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.

Extending the Drive

One of the first things Brian said when I arrived was, “I never said he was a Pro-Novice dog. I said he could handle Pro-Novice in some trials.”

The distinction was lost on me, so I asked, “What’s holding him back? The length of the outrun?”

“No, the drive.”

So we focused on extending Rodeo’s drive a bit. Brian had us do a short gather and then turn the sheep and drive them out to “The idol,” which is a small rock pile about 50 yards from where we stood. Rodeo took his drive commands and did pretty well, but when I asked for an inside flank, he just looked at me.

I tried a “hey!” correction, several in fact, but he still wouldn’t take the command.

“He’s blowing you off,” said Brian. “You need to make him take the flank.”

So we tried again, with the same results.

“Call him off,” Brian said, and looked thoughtful for a moment.

“I’m changing my mind. I think you need to help him.”

I looked out and realized that Brian was probably right. Behind us there were sheep still in the round pen, and I realized that the close proximity of the two groups of sheep might have been confusing him. I also knew from the Rocky Ewe trial that we need to work more on communicating to him the direction of the sheep that I want him to take. By helping him, I could reinforce that aspect of his training. 

"He's a Pro-Novice Dog Now"

When I arrived at this week’s lesson, the ribbing began immediately. “Here comes the hero!” said Brian as I arrived. Later it was, “Now that you’re a big hat, I guess you’ll be giving us lessons,” and so on. Admittedly, there are worse things to be teased about. 

Jennie was out working with her new dog Jean, who was hanging back a lot as she walked the sheep down the field. Later she decided on her own to take the sheep for a little drive, marching them steadily down the field as we watched. She had a very nice pace.

Jennie worked Elsa a bit and then stayed around to help with our training. We focused on the issue that with our Pro-Novice run Saturday morning. He has to know that the sheep I want are the ones I’m facing, and to trust me that there are sheep in that direction even if he doesn’t see them.

At first we did short outruns of 75 or yards or so, with Jennie and Elsa holding the sheep near the round pen. There were sheep in the round pen as well, so Rodeo had to know not to go after them. At first he focused in on them and I had to tell him off, but Brian didn’t think much of my initial attempts at communication. On the first attempt, when he wouldn’t go for the sheep I wanted, I called him off.

Brian let me know that this was a mistake. He needed help to find the right sheep. Calling him off was like a punishment, and he hadn’t known what to do. Instead I needed to come closer and give him a gentle ‘no’ when he focused on the sheep in the pen, and encouragement when he looked at the others.

After a few attempts, he ignored the sheep in the pen and went straight for the ones I wanted.

Then it was time to up the challenge. Jennie held the sheep in the same spot and Brian had us walk to the far end of the field, 150-200 yards away. I sent him and immediately started walking towards the sheep in anticipation of helping him. But he ignored the sheep in the pen and went for the right ones. He was hesitant and needed some help getting the lift, but that was no surprise because they were backed up near a fence and other obstacles. It was a tough situation, and he handled it.

Then for good measure, we reversed it and put the sheep in the far side of the field. Rodeo and I stood behind a walled pen so that it was truly a blind outrun. I sent him and away he went, looking for the sheep until he found them. The fetch wasn’t perfect by any means, but we were well on our way to solving the problem we’d encountered in our Pro-Novice run. I'm confident that by the time we enter our next trial, Ken Peninsula, he'll be ready.

Brian thought so. “He’s a Pro-Novice dog now,” he declared at the end of the session. 

Rocky Ewe part 3

Part 1

Part 2

It was about 5 pm Sunday afternoon by the time the Ranch runs were set to begin. Bob and a few others moved the panels and pen, and Brian, who was judging, moved his minivan close to the red cone that marked the handler’s post. This is definitely the minor league level. Almost everyone else had left, leaving just the 11 handlers in Ranch to watch each other’s runs while the lawn chairs, card tables and canopies were cleared up and packed away. Behind them and through the gate, the cars and trucks steadily emptied until only a few remained.

The course was about a 75 yard outrun, through a fetch panel, a right hand turn at the post, followed by a short left hand drive and a right hand turn back to the fetch panels. The sheep were to be driven back through the fetch panels and to the pen.

I hadn’t thought a lot about our run throughout the day, and wasn’t particularly nervous when the first four runs were completed and it was our turn at the post. I wasn’t at all sure how it would go, but at least I knew he’d be able to see the sheep this time.

