broke it down at Maddy’s and worked on lifting the lambs off of hay. He needed some work, but seemed to quickly remember what he should be doing. It’s nice to know it’s in there! I was somewhat pleased when I sent him to cover some sheep running into the brush and he didn’t see them that he took my redirects until he went into the brush and brought them out. I didn’t think he would, so that’s good to know! We also had a lesson with Ron, which he now splits with Bryn, and just, once again, worked on outruns and making sure I was clear about what his performance needed to be. Good stuff.

We had a fun day up with Nancy at Fido’s, worked on lots of short, successful outruns and setting him up for success. The sheep are easy but it was nice to see him feel so confident with all the pieces that he couldn’t do with more difficult sheep. We worked lots of things on our homework list and helping him get prepared for his upcoming AKC trial with Carol.

The big news from Fido’s was how good little Bryn did! She had been less successful with our lesson with Ron, she definitely went backwards with her self control around sheep. I had even stopped at McDonald’s that morning to pick up a sausage biscuit to work on her downs and call offs around sheep before her turn. Naturally, that made no difference whatsoever. It’s not like she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do, she definitely is more excited about sheep every time she sees them these days. But, yeah, off of sheep she does great! So I had to hand her off to Ron, I wasn’t in a mood to argue with her. But then Bryn decided that Ron was no fun and tried hiding behind me. Oh, she’s such a girl. The good news, her work on sheep looks great – she has lovely feel, nice distance and no problem covering the sheep at all. Ron was like, “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about losing sheep in Idaho … but you might lose your dog.” Her call offs were just non-existent. Such baby dog moments. So Ron had her work just two sheep, and then a single – she’s got lovely natural skills on sheep, I will say.

Anyway, so at Fido’s I was only about getting her to lie down and call off, and Fido’s sheep are perfect as they are so tame. Bryn definitely got better, and her downs were actually really nice. Her call offs were BETTER, but definitely not instantaneous. She thinks ‘that’ll do’ means ‘go wider around the sheep’, which is cute, but not what I want. But I didn’t argue, I just gently invited and blocked until she came with me, we’d take a little break, maybe go to the water and send right back to it. At least on the Fido’s sheep she had some nice baby outruns and, once again, very natural work on the sheep.

I started with two sheep, moved to four … and because she was being such a superstar, and the Fido’s sheep are REALLY dull, I let her work a big group of about 20 sheep. No problems handling any of them, at least with this type of sheep she’s very confident and appropriate. We made some nice progress, I think, and we were having fun and working together (mostly). I was very pleased with her!

My little girl is turning 11 months old next week, I can’t believe it went by so fast! I continue to be enormously happy with her, she’s the perfect addition to our household. She IS a bitch, so I do have to watch her with other dogs, but she is wonderful with my boys. She’s such an interesting combination of independent and soft – not the easiest mix to train, but I wouldn’t have her any other way. She’s so CHARMING, and she does have such confidence and strength to her. She’s definitely not what I expected from a cow dog – right down to being the CUTEST damn border collie on the planet. Cow dogs are notoriously homely, can be very bitey and hard headed – but Bryn seems to be her own little type.

Traded off dogs with Carol this week, she took Asher and Navarre, I got Demi and Pixel. I definitely got the better end of the deal, Pixel and Demi are ridiculously easy to live with – Asher and Navarre … need a lot more action. Bryn was downright bored without the boys here, though she eventually played a bit with both Carol’s dogs. Pixel was too timid, and I saw some of that obnoxious cowdog stuff I was worried about with Bryn when she was trying to push Pixel to play with her – so had to keep on top of her for that. Meanwhile, Bryn even managed to get Demi to try to play a bit, which was too much for little Bryn! But cute, once I figured out what the heck was going on. Bryn approved of the girls, even if they didn’t want to run around and play border collie games.

As for the boys, they did really well on their trip – and a lot better than Haku did on his first trip with Carol back in the day, where he peed in the hotel room and ate the pockets out of her sweatshirt. This was, I believe, Asher’s first trip away from me, so I wasn’t sure how he would do. But I should have known, he’s a border collie, they just make themselves at home wherever they go. So it looks like the boys had a LOT of fun hanging out with Carol, and played a lot with Leica. They didn’t get into any trouble and minded their manners, and minded Carol. So good boys!

