Welcome, Sheep!

Wow, actually getting to practice regularly on sheep – how novel! The dogs are loving it and I’m amazed how much progress they’ve already made just with a few visits. Knock on wood, the sheep remain really nice, not too heavy and not too light. They just sort of stay where you put them and don’t bolt when a dog outruns. They move pretty nicely to drive, and are turning less, which Asher appreciates. They are moving smoothly in and out of the pens and I haven’t had an issue sorting them.

It helps that our instructions included not fetching them to your feet, so we’ve really been focusing on driving, flanks and lifts, and if I’m not trying to do ‘walk abouts’ with sheep I don’t have to argue about the dogs coming in too close or not lying down, which is where we were having a lot of issues before. Both dogs are not too pushy with their drives, and have been doing really well lying down on the lift too. We’ve been working on nice wide flanks and lying down off balance, no issues.

I am super impressed with my Brynny, after a couple sessions she’s so relaxed and there is almost zero arguing about anything. When she’s doing things that she knows how to do and she feels confident with it, she’s so nice and steady. She can still get panicky when I ask her flank away from the draw – but as these sheep don’t bolt, she’s relaxing so quickly when she realizes she’s not losing the sheep and can cover them even when flanking away from the draw. The first few practices she would bolt around to bring the sheep back a few times, but even when she sneaks around and makes a drive into a fetch it’s really calm now and she’s willing to then flank back around and fix it instead of get all frantic. I may be fooling myself, but I still think she’s going to be an easier and more effective dog on sheep than Asher. I honestly feel like once she understands what we’re trying to do she GETS IT. I still don’t think Asher has any real clue WHY we’re doing anything in herding, he’s just doing what I tell him to. I think Bryn is like, “Oooh, I get it, that’s why we’re doing that!” She’s really learning and takes her job seriously, she’s not just out for Bryn (uh, sometimes).

She may make a liar out of me though. Still, it’s just so nice not to have to argue, she really is trying hard and making great decisions. Her outruns are back, she can be tight at the bottom, but she will then really adjust and add distance so she comes in beautifully and so lightly for her lift. And then lies down. THE FIRST TIME. Shocking. She rates herself on the fetch, holds the draw, lies down when asked and will now flank off and turn them on the fetch, which is still so hard for Asher. Super impressed with Bryn, she is driving like she actually understands the purpose now, nice flanks, calls off beautifully. Maybe this is the honeymoon stage, we shall see.

Asher … is struggling more. Obviously his big issue is sheep facing him, he just wilts. He will displace, turn away, lie down and look away. He is a good dog though, so I’m hoping to get him to understand that it’s his job to turn those sheep, and that he CAN turn them if he keeps up the pressure. This may not be the right approach, but basically getting after him for doing any of those displacement behaviors – seeing if he can change his mindset to understanding that this is HIS job, and it needs to happen. I’ll probably see fairly quickly if it’s just going to add stress to stress. I do think in his mind he thinks he’s not supposed to cause conflict, and is doing what he thinks he should when sheep face him. We shall see.

We continue to work on Asher’s normal issues, getting him to slow down, not slicing flanks, holding the line when driving, not looking back at me, lifting gently. He is very much enjoying it, he’s a pretty obedient dog in general, but he’s been refusing to leave the gate to the sheep when it’s time to go. Which is cute when he does it, of course.

Been working with Asher on his obedience, he’s been to a couple classes. No issues working around the other dogs, sometimes he surprises me with how grown up he (finally) feels. Fun to work on something different, Asher does love to train and do whatever, he is a good canidate for obedience. Definitely has his challenges, as when in doubt he shoves himself into me as hard as he can, which is not helpful, but there are worse problems to have. He can be curiously overly thoughtful about it all too, I had forgotten his weird tentative recall from last winter – who would have guessed? The goal is to try to get him to some trials next year, I never expect my dogs to be perfect, but I now want to go when I feel we’re confident in the skills as opposed to the bare minimum. We’ll see how long that takes, he has a good start and having a class helps me focus and devote time to it.

