One of the key reasons that I have gotten so far behind was that we moved at the end of March. Not really far but anytime you have to relocate a house full of stuff and people it is time consuming. Just as we were in the middle of moving I also received word that my Grandma was in the hospital so that prompted a trip to NY. Fortunately all is well with Grandma (can't keep the good ones down ;-)) so while I was there I took the opportunity to get together with friends to work dogs. Not only does Dawn have lovely sheep and ducks but she also has gotten some nice dairy feeder calves for working. Diva and I had never worked calves before and most recently we had only been spending our "cow" time with the B cow and her herd. While Diva was learning some good things there I was also very cognizant of the fact that having the B cow challenge all of the time prevented me from doing certain things with Diva and also kept us on constant guard. Diva was getting tougher but not in a confident powerful way. It's hard to explain but instead I felt she was having to prepare herself for battle each time she went in the field. Odd, since she never really made contact with the cows but I could see her gathering herself mentally for the stress it brought on. Getting the chance to work small, dog broke, and nice calves seemed like a golden opportunity and I was sure that Diva would feel better.
As often happens, I was wrong. This is where I admit to having my pride got knocked down a peg or two. What I didn't account for was that these were new cows, even if they were tiny. It is a place Diva has only worked 2 times before and I asked that the calves be put in a smaller pen to work on pressure. Diva did what she felt she needed to do and what the B cow has taught her is necessary. She burst into the pen and ran to the heads barking and posturing while the calves scrambled to comply. She was stressed by the small pens, stressed by the fact that the calves didn't run away (as the other cows do), and stressed that I wanted her to walk around and push them WITHOUT barking since they didn't need that to move. I have to give her credit that she tried but the poop eating and disengaging to cling to me were all tell tale signs of insecurity. I would love to tell you I reacted appropriately but sadly that isn't the case either. I was upset. You see, I had once again let my expectations get carried away. I wanted more from Diva than what she had. In my head I pictured her going in and smoothly moving the calves around, staying in the pocket, and maybe getting motivated to grip on these smaller and less intimidating cows. The good news, I usually recover from my stupidity quickly and Dawn was there to keep things in perspective and lend a hand. Diva and I took a much needed break and Dawn and I chatted about why things didn't go as I had hoped they would.
For the next go around Dawn put two of the calves in a much smaller pen and we all went in, lol. We all meaning Dawn, myself, Diva, and Dawn's dog Enya who was all to happy to have Diva trail around with her while she hit heels and moved the calves. The plan....nothing! We were going to chat in the middle while Diva watched and followed Enya. We wanted Diva to see that it was ok and to just be comfortable in close quarters. At first Enya would push the calves one way and Diva would want to go to the heads but eventually we noticed that she was watching Enya a lot more and following her as we had hoped. When Enya would heel she would bark and we made a big deal of it. No commands, no pressure from us. In the end Diva was much more confident and calm and dawn and I had a very nice conversation ;-). Mission accomplished and if I lived closer this would be a regular thing in Diva's training.
Even when I stress her out she always comes back smiling!
Diva and Enya playing after they worked the calves together
No comments:
Post a Comment