"That's why this is so addicting..."

This week was a little bit back to reality. I’d been getting a little full of myself, pleased with my newfound confidence and assertiveness, but this week’s lesson was something of a struggle.

Rodeo was fine. He was keen as could be, and yipped in the backseat of the car as we turned on to 3^rd Avenue towards the field where we train. He was ready to go.

In the field, he drove really well and took flanking commands, so that we were able to pretty consistently hit targets when driving the sheep. If this holds up, we should have a reasonable chance to make it around the course this weekend at Rocky Ewe. We’re entered in Ranch and Pro-Novice, both of which have a driving component.

But I wanted to work on Rodeo’s driving under pressure. Similar to last week, we set 3 sheep in the round pen and left the rest out in the field to create a draw (once released, the sheep from the round pen would want to seek safety in numbers with the sheep out in the field). Brian instructed me to send Rodeo into the pen to get them out, then send him to return them to me and do a right hand drive.

It sounded simple enough, and we’ve managed it before. But when the sheep came out of the round pen gate and Rodeo followed, I laid him down. The sheep were already at a fast trot so that by the time I sent him again, they were already well on their way to joining their compatriots and Rodeo was unable to catch up to them.

Brian had us “gate sort” 3 more sheep into the round pen, and then had us repeat the exercise. The result was exactly the same.

“Why did he lose them?” Brian asked.

I thought for a moment. “Because I laid him down.”

“Right. And what did that accomplish?”

… “Nothing,” I said sheepishly.

“Worse than nothing. Why?”

… “Because I laid him down and it took them out of his control, and then he got frantic.”

“Right. So why did you do it?”

I explained that I thought I should give the sheep a running start. I was thinking in terms of setting up a scenario that would challenge Rodeo. But the sheep were running and the other sheep were only 100 or so yards away, so I should have reacted to the situation at hand and realized that there was no time to stop him.

“The sheep tell you what to do,” Brian said, and I finally understood what he meant.

So the next time we did the exercise, and the sheep took off at a fast trot, I sent Rodeo right away. He looped around quickly and brought them back to me, and I attempted to have him drive them around me and then begin a right hand drive. But the gate to the round pen was still open and under pressure from Rodeo, they went right back in.

So I brought them out and tried again, and once again sent Rodeo right away and he brought them back to me. I tried again to get Rodeo to bring them around me, but the sheep split in a single and a set of two, and neither of us was quite sure what to do. “Look back! Look back!” I shouted to Rodeo, but he was too fixated on the sheep in front of him. Still, he was sufficiently distracted by the commands that he lost control of them and they beat him to join up with the other sheep in the field.

We tried several more times and failed repeatedly. For today, at least, this task was just beyond our ability.

I said as much to Brian and he nodded. “You just need more mileage. You need experience to react quickly to different situations. There are so many subtleties that you have to learn to react to. That’s why this is so addicting.”

Highland Games trial entered!

Today I sent off our registration for the Mt. Vernon Highland Sheepdog Trial July 9-10. This is a special trial for me, as I've been attending the Highland Games and watching the sheepdog trials since before we ever adopted Rodeo. So I've been looking forward to competing in it.

Also, many of our friends who know and love Rodeo will be there, and it'll be the rare chance for them to watch him compete.

Driving Under Pressure

I entered us into the Rocky Ewe trial April 16-17 in Yelm, Washington. This will be interesting as it was the site of our last trial back in September, which came in the midst of some of our worst struggles in training. Rodeo was just beginning to learn to drive and I believe in retrospect he got quite confused due largely to my inexperience. In addition to our weekly sessions with Brian, I was training him on my own and he became very hesitant and uncertain, probably because of mixed signals and too many commands from me.

He has progressed a lot since then, and I think I have, too, so it’ll be a really good test of how far we’ve come. There are two separate trials, one on Saturday judged by Bonnie Block, and the other on Sunday, judged by (gulp) Brian. That oughta be interesting. We’re scheduled for runs in Ranch and Pro-Novice each day.

When we arrived, Jenny was finishing up her lesson. She’s been working with her dog Elsa for quite some time and made really impressive progress. A couple of weeks ago she bought a 1 ½ year dog named Jean, who has quite a good look about her. She and Brian were chit-chatting when we arrived, so I asked for a demonstration, and she cast out nicely on a short outrun. She also showed a tremendous amount of power, later inciting movement in sheep 50 yards away when she started towards them.

After Jennie left, we worked on Rodeo’s driving. Brian had me go into the round pen and do short cross-drives across the pen, and Rodeo did quite well. He has really crisped up his driving, moving right into the sheep when given a ‘right there’ command. He also continues to take his flanks pretty well, though he is hesitant to take them during a fetch.

After working in the round pen, Brian decided to try him on running sheep. He had us put one group of sheep in the field and the other in the round pen, then directed us to stand a little way from the round pen while he opened the gate. Once they started to trot towads the others, our task was to gather them to me and then reverse course and drive them back down the middle of the field, between the round pen and the sheep in the field, towards a group of feeders lining the fence on the far side of the field. The drive would be a challenge because the other packet of sheep would create a strong draw to the left as Rodeo attempted to drive the sheep.

