The weather finally gave us enough of a break to get out and work on some of the things I talked about in my last post. Kelly was able to come down and spend a good part of the day with me at Hog Dog where both of us were working on fixing some of the "holes in our training" as Kelly likes to call them.
For Diva and I Hog Dog is like home base. It's where we got our start and where we have done most of our training. The sheep are familiar to me and it is a great place to work on things because of that level of comfort. I was happy to note when I pulled in today that all the sheep were back over in the big pasture which made it easy to sort the working groups we needed to fit the dogs. It's been a while since Diva has done the big blind outrun and with the ram mixed in the flock I erred on the side of caution and walked up with her before sending to gather. Diva did a nice job putting everyone together and we got started on our beginner work. Normally I would have had her drive the flock down to the smaller fields to sort but today we went into fetch mode and what a great thing it was! I made sure to reinforce her distance and kept pushing her back out when she was rushing. By about the halfway point across the field she was rating herself much better. Once I we had everyone in the smallest field I started sorting at the gate. This is not one of our strong points as Diva gets things done through motion and isn't strong on the stop and straight walk up. To compound the problem Mr. Ram is always the first at the gate to go through even when I don't want him there and he isn't easily deterred. I have to remain vigilant to how I position Diva in relation to him because he will butt a dog. Despite the challenges I sorted off a group of 3 very broke older ewes to put in the round pen for the baby dog and then sorted off another group with 2 lighter ewes and 3 of this years lambs. This group was lighter and the lambs are very pressure sensitive.
To start I had Diva work the lamb group in the medium field fetching and then holding them to the fence and working on flanks and staying out of the flight zone. She really had to watch the heads and pay attention which was my intent. I can't say I was 100% happy with her because the lambs squirted out quite a few times but it was very good for her to have to go out and cover. We then took a break while Kelly worked her puppy and Raven. On our second go I had sorted out another group of ewes who I knew were broke but didn't expect them to be as heavy as they were. In the end it presented it's own challenges and gave me good opportunity to continue fetching and working on nice square flanks with a good "out". I have video from this session that I will share in all of it's un-edited glory, lol! It's nothing special but it shows us working all of the above and how some of it goes right and some of it goes wrong ;-).
Shortly after this video I went and got Sally's girl Paiva to take in the round pen for some sheep time. It has been a LONG time since I have done anything with Paiva but because Sally was at Hog Dog for an agility seminar I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. Paiva has been a big challenge for me in the few times I have tried to work her. She is seemingly uninterested until she gets within about 10 feet and then she just explodes. She doesn't try and hurt the sheep but she will grip and split. The odd thing is just as quick as it happens she moves away and won't re-engage unless you force her to. Today was pretty much the same thing and so Kelly suggested bringing Diva in to work with Paiva. This was a great idea and actually what was supposed to be for Paiva's benefit ended up be fun for Diva as well and just what we both needed. Diva came in and immediately got around the sheep while I kept trying to get Paiva to tag along. She did better following Diva for a little bit but it was still clear she wasn't comfortable. Meanwhile I was so focused on watching Paiva that Diva was able to take control and just enjoy the sheep. She moved in balance no matter where I went and she had a great time putting back together any messes that were made :-). My fetching dog was back and she had a big smile on her face! In the end Kelly caught up a sheep and we decided to just let Paiva sniff it. You can imagine my surprise when it became obvious that Paiva was scared of the sheep. All along I had assumed she was gripping and just being intense but she was reluctant to smell the sheep and kept turning her head to avoid. I don't know what will come of this discovery but at least I now know why she is reacting as she does and there is a plan to fix it if Sally would like to continue.
The final work session of the day came with another group of sheep where we practiced mostly fetching. At the very end I had Diva drive the sheep down the fence line in each direction and then we called it a day. I was happy with her driving and I think that getting out to Hog Dog today was a great choice. Hopefully next week we will get some time on cows!