Bob approached me just before the run and asked me to keep the sheep in the pen if we succeeded at it, because following our run they were going to drive sheep from the exhaust back to the setout for the remainder of the runs. I told him I would.

Someone said “Jim Kling is up” and then I walked forward to the post. But something wasn’t right, and I turned back to see Rodeo watching me. “That means you, too!” I said, and he bounded forward happily.

I sent him on a come by flank and he took off on a nice wide arc. Near the top he hesitated and looked back at me – not unusual when he encounters a dog and person at set out. I gave him another flank command and he started forward again, then stopped once more. Another command got him to the top and he completed a perfect lift and fetch through the panels. I gave him an away flank to turn them around the post to my right, and he took the command well. But I was slow and the sheep drifted too far to my right. By the time I gave him a come by flank and he turned them back to the left, they had made quite a wide turn around the post and I knew we’d lose a few points.

But he got turned them back in the right direction and brought them back on line, and drove them in a nice measured pace through the first drive panel, on a right hand turn and out to the fetch panel. He took all his flanks and drove them steadily through the fetch panel, where a final come by flank turned them back towards the post.

I walked to the pen and everything looked great as he pushed them towards me. I laid him down and the sheep started moving into the pen. I turned my attention to them to complete the pen, expecting to give Rodeo a walk up command to put additional pressure on them if needed to complete it. But suddenly the sheep were headed the other way, out of the pen, and I realized that Rodeo had gotten up and circled the pen for fear that the sheep were getting away. I gave him a come by flank and he managed to cut them off before they circled the pen. He turned them towards me and we were able to get a quick pen, but at the cost of some points for pushing them back out.

I completely forgot Bob’s instructions to leave them in the pen, so I opened it to let them out. “Keep them in, keep them in!” I heard Bob yell, and quickly remembered. But it was too late. Rodeo was behind the pen and the sheep popped out. But it only took 30 seconds or so to pen them up again, and this time I kept it closed.

This video of the run was taken by our friend Jennie. You can see me suddenly realize my mistake as I’m opening the pen back up again.

I stood with Jennie to watch the rest of the runs. I knew we’d had a good run, so I was watching to see how many I thought were better. The winning run, with Cindy Baker and Kael, came 2 or 3 spots after ours. I watched it and knew immediately that they had us beat. By the end, I thought maybe we’d placed 3^rd or 4^th. Brian later informed me we’d come in 2^nd, with a score of 69 out of 80. Not bad!

Jennie and Elsa ran at the end. Elsa did a nice job on the gather but had some trouble with the drive and Jennie wound up walking out to help her. I thought Elsa did well – she kept her head and tried hard on the drive. The sheep drifted a bit and Jennie was just a bit off on her timing with her flank commands, so that the sheep either didn’t get turned back in the direction of the panel, or they turned too far and ended up moving in the opposite direction. That happened a lot in the other ranch runs as well.

Jennie and I talked for awhile, and then I loaded Rodeo into the car. It was almost 7 pm when I hit the road and just before 11 pm when I arrived in Bellingham.

Rocky Ewe was a great experience. I’ve gone to a number of trials over the past couple of years, and competed in 3 previous ones. I’ve enjoyed each experience but I always felt something was lacking, like I should have enjoyed it more than I did. This weekend I realized that I was getting the full experience. Even before our final run, when the only competition experience was our disappointing Pro-Novice run, I was really enjoying myself and didn’t feel all that concerned about how well we would perform in Ranch. I’d finally managed to take the competition in stride and not let it affect everything else. Volunteering for set out also helped because I met more people and learned a lot. And lastly, I have enough experience now that I can watch other people’s runs and have a better sense of what’s happening, so that I’m able to learn more from it. 

Rocky Ewe part 2

Day 1 of the trial ended and I returned to Olympia and the hostel. After Indian food, I settled in for some reading in the common room, chatted with the proprietor and some of the guests, and then got another early start. On Sunday, we were set to run in Ranch, which involves a driving component but has a much shorter outrun and drive than Pro-Novice. I arrived early, expecting that Ranch would run in the morning as it had Saturday morning, but I hadn’t read the trial directions closely enough: The class order was to be reversed, starting with Open, then Pro-Novice, Nursery, and finally Ranch at the end of the day.

