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.

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.