I dare not even try and calculate how many miles and hours I have spent driving around to work stock with Diva. What I have noticed though is the odometer on my truck is pushing the 120,000 mile mark and that it will soon be time for a new vehicle. When I bought this truck 8 years ago I owned 2 horses (didn't do dog sports) and had no children. It has been a good truck and with it's crew cab and covered bed our current family fits well. Of course with both children being school aged comes sports, lessons, friends, and vacations not to mention the fact that I will eventually be adding a new puppy to our menagerie. I think that it may be time for the husband and I to sit down and start talking over the options. For me the things I am not willing to compromise on are 4 wheel drive, 3 rows of seating, and it has to be on a pretty high chassis (I hate driving cars...to low to the ground). Key on my list of potential new "mounts" is the Ford Explorer, Nissan Armada, and Toyota Sequoia. Anyway, enough about cars. Let's get back to the good stuff ;-).
At the end of last week I made plans to go up to Kelly's to work sheep and ducks at her place. I love Kelly's set up as it has much to offer and her sheep are very nice. I really needed to set up a center chute in preparation for open at Tee Creek and as you all may remember none of the other places I work have ASCA style obstacles. I have been running Course A through my mind nightly before bed hoping that the mental training would serve me well and help me problem solve. Having never done a center chute before I wasn't even sure what was the best way to set up for it. I chose Kelly's easiest group of sheep for my first attempt and sent Diva out to start the drive towards our imaginary panel 1. This she did well and she was also good on the cross drive but when I sent her into the corner on an away at the second panel to bring me the sheep I suddenly realized that her fetch truly was broken. Instead of flanking all the way out to the fence she tucked in and then moved back out to the 45 angle. The sheep of course went right on driving down the fence. I set this up a couple of more times with very limited success. Either I sent her on her flank to early (which would have made us miss the second panels) or she wasn't completing the flank enough to bring them to me. On Kelly's recommendation I did a little fetching with her just to emphasis my point and then set it up again. This time she did get the sheep to me but it certainly wasn't as smooth and fluid as I would have liked. To add to my frustration no matter how I worked it I could get the sheep at the mouth of the chute but I couldn't manage to put more than 2 or 3 through (out of a group 7ish). Diva was just being to pushy and quick probably as a result of the stress from trying to get that flank at the 2nd panel.
During a break Kelly and I talked about things I could do to get her watching the heads again and covering better. It's always nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of and even better when that person is as supportive and encouraging as Kelly is. For our next attempt we used a much smaller group of 3 consisting of a ewe and 2 lambs. For whatever reason this group was easier for us to manage and I was able to get them through the center obstacle after a couple of attempts. Diva's away flank at the 2nd panel was better and I wasn't so upset. I ended the session with her holding the group to me in a corner while they tried to escape which forced her to cover.
To lighten the stress for a bit I decided to work Diva on the ducks. For her this is the ultimate in fun and she gets so focused. She was having such a good time that she was getting sucked into the motion of the ducks so we had to have a little discussion about listening ;-). After that though she did brilliantly and I left feeling very happy with how we doing going into the Tee Creek trial. I have a short video of the duck session to share. Enjoy!
Up until this point I had figured that I had dodged a bullet so to speak when it came to training Diva to drive. I have definitely heard it said countless times that once a dog really gets the idea of driving they often lose some of their fetch (and cover) but up until the last week or so I hadn't really seen that happen to Diva. Surely my friends must have thought me a little to smug when I mentioned how fortunate I felt to not have to deal with this re-training issue. Each time we went out to work I watched Diva's driving improve I worried less and less about her ever losing fetch. I should have known not to get so confident but since I am the type of person who learns best from my mistakes having to eat my own words will serve me better in the long run.
I want to take this time to reflect back on where I went wrong and what I could have done to perhaps prevent this. Though these reflections won't fix the issue I now have they may help someone else and that is one of my primary reasons for maintaining this blog. As far as I can tell there are two main causes for me breaking Diva's fetch/cover. 1.) I stopped following the "rule" of 25/50/25. Meaning I wasn't fetching for the first and last 25% of our training sessions and driving the middle 50%. And, 2.) I was using Diva to dog break lambs which made me really dial down the control and I wasn't letting her get around them to cover (because I know they are not smart enough to not try and go through the fence once they are scared.). The dog breaking of the lambs is a necessary thing if the rest of the flock at Chestnut Creek is going to become workable for the average dog in training. I can't avoid it, and for that matter I don't want to avoid it, but what I do need to do is be more aware of the stress that brings on Diva and how it affects our overall training. This is a good example of how training the chore dog doesn't always make for the best arena trial work. From now on I will be going from the lambs back to the broke sheep and working exercises that require Diva to watch the heads and cover. I will also be making sure to spend a larger portion of time on fetching in each work session with the broke sheep.