I settled in and watched the runs, and chatted with other handlers. Diane Pagel asked me to hold onto one of her puppies, Reba, a red and white pup who’s about 4 months old. She looks like a twin of Rodeo, almost the same color, with a split face that’s a mirror image of his, right down to spots on the nose. Diane wanted someone else to hold on to her so she wouldn’t be so much of a ‘momma’s girl,’ as she put it. I had her for a couple of hours and she did quite well, not pining away for Diane at all. Rodeo also accepted her pretty well, with little apparent jealousy.

Rocky Ewe part 1

Rocky Ewe is held in Roy, Washington, and run by Judy Norris. This was our first trial since September, which was also in Roy and run by Judy, though on a different field. Rodeo and I had a rough time at that trial (link: http://sheepdogtrialling.blogspot.com/2010/09/rocky-week.html), so I approached this one with a little bit of trepidation. If Rodeo struggled, would I get as frustrated as I had before? Could I relax and enjoy the trial without worrying about how competitive we could be? I just didn’t know.

After considering several hotels that would take dogs, I managed to find a hostel in Olympia that did, Chez Cascadia (link: http://www.chezcascadia.org/). I like hostels, so I was quite excited to learn about it. $35 for a private room, plus $5 per dog. The private room was taken, though, so we slept in the bunk room instead. But the bottom beds were double beds, so they were more comfortable than expected and there was plenty of room for Rodeo. The hostel was a converted house and had a nice charm about it. Nothing fancy, but I’ll likely be back for future trials in the area.

Saturday morning I woke up at 5:15, had my shower, then drove 45 minutes to the trial, which was held in the Roy Rodeo Grounds. Much of one side of the field was inundated with water, so much so that a dog sent that way might literally have to swim in some areas. The sheep knew it too and lifted away from the watery half of the field when the dog picked them up at the top.

We were set to run third in Pro-Novice, and went to the post around 9 am. I immediately knew we were in trouble because the set out was over 200 yards away, and we had been focusing so much on driving that we had neglected long outruns. Still, I thought he might be okay if he saw the sheep.

But he didn’t. I sent him on a come by flank (away from the water, as did every other handler), and he immediately crossed over and ran towards the exhaust to our right hand side. I called out ‘look back’ and when he turned his head in the direction I wanted I gave him encouragement, but he remained fixated on the exhaust. After a few attempts I left the post and we walked towards the set out until he saw the sheep. I sent him and he completed an outrun and lift, but he seemed hesitant and a little bit cowed a few wet spots he had to traverse. For whatever reason, he never got control of the sheep and we retired.

It was eerily familiar to our run in September, but I find that I wasn’t upset. A little disappointed, sure, but I could shrug it off. The reason was simple enough: I knew what had gone wrong. He hadn’t seen the sheep, and he hadn’t gone on an outrun in the direction I was facing. We need to teach him to do that so that he’ll go in the direction I indicate and keep going until he sees sheep. Last September, I’d had no idea what the problem was and no idea how to fix it, which left me feeling incredibly frustrated.

After our run, I worked set out for the rest of Pro-Novice. I was ‘Little Bo Peep,’ according to Fran, who was also on the set out team. One handler let packets of 4 sheep out of the pen, another used her dog to push the sheep out towards me, and I used a bucket of grain to entice them to where I stood at the setout post. Rodeo’s job was to look handsome. The sheep wanted to drift in the direction opposite the watery area, so I stationed him on that side to prevent them from moving that way.

It was a fantastic learning opportunity. I had the best seat in the house to watch the end of each outrun and the lift, to see where a dog went right and a dog went wrong. Many had a tendency to cut in rather than completely covering the sheep, and many had to retire because the sheep would scatter and split as a result.

Later in the afternoon I performed the same job for Open, and so had an opportunity to watch some of the best dogs and draw some comparisons. Few of them cut in at the end of their outrun, and very few caused a scatter.

After setout, I returned to join the other handlers and watch the remaining runs. Fortunately I had dressed in layers. It didn’t rain, but it was cloudy most of the day and the wind frequently picked up, so we spent a lot of time huddling in our camp chairs, sometimes with a dog for a lap warmer. I found that I enjoyed watching the runs more than I have in the past because I understood more of what I was seeing.

(to be continued)