Me, Binx, and the Sheep (lessons to date)

Like I said, Binx started it all for me. He is my first border collie. (Granted, I fostered more than 15 in the year before I committed to him - but he was the first that was MINE).

I was incredibly fortunate in that I had a lot of experienced sheep people to guide me from the very beginning. Nancy Obernier came highly recommended to me as a trainer - it turned out she was only 20 minutes from my house, so I contacted her right away to start lessons.

I started bringing Binx to Nancy when he was about 7 months - we tried to go once a week on most weeks (unless she was trialing or the weather did not permit). I did not go into the round pen with him for months!...I had (and still have a wee bit) a fear of getting hurt by the sheep. In hind sight, Binx was not wild (not like some I have since seen!) - it was really just me and that I had met so many experienced handlers that have been injured - I was just deathly afraid that my young dog would do something out of stress to spook the sheep, who would in turn trample me - or er something like that.

My first time working my own dog in the pen was at a Kathy Knox clinic that December...Binx was now a year old and was going around but didn't always cover and still sometimes cut in too close, thus stressing himself and would grip wool, etc. Really just young dog stuff, but seemed like a lot at the time for this green handler!

Even though or maybe especially because of my anxiety, Binx was just the perfect "first dog for me" - Kathy had even commented as such. He is even tempered and biddable enough to let me think when we are training, yet he can take a correction and he never quits on me.

December of 2008 was a big turning point for me, as I could now start learning how to train my own dog. The lessons were now more focused on me - Nancy worked on helping me understand where I needed to be and how I needed to move in order to help my dog. This was when the "addiction" really set in.

I really don't know how to explain the feeling to someone who has never experienced stockwork with their dog. Being well aware that this sounds really corny, but for me, it's like being a part of something natural, yet it is so much bigger than anything that obedience trials or the agility sport could ever offer.  Just being out there with the sheep and my dog...being a factor in that prey/predator relationship...it's very-very cool. The relationship that develops between dog and handler is like no other I have known or witnessed...no, not even daily walks with steak dinners could replace the loyality that a border collie has for his owner when they have a working partnership!  I guess too, I like that my dog has so much faith in me, that he allows me to help him, that he yields to my direction (uhm, usually), even though everything in his being may be telling him to go the other way or not to "walk in", etc. (especially since he really does know sheep better than I do!)
Well, like I said, it's pretty corny - but that makes it no less addictive.

I also started to learn some new things about myself...I never realized how difficult it is to maintain control of your voice when you're freaking out inside! :-O Dog is running full speed into the flock, mouth is open - I STILL fight the urge to scream high like a little girl when I really just need a calm and growly correction and then move off to release the pressure, and keep working calmly as to not add to the dog's excitement and stress. Sigh....Will I EVER get there?

Binx and I went to our 2nd Kathy clinic in April 2009. I was still working in the round pen about once or twice a week - still didn't have regular access to sheep but made valiant efforts whenever the opportunity was available. We were happy when Kathy said we were progressing nicely and she liked what we were doing . Kathy is just really cool like that though...she is great at boosting your confidence.

This was about the time I began toying with the idea of getting an Open level dog to help bring me along. Actually, it was first suggested by Sarah while I was at the clinic....the more I thought about it, and spoke with others who had began with trained dogs, the more I agreed that it was time. At this point I couldn't even rent sheep from someone unless they sorted and set the round pen up for me - I didn't have a dog that I could sort with, etc.  And so the search began.