This was our test to see what they would do, both traveling and at the trial. Apparently Asher was MUCH pushier this time when they practiced before the trial (and Navarre was just normal pushy, he has no other speed!). But both boys actually did great, and both listened and did as well as they could. Yes, Navarre was pushy, but he was also trying – and was the only dog to pen the sheep in B Course! Not exactly his specialty, so go Navarre! Asher did not get the pen, but not for lack of trying. On A course they both qualified, and they both really were trying – very proud of both of them, and Carol did a great job handling two very different dogs. Keep in mind, other than when Asher was a wee tiny baby, he’s not worked for anyone else, so very happy to see them working together so well.

So that went well, I think everyone had fun. The boys have been cleared to go up with her again at some point, which I think they’ll very much enjoy. And did they miss me? No, not at all. We met up to go hiking when we exchanged dogs and they gave me a passing, “Oh hey, where you been?” as they charged off to go play. Ah, border collies, they are definitely free spirits. I think we’re all happy to be home again, certainly Bryn was happy to see them! Haku … maybe less so, but he’s pretty happy doing his own thing anyway.

I continue to learn more about why Asher does things in herding, we spent a day hanging out and playing with sheep for a few other folks and that was hughly helpful. The good news, Asher’s outrun was not slicing in like it was – the bad news, he was going a million miles per hour and goosing the sheep on his lift. Which I initially thought was him just overexcited and going back to too much distance too fast. But even when we went closer to help him be successful he was just rushing like no tomorrow. Finally got him to slow his ass down … and he had SUCH a hard time lifting those sheep! With this particular set up there was huge draw back to the gate and if I know anything, it’s that Asher doesn’t like going into that pressure. So his racing around like a maniac wasn’t just frantic baby dog – it was his way of getting the sheep moving without having to fight with them. So that was eye opening, and it’s always interesting to see that most of the weaknesses he has in herding always go back to him not wanting to go into that pressure.

We worked that set up a bit and he got BETTER, but definitely not what I know he can do. So then we switched to the new Clun sheep that Maddy has, and Asher (and all the other dogs) acted completely different. Suddenly he wasn’t all frantic and worried about losing the sheep, these sheep he could RELAX with. So he CAN do very nice things, but when the sheep are difficult for him, the bad behaviors come out. So hopefully we can practice more on the new sheep and get some good habits going, it was very eye opening to see the difference.

So homework remains working on that lift, and then we need to work on getting him to open up his inside flanks, which is another issue he’s had for a while. Just need to get him closer and show him what I want, then slowly go back to more distance.

And little Bryn got to play with a bigger group that included the lighter running sheep. She’s so good! I was really happy with her feel for the sheep and how she adjusts and figures out what she needs to do to keep them under control – very cool. Started in the round pen, and I’m not saying she’s perfect, but I was pleased with her dealing with the pressure of the fences (not all the time, of course!) and handling the running sheep without getting frantic – very much not like a baby dog! Then we took them out into the big field, and they took off running like antelopes, of course – and Bryn ALMOST caught them … until she changed to chasing, she just needed a few more steps! But even when she makes a mess of things, she does a pretty good job of cleaning it up. It was a really great learning experience trying to cover those runners in the big field, and she was giving some nice distance and outruns, I was super pleased. And there was some chasing and circling and normal baby dog stuff too, of course! But she really does have a lovely feel for sheep and a calm presence to her, I continue hopeful that someday we’ll be a good team. There was calling off and lying down … maybe not the first time, but eventually and with less argument every time. I just think she’s amazing little dog, and as was remarked, she’s FAST to cover those katahdin sheep with those tiny legs. Love my Brynny!

Haku and Navarre got to play a bit too, and Haku was SO HAPPY and Navarre was SO ANNOYING. Yeah, that hasn’t changed – OMG, SO MUCH ARGUING. And, dammit, he knows what he should be doing by now, he just chooses not to – EVERY SINGLE TIME. SO FRUSTRATING. Good thing I love him otherwise though!