Agility is harder to devote time to! Been working on proofing basic backsides and threadles, discriminations, bypasses. Jumping continues to drive me nuts, I think next time I should just get a dog that is naturally good at collection, as I have very little patience for doing 10,000 reps of collection drills and still not seeing much change at all. Good jumpers are born, not made, this I have learned. I have also been working with mostly food with both Asher and Bryn as we have been working on thinking skills. I think that’s been good for both of them for very different reasons. Bryn learning to enjoy agility without the thrill of the toy, and Asher learning to bring down his arousal level. We still play with toys, but it’s been a good lesson for all of us that sometimes it’s okay to just go back and work calm and thoughtful – the dogs still have fun.

We went to one day of trial down in Eugene, Bryn’s first show at this venue, and her Excellent debut! She rocked it, she’s figuring out this trialing thing and getting more and more confident and excited about the process. She also has WEAVES! Another flawless trial of weaving, I think I may be able to tentatively say that she can now weave in public. Her contacts, yeah, that needs work. But we stayed after league at Lori’s barn to work on them and she was showing me she can do it with some practice in new places. So I’m optimistic she will one day give me the same contact performance in public that she does in practice. The flanking around obstacles … well, that’s still a huge issue. Has she ever actually just taken the last jump in a trial? So much ridiculous flanking, it makes it such a pain in the ass to run her. But does make me get my butt up there and try to get ahead of her, as she’s much better if I can make it happen. So love her attitude, love her weaves, love that she’s connecting at the end of agility runs. I brought another specially seasoned chicken breast to the trial and she was in heaven. What is with this dog and food all of the sudden? No Qs, ALMOST got out of open, but missed her dogwalk, darn it. Still, it’s about the attitude right now, and I’m happy with what I got. Oh, and she came in for a serpentine, like a boss! Go tiny Bryn!

The boys … ugh. Disappointing, I don’t know what the heck is up with Navarre. I was thinking it was me just not supporting things, but today he pulled out of the WEAVES and just came to me for no reason – I was right next to him! Why does he keep coming into me?! He came into me in the opening in standard, I literally smacked him in the head trying to get him to go take a jump in front of him (accidentally!). He came off the table while I was just standing there – WTF? So NOTHING for Navarre, and he has zero excuse for that. I’m feeling less inclined to think it’s something I’m doing. Maybe we need to, I don’t know, actually practice? Ugh.

Asher was HIGH. So fricken high. Jumping was terrible, but weaves and contacts continue to look good. Off course after jump number #2 as he runs out to the dogwalk while I’m screaming his name. Then later on BACKJUMPS AGAIN while I’m screaming his name. So, yeah, screaming is NOT helping and it just winds him up, I know this. So jumpers I go back to reasonably silent … and he knocks two bars. Piff. At least he did the course. There was no collection. Hmmm. There is NO REASON he should be backjumping on true collection jumps that I’ve clearly indicated. So frustrating.

So that’s was just silly, Navarre SHOULD be easy at this point, but not if he just keeps randomly coming into me for no reason. Asher is still a nut and Bryn is still flanky. It should not be this hard! At least one of these dogs should be trained at this point! Good lord.So I already knew I need to actually do more agility, and this is another BIG sign we need to actually just RUN THINGS and practice. That’s the goal, as working on little things is not improving our major issues, unfortunately!

The US Open was fun to watch, I didn’t get to watch the livestream, but there was so much fun video on FB. I liked the courses more at this event than the WCO, which seemed a little more generic. The courses over the weekend had more unique challenges. And lots and lots of running, of course! That is the theme, that’s for sure. It’s something that people have been wanting in US agility for quite some time, so I’m glad they have it. That’s a whole lot of running for FIVE DAYS though – too much! Some really great agility and lots of fun, it’s definitely the most competitive event in the US these days. I do plan to enter Bryn and Asher in the UKI trial at my place in December, but I probably won’t be going out of my way to pursue it unless it gets more common around here. I’ll enter my two in novice or whatever, but as they won’t have a chance to ever get out of the lower levels that is what it is. I hope UKI takes a page from USDAA and starts letting you move to the higher level when you’re ready, rather than expecting dogs to take 5 years to get there from sparse trials. But as my young dogs obviously aren’t ready for anything advanced anyway, no complaints. Navarre is retired from backsides, so no UKI for him.

