October Training Update

It's been about a month since my last update...where to begin?!

I went to the Cheryl Jagger-Williams' Judging Clinic last weekend in Hop Bottom.  Wow.  If you haven't been, it's a great clinic.  I learned a lot about how scores are determined, things you might do that will unknowingly put a judge on alert, and all kinds of other tips. Whether my brain will be able to engage and apply these things when I need them remains to be seen, but I did learn a lot and had fun doing it.  They also video tape your run on both days of the clinic...then everyone gets to "judge you"...it's not always pretty, but everyone learns something and I would recommend this clinic to anyone, regardless of your level of trialing.

We didn't get to do the fun trial at Mary's last weekend - can you believe it SNOWED there in October?  I was pretty bummed about it; I was looking forward to running Binx in N/N to see how he held up (ok, or how I held up) under the pressure of a trial situation.  I know we aren't ready for a real trial...but a Fun Trial is nice in that it allows you the opportunity to go out and help your dog through any rough spots if needed.

Much to my delight, there is now another Fun Trial scheduled for October 31st and it's even closer!  So it all worked out for the best, and I'll get to see how we hold up afterall.

Binx and I have been working on his outrun, his distance off the sheep, picking up sheep from a hold out person, and a little bit of driving.  We are also practicing to pick the sheep up off the fence in a *calm manner*.  We haven't had a lesson in a while because of my schedule and Nancy's, but she did do some driving with him in her field last week when I was there and she said he was looking good.  I must say that I am very proud of him.  He is getting more confident everyday.  There were about 25 sheep in the flock he was driving and they would turn and stare at him a few times, but he just walked right on in - good boy! 

He's also coming along with his outrun ...he is checking himself on his way out, which makes me very happy, but he's still a bit tight at the top.  I've been working on this by lying him down and telling him to "get out", which worked when he used to come in at 2 o'clock....not sure how long these things take, but we're still working at it.  The other thing I have recently been doing is moving my position so that he has to keep going around to get to balance.  So for example, after I send him "away", I continue to move to my right on his arc so that he has to go further around to cover before he comes in. This is something that Carol Campion wrote about in an article I read.  I'll update with the status of that after we do it for a few weeks.

Suzy has been coming over and holding out for me so that Binx learns to pick sheep up from a hold out person. You can tell he's still a bit confused as to why there is another dog and person out there with his sheep.  Sometimes he tends to hold them to Suzy...which is very understandable since she was the persont that got Binx started going around his sheep before I learned how to work my own dog!  But he's starting to get it I think.  Our sheep are also pretty heavy, so he really had to push to lift them off of her...and then he wants to blow into them when they finally take off...so, we're workin on that too :-\.

Rhyme remains my best decision of 2009 :-) - what a great dog...both on and off the field! She has helped me so much already and we haven't even trialed yet. She still gets lost in her sheep when there is some distance between us (i.e., does not take my flanks in a timely manner) so we keep going back to the cirlce work and close up stuff, just to loosen her up and to remind her that she should be "listening" when we're out there.  I do see improvement, I think it will just take a little while for us to really "get together" as they say.  I'm certainly not the level of handler that Maria is, so I'm sure Rhyme is still trying to figure out what the heck I'm asking for sometimes!  (then again, I often wonder that myself...)

Rhyme and I will run in our first official trial together at Sherry Smith's next month.  I'm pretty darn nervous about it, but I'll never get past that feeling if I don't start somewhere, so at least I'll have lots of friends at this trial.  That makes it a wee bit easier I think.

There will be no trialing in 2009 for me and Binx...just the Fun Trial at the end of October.  Other than that, we'll keep working on our foundations and confidence and hope to see the trial field in the spring.

Training Update with Binx and Rhyme

Binx and I are still practicing the exercises we were given a couple weeks ago. We trained in the rain this past Saturday morning and his distance was so much deeper than usual that I was afraid to work him again after that...I just wanted to stop while it was so good!!  We'll keep practicing this week and have another lesson scheduled for Saturday afternoon to see if we're moving in the right direction.

I also had a "trial lesson" with Rhyme last week.  I am planning to run her in Pro Novice at Mary Brighoff's fun trial in October, and since I have never trialed before..I thought it would be a good idea to do an overview with Nancy before I go.  Rhyme is already trained through Open...so obviously this was a lesson for me more so than Rhyme.  Anyway, I am quickly learning that "handling" is much harder than it looks!  I am just terrible at lines - really.  I suppose practice is the only thing to help that, but it is very frustrating for me.  The other problem I am having is that Rhyme doesn't always take the first command.  Combine that with the fact that I am a novice handler, one whose brain doesn't always register what I need to do until a couple of seconds too late, and I don't have any more "seconds" to re-flank her or tell her to stop more than once.  So....we are doing some close up work, similar to what I do with Binx, so that I am in closer and can reinforce the stop as an "immediate stop" and also make sure she doesn't think it's ok to continue to creep forward after I've asked her to stop :-)... I'm sure she knows that I need help and she is trying to bail me out! I wish she could teach Binx how to square his flanks...hers are beautiful!

That's where we are for now...still trudging along and getting more humble every day.

Puppy "Tuck"!

The Ben/Grace pups are now 7 1/2 months old and showing signs that they are ready to be sheepdogs!

