Anyone can be an ethical breeder. It's so easy!

Hey, look! I'm an ethical breeder!

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Only, I don't breed dogs. All I had to do was go to this web site, put in a few details, and bing! I got this fancy html code to paste into my web site.

Just how awful and cynical do you have to be to put up something like this? I don't know. You'll just have to ask the people at TrainPetDog.com who created it.

Mt. Vernon Highland Games video

My friend Aaron took this video of our first run on Saturday afternoon. Thanks, Aaron!

In which Bonny inadvertently distinguishes herself

At the end of the lesson today, I prepared to move Bonny and Rodeo off the field and into the car, but she lunged at the sheep moving nearby and yanked the leash out of my hands.

Suddenly, it was no more round pen training for Bonny, it was the big field! Ten or so sheep bolted towards the far end of the field and she raced after them, dragging the leash behind her. I followed feebly, expecting that I’d have to wait until she tired herself out because she sure wasn’t responding to my repeated calls.

Then I thought to send Rodeo as well to bring the sheep back to me, thinking that she would follow and I'd have a chance to grab her when she came close. He made is way out there and the sheep came back to me on a pretty good line, and Bonny trotted along behind them along with Rodeo. The sheep moved past me and I prepared to leap at Bonny to grab her leash. But she stopped and allowed me to walk up and take it.

She’d just completed her first open field fetch.

Good girl, Bonny.

Mt. Vernon Highland Games trial

Day 1

Saturday was the big day. I’ve been anticipating for this trial since I first began driving to Dirk’s place for weekly training sessions three years ago. It’s the Mount Vernon Highland Games, and we’ve been going faithfully since we adopted Rodeo. The past three years he has been a spectator, staring raptly at the sheep from the sidelines.  

Many of our friends also come to the games, and I knew they’d enjoy seeing him compete, so this was a high-pressure environment for me, and I knew I had to find a way to relax.

Competition was set to begin at 2 pm on Saturday, and in an effort to calm my nerves a bit I drove with Ivy and the dogs to our training field in the morning to get some time in the round pen. Rodeo performed just as well as in our last practice session, taking his flanks and downs, and walking up confidently into the sheep

We only stayed 15 minutes or so and then got back into the car to drive to the games. On the road I said to Ivy, “The way he’s working, a top handler would win this trial with him. With me handling him, I have no idea.”

We drew a late run, 25^th out of 30, and as we stood in the on-deck circle, my friend Aaron, who was preparing to video tape our run (thanks, Aaron!), asked me what I thought about while preparing for a run. Aaron is a first-rate Frisbee handler. He and his wife Jennie have a new dog Jeannie that they’ve only had for a few months. She hadn’t done Frisbee before they got her, and he has already won competitions with her.

“I just remind myself that it doesn’t mean anything,” I said. “Any individual run, good or bad, is meaningless. It’s what we do over time that counts."

I can’t say it calmed my nerves much, because I still felt that I could have pitched over any second when I walked out onto the dusty infield of the baseball diamond where the handler’s post was situated. But as always, once the sheep were loose, my nervousness evaporated as I focused on the task at hand.

We stood at one end of a rectangle about a hundred yards deep and perhaps 50 yards wide. Four sheep were set out to our left, moving away from us towards the exhaust gate at the far left corner of the field. As they had in previous runs, they went straight to the exhaust and stood there for the dog to pick them up.

The first obstacle was between a panel and the far fence. It seemed like it would be simple enough to keep them moving in the same direction, along the fence clockwise, until they passed the line. The sheep were somewhat dog broke, and perhaps that’s why they tended to ricochet and move back towards the handler, on the inside of the panel. Handlers then had to regroup and move the sheep back into position to try the obstacle again.

The trick was for the dog not to put too much pressure on them when they huddled at the exhaust, so that they would leave calmly and not try to beat him to come back towards me. I gave Rodeo a lie down and walked him up gently when they started to move, and he kept contact with them and made the first obstacle.

The second obstacle was a wraparound in a clockwise direction and another turn, and was pretty easily accomplished since it was just broad, directional movement. Then came a turn around the post and another push between a panel and the fence to our right. The next step was a quick turn followed by a chute that simulated a bridge crossing a stream.

After the turn around the post, the handler could leave the post to help, so I moved to the entrance of the chute. After coming around the panel, the sheep were headed in the direction of the exhaust and it was pretty much impossible to stop them. I tried waving my crook at them but finally gave up and let them go. Rodeo gathered them up and brought them in on one side of the chute opening while I stood at the other, using my crook to cover that side. He gently pushed them in and through the chute without a lot of fuss.