I hope that this doesn't take a long time to fix and I am optimistic that it won't given how strong of a fetching dog Diva was to begin with. I think that she is just very much trying to please me and all I have been rewarding as of late if for calm steady driving work. Guess I am going to have to crank her up a bit and get excited when she goes out to cover!
I think that prior to any work session I should go back and re-read some of my blog posts. You would think that because the experiences are mine that I would be able to remember them, right? Wrong. I seem to have these momentary lapses where I let my expectations take over the reality and I lose all sense of reason. This past Wednesday I picked up a group of lambs and headed up to work cows at Amanda Nickle's place. Diva and I haven't worked any cows since the Terry Wofford clinic in mid May but with a trial coming up in August we need to log some time quickly.
I know that Diva is not strong and I know that she doesn't like to work on the opposite side of the cows from me. It's all really confidence issues and things she will get better at with time and experience. What I can't seem to remember is that I shouldn't walk in the pen each time expecting her to do a complete 180. In my mind I still can't help but hope that I am going to go out there and she is going to heel one, decide to hold pressure, and have no problem going to the heads. Of course what happens is I end up needing to really support her and sometimes cheerlead which leads to me getting frustrated and feeling disappointed. I hope that because I am aware of this issue I will one day manage to get control and not put so much pressure on Diva to perform to my "perfect picture".
The first trip in the pen Amanda had put in one of her lighter groups to help give Diva some confidence that they would move. Diva did her normal power bark to get things started and try and create motion. The cows were not terribly impressed by this so I had to get her really pumped up and force her to stay in the pocket. I had her driving them down the fence through a chute and then I was trying to flip her around to the heads and put them back through. When sending to the heads she doesn't want to hold pressure as they stare at her so instead she bounces back out and goes in barking. I don't want to make it sound like we had no successes though. She was able to work through a standoff in getting the cows through the zigzag chute and there were a couple of times that I sent her around and she was fetching them back to me which is a big deal for Diva on cows.
Kelly had come out to Amanda's also so in between our work sessions we chatted about my concerns and frustrations. Kelly offered to let Diva and I come in the pen with them for the 2nd go just to see what watching Raven would do for Diva. The plan (as usual ;-)) was for me to not say a whole lot and just let Diva work beside Raven. At first she was staying close to me but once Raven went for that first heel Diva seemed to get pumped up and went in barking too. To her credit Raven did a great job letting Diva be where she wanted and also letting her go ahead when she was confident. Truth be told I think Raven likes to clean up the messes Diva makes :-). While they continued to work together Diva was getting closer and closer to gripping but she was also doing so very high. I made a comment to Kelly as we were watching them that she was going to get rocked in a minute and sure enough she charged in and took a solid kick to the side of the face. Three things happened simultaneously...1.) I heard Lucille gasp from where she was sitting outside the pen 2.) Diva looked shocked, and 3.) Kelly say's to me "Get her back working!", lol! So off I go with Diva to the cows and start encouraging her to get back in there. She didn't quit but I could tell she was more cautious for a few minutes there after. The last exercise we decided to set up was one to try and help Diva feel like she could turn the cows by going to their heads. Kelly had Raven push them through the chute up the fence line while Diva waited. When they cleared the obstacle I was supposed to send Diva to the heads to turn them and at the same time Kelly would kick Raven way out wide so that she came in behind Diva to apply pressure and help her succeed. We did this a couple of times and then Kelly and Raven left so that Diva could finish up a little work on her own.
Diva really lights up when she gets to work with a another dog so whenever we have this chance I will take it. I feel very lucky to have friends like Kelly and Dawn who both have strong cattle dogs that are ok with having Diva in there beside them. I plan on getting out to work the cows a few more times in the month of July. Started cattle should be no issue and I hope that with me being able to hold my side at the center obstacle in open we will do well there also. It's all part of the journey and in this matter patience will get me much farther. Maybe I should have a shirt made with that on it so I remember ;-)!
These are a couple of pictures from after we got done working and I think from the expression on her face she seems pretty happy!
