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.

Whidbey Island Classic

After a couple of days of rain and clouds, the sun finally made an appearance Monday morning as I left our campsite in South Whidbey Island State Park. I was too late for the handler's meeting anyway, so I stopped for espresso at a drive through stand and ordered banana bread, which turned out to be moldy.

Can I blame this for what happened? Fungal poisoning? 

Well, our Pro-Novice run was undermined by a major handler error.

But first, the good part. Rodeo did very well on his outrun. The sheep were set out about 250 yards away, in a field that sloped gradually upward from left to right, culminating in a grassy knoll. The setout pen was behind that knoll, well out of my sight.

Sending Rodeo on an away flank would have put him into the pressure from the setout pen and made for a simpler lift, but I was concerned that he would lose sight of the sheep due to the terrain, and he has had problems recently with longer outruns. So I sent him left, to the lower slope, where the sheep wouldn’t leave his sight. That was also the direction of the exhaust, so it also eliminated the chance of a crossover.

He took off at a good pace, but his attention was quickly drawn by the exhaust and he started to turn that direction. At this point our training in the aftermath of the Rocky Ewe trial in April paid off. I yelled “No!” and he immediately turned his attention upfield and continued a nice outrun.

He hesitated a couple of times, and I encouraged him until he made it to the top. There he hesitated a bit and didn’t completely cover them, so when he completed the lift the sheep drifted off in the direction of the setout pen. Off they trotted, over that grass knoll, and Rodeo followed out of my sight.

And just like that, I was out of the picture. There was absolutely nothing to do but wait to see what happened. I figured I’d give it a minute or two and then walk down the field and over the knoll to help him.

My internal clock ticked the seconds away. I put my hands behind my back, trying to look nonchalant. Tick tock, tick tock. 

That’s when the highlight happened. Within 20 or 30 seconds, the sheep reappeared over the knoll, moving at a nice trot, with Rodeo behind them in tight control. No zigging or zagging, just a nice trot towards me. He took my flanking commands, and we made our fetch panels.

He brought them to me and I started the right hand turn around the post, and that’s where it fell apart. Maybe I was starting to feel too good about his performance out there beyond the knoll. Or maybe it was the mold in the banana bread – whatever it was, I blew it.

“Come by!” I commanded, and Rodeo went the wrong way. “No! Come by” I repeated, and he kept blowing me off, taking the wrong flank while the sheep began to drift towards the exhaust. What is his problem? I wondered. He’s not doing what I tell him. He’s going to his left instead of…

Oh, snap.

“Away! Away! Away!”

I'd confused my flanking commands, giving him one when I meant the other.

It was too late. The sheep were on the move towards the exhaust. Rodeo took off after them but they made it to the corner of the fence line and he couldn’t pull them off, so I walked out to help him and we retired.

Sigh.

You always learn something at trials. I learned that Rodeo has improved on his outrun and fetch, though because of my error we never got to see how he would do on the drive.

Most of all, I learned that I still have a heck of a lot to learn.

Promise and Tragedy

Again this week I brought Bonny along for our training session. We worked a bit on Rodeo’s outrun, and he still has a tendency to wait on me. Brian told me, as he often has, that Rodeo is waiting on me because when he becomes hesitant I tend to repeat the command rather than correct or encourage him, as the situation demands. This is probably our central challenge right now, and it’s up to me to overcome it.

But the real highlight of the lesson was Bonny’s first time on sheep. She’s young yet, just 3 1/2 months, but we decided to turn her loose in the round pen and see what she would do. I had little doubt that she’d be keen based on her intense interest in the sheep, and she didn’t disappoint. She raced into the fray, singling out one sheep and hounding it around the pen, then turning her attention to the others. She didn’t have much of an idea of what to do, but she sure knew she wanted to do something. Bonny was also fearless. One sheep stood its ground and stamped its feet, and she didn’t back down.

Just as Bonny took her first steps in awakening to her heritage, I found out later in the day that her sire, Skipp, journeyed to that other pasture this morning. Sonya isn’t sure what happened, but he fell ill suddenly. I know she’s heartbroken and I am very sad that we won’t ever get to see him again.