The next was obstacle was an easy turn, and then came the pen. Rodeo brought them up perfectly and walked them in, with a lot of stamping and flailing about with the crook on my part. But the sheep stayed nicely in line and moved into the pen. We got all our points, with a time of 4:40 out of an allotted 5 minutes. As it turned out, we were one of 8 teams out of 30 that got a full score of 28 on the first day, and the time tie-breaker put us tied for 6^th place.

Day 2

In the second flight, we were up 13^th. The course was quite similar, but slightly shortened so that there was a maximum of only 24 points, but it ended with the pen like the previous day.

There was no drive, instead we began with a gather and then straight into the turn around the post.

We immediately had a problem. Rodeo cast out quite wide on his outrun, but for some reason he busted the sheep a little bit and caused a split. 3 of the sheep headed to the exhaust while the other remained near us. I gave Rodeo a down and waited patiently, hoping that the lone sheep would join its buddies.

It soon did and I sent Rodeo back to the exhaust, where we began again. We made the turn and then headed to the chute, and with some challenges we got the sheep through and made it to the pen, where we timed out, for 20 points out of 24.

After our run I spent some time watching other runs, and a bit of time wandering around the rest of the games. I wasn’t sure if we’d make it to the final round or not, but had I re-checked the scores from Saturday I would have known I was safe. Only 3 other teams were within 4 points of us, so even if all 3 got full points on their second run and beat us with a tiebreaker, the worst we could have finished was tenth. As it happened, we came in 7^th in the combined totals.

The final round began at 2, and we were up first. Well, no time to get nervous.

The course was a bit different this time. Back to the left hand drive through to the gap between the top panel and fence, but this time it continued around the fence line, down the right hand side of the field until the sheep went through the gap between the pen and the fence, about halfway down the field to our right hand side. Then the sheep were to cross to the left in front of the handler, loop back behind the handler’s post to the right, and back through the chute, one more turn, and the pen.

Rodeo did a great job lifting them off the exhaust. I laid him down when they moved away from the exhaust gate and then walked him up to push them parallel to the fence line and through the first obstacle at the top. I was ready with an ‘away’ flank if they started back towards me, there were no problems. The sheep turned at the far right corner and began moving at a nice trot down the field towards me, in just the trajectory I wanted, so I downed him and let them move themselves though the second obstacle between the gate and the fence. We completed the rest of the course without too much trouble, but were foiled once again at the pen and timed out.

24 points out of 28, which turned out to be good for 7^th place overall and our first time in the money.

I was very pleased with the weekend, not just how we placed, but particularly how consistently we performed. 

Preparing for the Highland Games

Last week we spent most of the session in the round pen and a single sheep, in preparation for the upcoming Mt. Vernon Highland Games trial. Brian set up several obstacles in the round pen, but Rodeo had a lot of trouble to begin with. He took his flanks but did not want to walk up on the sheep.

He would move forward hesitantly but failed to take control of the sheep, so it would drift and I’d have to give him a flanking command to turn its head back in the direction I wanted it. But the same thing would happen: Rodeo would hesitate and lose contact with it again.

In frustration I called him off and Brian and I talked about it. “You need to communicate with him,” Brian said, and I knew he was right, but I just couldn’t work out how to do it. Corrections didn’t help.

I said as much to Brian, and he said:“It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you get the desired effect. The dog will tell you if you’re right.”

So we tried it again, and the same thing happened, until in frustration I finally said “Come on! Get up! Get up!”

And lo and behold, he got up. He leapt to his feet and pushed into the sheep, in fact a little too hard. “Steady!” I called, and he hitched, and suddenly he was working the sheep beautifully. And there was a bounce in his step.

Soon after that, we set up a miniature course with 5 obstacles in the round pen in an effort to simulate what we might see at the trial, and Rodeo made all 5. In addition to giving him a ‘get up’ command to encourage him on the drive, I had to lay him down often and allow the sheep to drift and settle, so that I could see which way its head would turn. That would be important in the trial because it’s a small arena, and it would be easy to lose the sheep to the exhaust or the setout pen, where it would be challenging and time-wasting to pull them back off. By downing him and waiting for the sheep to settle, we'd have much better control.

After the lesson, I stayed around to work on some driving, and I used the ‘get up’ command to help him, and I could see his confidence building. We did some cross drives and he walked into them confidently.

I also noticed that he became less hesitant on his outruns – he wasn’t stopping and looking at me. I suspect that he was hesitant about driving and that was affecting everything else. When I bolstered his confidence by communicating with him more, it spilled over into the outrun as well.

Good News for Washington Wildlife

Last week a photo of a grizzly in the North Cascades.

This week confirmation of a fourth Washington wolf pack, about 90 miles east of Seattle.

Later this month we're going to Yellowstone, in part to see the wolves, grizzlies, and other wildlife. It's nice to know that some of it is returning to us.