Rodeo gathered them well, but predictably, they drifted to the left when Rodeo drove them away from me. I gave him a come by flank to turn them, but he panicked a little and cut in too close, turning their heads all the way back towards me. I tried to flank him back around but the pressure was too much for him and the sheep escaped to join the others.

We tried the exercise again, and this time Rodeo got them half way to the feeders, before they again began to drift and once again he sliced in too hard and sent them astray. This seems like a particularly good exercise to try again.

Something like this is likely to occur at the trial. I witnessed it during the drive at previous trials, where Rodeo would start out a drive well but the next thing I knew they had turned 180 degrees and were headed the other way. I was too inexperienced to see the cause, but I suspect it was him slicing in on them in an attempt to cover and turning their heads all the way around.

I’ll look for it at the trial, and if the sheep start to drift towards pressure during the drive, I’ll try lying him down and giving him a moment to think before I give him a flank command. That works on outruns when he’s coming in too tight – he gets up and  casts out further. Perhaps it will work on a drive. 

Puppies!

Over the weekend we went to visit Andy and his dog Sookie, and her 6 week old puppies. Sookie is a black and white smooth coat with a very nice disposition. The sire is Skip, also a dog with a nice disposition, who is a short-haired tricolor who comes from Dirk, our former trainer who is now in Belgium and headed to the World Finals to compete on the Belgium national team. There are 5 puppies total, 3 tricolors and 2 black and white.

Hoof trimming

Last week I volunteered to help Sonya trim her sheep’s hooves and vaccinate the lambs against a cold sore-like virus.

It was a sunny but chilly spring day when we arrived at about 5:30 pm. Sonya had me send Rodeo into the main area of the barn and drive the sheep into a holding pen near the front of the barn. Rodeo didn’t want to take a come by flank that would have put him behind them. He knew the sheep would rush past me and into the corridor leading to the barn door. But that’s where the holding pen was, so it had to be. After a couple of corrections, he took the flank and flushed the sheep out.

Once the sheep were in the holding pen, Sonya instructed me on how to flip a ewe on to her back: Wrap your around her neck and use your shoulder to pin her head to her side so that it was facing her rear end. Then grasp the flap of the skin between the hind leg and her haunch, and use it as leverage to flip her over. I managed it once but never quite got the hang of it.

Sonya did most of the hoof trimming because I was pretty incompetent, despite my best efforts. I was too tentative in trimming away the frayed, flaking parts of the hoof to expose the slate gray growth below. Sonya made it look simple but there is definitely an art that I failed to master. After each ewe was finished, Sonya guided her to the gate of the enclosure and let her out into the main area of the barn.

I was nervous about trimming too much and hurting the sheep, but it was evident from watching Sonya that there was more leeway than I realized.

I watched Sonya do it and I thought I could see the pattern of prying up the overgrown edges of the hooves before trimming them away, and then working the trimmer around until all the edges were cut away. After each ewe was finished, Sonya guided her to the gate of the enclosure and let her out into the main area of the barn. But when it was my turn, I found it remarkably difficult to see what I was doing while hunched over a sheep on its back, wedging its neck between my knees.

After 2 or 3 attempts, I was sure my lower back would never straighten again. Sonya took over and I gratefully handed the trimmers over to her.

When she was finished with the ewes, we started in on the vaccinations. Sonya mixed a syringe full of the live vaccine, but we didn’t inject it. Instead one of us held the lamb down while the other scraped the skin in its armpit, just enough to cause an abrasion, then applied a few drops of vaccine and rubbed in with a stiff bristle brush on the other end of the scraper tool. Sonya also docked the tails of a couple of the female lambs.

I nearly made it through unscathed, but the last lamb we vaccinated decided it had had enough and kicked while I was scraping its skin. It caught me in the mouth, giving me a fat lip and sending the syringe flying. I retrieved it and we finished the job, sending the rest of the lambs out into the barn to join the ewes.

The whole procedure took about an hour and a half, and I was thoroughly exhausted when it was over. Predictably, the next morning I was sore in parts of my body whose existence I hadn’t previously suspected. 

I just wanted to share this amazing oil painting of Rodeo created by an extremely talented artist here in Bellingham, Ingrid Tostrup.

She really captured Rodeo's personality and verve, and created a lovely composition.

If anyone is interested, Ingrid is available to work on commission. She can work from photographs and will work with you to create a composition you like. If interested, email me at jkling at gmail dot com.

Suspect handling

The day did not start out promising. On the road from Bellingham to Arlington, we drove through driving sleet and rain. It looked to be a miserable training session, but the sun briefly appeared around Burlington and on the field it turned out to be cold and overcast.

Jennie, another of Brian’s students, was finishing up with her dog Elsa when I arrived. Elsa has come a long way since Jennie had to use an air horn to get her attention. She was working with calm and confidence when we walked through the gate to join them.

We did some outrun work, with Jennie and Elsa holding the sheep for me and Rodeo and us returning the favor. I was tentative to the point of being passive, and Brian yelled out in mild exasperation: “Start handling him! You’re wasting your money if you don’t handle him!”