Ivy and I took care of Skipp a couple of times and he was a joy to have around. It was a big reason why we decided to adopt Bonny, because he was such a nice dog. And a camera hound:

Skipp with Ivy and Rodeo

Bonny resembles Skipp quite closely. At her first visit to our vet, who also saw Skipp, the receptionist commented on the resemblance:

Bonny

Skipp

Life is certainly a circle, and Bonny’s journey begins as Skipp’s ends. 

A new addition

After months of deliberation and soul-searching, we finally decided it was time to bring another dog into our household. We have a small house and two cats, so we knew it would be a tight fit.

But in the end we were persuaded by a rare opportunity: a litter of puppies whose parentage we're very familiar with, and who are quite well-bred. On the one side is Skip, who belonged to our original trainer, Dirk Vansant who is now living and training in Belgium. Dirk was high on Skip as a potential trial dog but a farm accident sent him to an early retirement. We hosted him a couple of times after corrective surgeries and he was a real pleasure to have around. His roots trace to a number of fine dogs in Europe.

On the other side is Sookie, owned by my friend Andy Hummell. She came from Laura Vishoot and traces her lines to dogs from Jack Knox, Patrick Shannahan, and Bruce Fogt, among others. Sookie is also a very nice dog who is very friendly.

Our pup is Bonny, a tri-color female who has been with us for a week.

The cats, predictably, have mixed feelings. Our 12-year old Scottie doesn't like her much, but six-month old Ezzio is quite fascinated and happy to chase her and be chased by her. All of this runs in Scottie's favor as it distracts Ezzio from tormenting him.

Rodeo seems to be accepting her, after some initial trepidation. He's not real happy when I close the door of a room to do some private training, but he likes to play with her in the dog run.

Today I brought her along for our weekly training session with Brian. Our friend Judy was there to have her dog Wilson evaluated, so she was available to hold on to Bonny while I trained with Rodeo. Part way through the lesson, Brian used his dog Belle to set the sheep for Rodeo to do an outrun, and the two dogs watched the action together:

I think they'll get along just fine.

Rocky Ewe pics

A couple of weeks ago at the Rocky Ewe trial, Diane Pagel asked me to spend a couple of hours with her 4-month old pup Reba, who is out of Scot Glen's Don and Diane's Lucy, to help socialize her. As you can see in the picture below, Reba is almost a mirror image of Rodeo.

Diane was kind enough to take some pictures of us. And now I know why Diane has such great shots on her website. I chose a spot for a picture and she said, "no, no, over there by the road." So I dutifully moved, and the background really enhances these pictures. Thanks, Diane!

blinding outruns

The past two weeks we focused on the blind outrun. Last week was spent almost entirely on a length setout, perhaps 200 yards, with Rodeo and I beginning close to the round pen, which held 3 or 4 sheep.

I sent him on an away flank that would force him past the round pen, and he would have to look up field until he saw the sheep I was interested in.

It was a struggle, to say the least.

At first Rodeo couldn't get past the round pen, running to the fence and staring at the sheep. After some corrections I finally got him to understand that I wanted him to continue down field, but he would only go about 50 yards before stopping and looking back at the round pen.

"No! No!" I yelled, trying to time my correction for the moment that he stopped and turned to look at the sheep in the round pen.

Then I tried a command: "Look back!" But it didn't do much good. Sometimes he would turn his head and look down field, but he didn't find the sheep until I marched down field and directed him further in the direction I wanted him to go.

At the end of the session, Brian asked: "How many times did you send him down the field?"

"At least ten."

"And how many times did he stop and look back towards the round pen?"

"At least ten."

It's safe to say that we've got a lot more work to do.

This week we did some more work with the same exercise, and he showed improvement. He still fixated on the round pen at first, but with corrections he pretty quickly turned and ran down the field until he caught sight of the sheep. At first he would go at them without thinking much, so his outrun was terrible, but I was just glad he found them. As time went by, though, he started to flare out better when he saw the sheep so that the lift and fetch weren't too bad.

Near the end of the session, after a correction away from the round pen, he actually turned and started to look down the field for sheep. That's an important step that hopefully shows he's beginning to understand what we're after.

"I think you'll be able to redirect him at a trial if he goes after the exhaust," Brian declared after this week's session. That could be important on a lot of Pro-Novice courses where the sheep setout can be as far as 300 yards or more. Ultimately Rodeo has to trust me when I send him for sheep, but in the meantime, even a redirect will allow us a chance to finish the outrun and hopefully an opportunity to finish the course.