All of the sudden, Bryn is FIESTY again. I don’t think she’s super affected by her heat cycles, but she obviously had been a little quieter and more sensitive, as suddenly she is NOT. I had just been telling someone the other day that she hadn’t bitten me in forever – well I can’t say THAT anymore. She gets so mad if she has to fix something, like a missed weave entry or a self released startline. Sorry honey, that’s YOUR job! She’s such a fun little thing, and we ran League last week for REAL the FIRST time – and she did great! So no practice run, just came in and ran and she was a little rockstar. Asher as well. The AKC League courses have been nice, not hard at all, but very flowy and lots of speed for the most part, they have been a good experience for my goobers. If they have an international league for the size of Lori’s barn next year, I’d do it again, it’s so good to get the dogs out and about and just focus on agility.

Oh, and I have some cute little borderpaps in classes now, and, OMG, they’re like little mini-Bryns (but much more crazy!). I’ll admit, they’re really fun! And very similar body type to Bryn … and intact. Hmmm. I didn’t have any interest in making borderpaps, but borderborderpaps, which are mostly border collie and a little pap and nice and compact in size – I’ll admit I’m tempted! I think they’d be fun little agility dogs, but it would be sad to give up the herding opportunity. I’m leaving it out there as an option though for when I feel like I’m ready for another dog, it would be a way to make my down small dog! Boy, they would be YAPPY I think …

I took the dogs to be weighed at the pet store the other day, though it wasn’t a very accurate measurement for Haku and Navarre, who had broken into the food closet and gorged themselves on Bryn’s food one day while I was gone. Bad dogs. But I wanted to see how much Asher weighed, as his brother (his BIG brother) weighs 66 pounds – SIXTY SIX POUNDS! Holy crap! My assumption was Asher weighed about 45lbs, but he didn’t even break that. I also assumed Bryn was closer to 30lbs now that she’s actually eating consistently – but no! Go figure. So I think Haku and Navarre were a little inflated after their adventure the day before, so I’m taking off a pound or two in my mind for them:

Navarre: 47.8 Asher: 43.8 Haku: 41.6 Bryn: 27.9

Had the dogs adjusted, and Bryn was curiously out considering we haven’t done much of anything recently – the vet felt that was common after dogs are in season, that it loosens them up and things get out of whack. Hopefully she’s back in fighting form both physically and mentally and we don’t have to worry about more girl drama until … April? I’d much prefer her to be in season in the summer/winter, instead of the seasons when I actually want to do things. But I still think cute baby Bryn puppies are on the table, so she’ll stay intact for now. And I should get her OFAs done too, if her hips are iffy that’s a good reason to spay!

Haru is turning into an adorable awesome potato – he’s getting big! He’s seven months old and I just love him so much! He’s just been a perfect addition. He’s fun without being too crazy, sweet without being too needy, confident and so happy to do anything. He enjoys playing in the arena and makes himself at home wherever he goes. So far I would HIGHLY recommend an american bobtail, he’s a total delight. He’s also getting more cuddly and fun all the time, and the cats seem truly integrated these days. Dragon actually likes him, Fizban kind of plays with him … and Marvin is still an asshole, but as Haru stands up for himself, Marvin doesn’t know what to make of him. Marvin just turned FOUR, and I keep telling him if he doesn’t shape up I’m going to find him an only cat household where he’ll HAVE to interact with a person. He is really enjoying playing with the water in the bathroom sink these days, which is really adorable (and messy!). He never did that before, so I don’t know where that came from. But now he just sits in the dark bathroom, waiting for someone to come turn on the faucet. Especially after getting Haru, who has been such a wonderful and easy addition, and Marvin most definitely never has been, I do wonder if he should be in another household where he might be happier. We shall see, but Dragon came around eventually, hopefully Marvin will too.