I swapped out puppy Huck in exchange for Puppy "Tuck" with Nancy O on Monday evening.  Huck is now ready to start some light training and Tuck is still sniffing and showing signs that he's not quite ready to work just yet.  So Huck went to live with Nancy O, who will be training him up. As long as Sarah doesn't mind, Tuck will hang out with me for a bit and learn about the world until he is ready to start working.

Tuck is a sweet boy.  He has only been with me for 2 days now, but he has been friendly and playful with the other household dogs, he is eager to learn new things and redirects his behavior with a mild verbal correction when needed.

I'll post his picture as soon as I make time to do a photo shoot!

We've been SKUNKED!!

Ugh...PEEE-UUUU!!

Me and the dogs were outside early Thursday morning when I saw them start running the back fence line.  It was only 5:30, so it was still dark - but I saw a small black shadow moving with them.  I thought it must be the groundhog that lives at the back of our property - on the outside of our fence.  I ran down and yelled to call off the dogs.  The adults came running, but of course Puppy Huck had to continue investigating....then all of a sudden he came running right at me!  At first I thought, "wow, that recall training is really coming along!"  But then I smelled it...BLECH!  We ran to the front of the house to get away from the smell and I suddenly felt like I was caught up in a Chevy Chase movie...I turned around and the dang skunk was RIGHT THERE - no kidding - he was maybe 10 feet away from me.  Then I started wondering if the thing was rabid or something and I think I spooked it AGAIN!  ARGHH!!  I hurried and latched a leash on Huck and swung open the gate and called the others to come too.  They wasted no time getting away from the skunk this time.

Needless to say, my house absolutely reeked!  It was nausiating.  I couldn't tell who was sprayed or not becuase the whole room smelled.

I had not yet showered and was supposed to leave for work in less than an hour.  So I crated Huck and hopped in the shower.  As I'm standing there letting the stress and chaos rinse away, I start to smell the skunk again.  I peeked around the curtain to see Binx lying on my towel...I could almost see the cartoon-like stream of smoke emitting from him.  "GET...GET...Go on now - Get Out!"  He looked at me cluelessly and moseyed on out of the bathroom.

Well now I just had to get on with my day and deal with the stinky dogs later.  Huck got it the worst...he got sprayed in the face and the body, whereas Binx just got it in the rear...as he was running away I suppose.  Rhyme did not get sprayed!  Maybe this wasn't her first skunk and she was wiser than the others?

I stopped at the drug store on my way home to pick up the "Skunk Remedy Recipe" supplies.  Peroxide, Baking Soda, and liquid soap.  It works like a charm!  Granted, I too was soaked by the time I bathed Huck...but it took the smell away immediately!

I'm still not sure what made the skunk crawl under our fence and INTO our yard with me and 3 border collies...I find that rather odd.  I am much more aware of our surroundings when we go out in the early morning now, that's for sure!

Clinics and Trials Oh My!

I have registered myself and Rhyme for a working spot in Cheryl Jagger's Judging/Trialing clinic in Hop Bottom this October.  I'm hoping it will help get me off to a better start, especially since I've never trialed before and have many questions and unknowns.


Also....we are going to run in our first trial this October...at Mary Brighoff's Fun Trial in Montrose, PA.  I had originally thought I would just enter with Rhyme in Pro Novice, but my instructor thinks I should also enter N/N with Binx since it's just a Fun Trial.  I'm not so sure about that, but we'll see how much progress we make in our training between now and October 17th.

Training Update

It's been a while since my last post...I've been kinda busy since I have sheep to train with regularly ;-)

My young dog Binx is coming along nicely.  We had a lesson about a week ago and Nancy says "he looks good".  He is coming in a bit tight at about 2:00 on his outruns.  I'm working on that by stopping him at about 3 o'clock, walking in toward the sheep and then giving him a "GET" to push him out.  I'm also doing some circle work to get more distance (though he is not too bad for his stage of training) and some flanking exercises to help square them up a bit better.  He seems to be taking well to the little driving that we have worked on.  Overall, I'm very pleased with him. I really lucked out with this dog...I adopted him from rescue before I knew I would like stockwork.  He is turning out to be a wonderful first dog for me...he's so very biddable, yet he never quits on me!

Rhyme and I are still getting together (I just got Rhyme 3 months ago.  She is trained through and has placed in Open and even ran at the World Trial in 2008....on the other hand, I am still learning how to "handle" an Open dog, and she's learning about my novice voice and lack of handling or whistling ability!)  She is teaching me a lot about sheep and now about trialing.  I have been working her very loosely when we train...just doing flank work and circle work and driving...she has to be reminded that Stop means STOP...not just slow down.  She can get "lost in her sheep" when she gets far away from me, so I do the foundation exercises close up to reinforce that she needs to listen for me.  This seems to be working really well for us so far.

A place for Sheep-Sheep-Sheep

I am very excited that I now have a regular place to train....whenever I want! This is huge for me...imagine how much more I can get accomplished (or possibly how much more I can screw up!) in our training now that I have a place to practice what I learn at lessons!

My friend Fran Sharon was kind enough to invite me to partner with her on some land that she found to lease. She wanted to expand her flock and heard that I was also looking for a place to rent/lease. So we have went in on the lease as partners. The sheep belong to Fran and we share the cost and chores.

There is a barn and great fencing already in place. Actually, it is fenced in a way that we could train at the same time if we wanted - there are 2 pastures, plus a smaller one that would be great for a young dog.

I'm very excited about having a place to train on a regular basis - I think my dogs are liking it too ;-)

So....where do you think the sheep are? ;-)