OFTDm Title!

   We are on a roll! Diva has really stepped up her game since getting her back all healed up and we are working so well as a team. I have taken up a very nonchalant go with the flow type attitude and it seems to be having an impact all the way around. I have to smile a bit because a few years ago I used to envy my experienced friends and their easy going attitude toward trialing. I figured I would never ever get there. Times have certainly changed! The other thing that has been a huge growing process for me is to except that it isn't all about the score or placing. I used to get upset if I felt we had done better than how we were scored but just lately I have come to realize that the quality of the work I get from Diva doesn't always reflect in the numerical value given. Point in case was when we were out in Indiana doing F course with cattle. We didn't get the Q but what Diva was able to accomplish on tough stock was thrilling. I left the arena so proud of her. Scores are just an opinion of one person on any given day and I had been letting that number tell me how I felt about my dog. The truth is she is the same dog no matter the score and her name is not "87" any more than it is "113" (you get my idea ;-)). All of these revelations have brought me to a new place and you know what? I like it here.

   So on to the farm trial. We had a beautiful day and working at Kelly's farm is always a pleasure. It certainly offers a little bit of an advantage knowing the facility and the stock to some degree and I must admit that is a luxury we rarely ever have. With local ASCA stock trials almost non existent in our area we have had to travel far and wide to trial. The farm trial started with the two advanced dogs and then Diva and I were first in the open division. That ment we had the group of sheep in stall #3 which had yet to be worked for the day. Diva pulled the sheep out of the stall nicely and we proceeded to take them around to the sorting area where we had to sort off the 3 marked sheep (from a group of 7) using any combination of the 4 pens. Sorting is one of my least favorite things to do. Not because it is hard but mostly because I want to just wrestle the sheep I need in the pens and be done with it ;-). Diva is also having a hard time holding her stays when I make noise or touch the stock. She seems to think that is her cue to come "help me". Cute but annoying, ya know! So our sort wasn't as pretty as it could have been but it didn't take to long and we were able to get it done and move on to the duck portion of the farm trial. The sheep were put in a holding pen next to the duck area and then you got out your ducks and put them across a bridge. From the bridge you took them to a "graze" area for a hold and then re-penned. I had to work at getting it setup for a bit before we successfully got our ducks across the bridge but once they were through the rest was very easy. This was the area that cost us the most point loss though with a score of only 8 out of 15 potential points. After the ducks were away you had to collect your sheep from the pen and head through the barn yard and into the big field so that you could get to the chute. Diva did a nice job at all of the gates and her sheep went into the chute very calmly. Once I had put the ribbon around one of the marked sheep I had Diva push the sheep up the chute and we headed back out into the large field to go to the sheep "graze". The sheep were then left while we went to the open handler's cone and got ready to do the outrun portion. I sent Diva on an away and from what I was told people were all in awe of how pretty her outrun was. She left from my side and headed as far out to the fence as she could get (which was pretty far) and then had the nicest lift! This is a big win for Diva as she has always wanted to take a more direct route on her outruns before kicking out at the bubble. It wasn't until I saw the pictures that I really appreciated what she had done. After the gather we took the sheep to the top field where we had to do the final obstacle, a half maltese cross. The sheep could enter from any direction but once in you had to get them to settle for a hold on a blue tarp. The big challenge though was that the sheep had to exit out of the side opening thereby making a 90 degree turn. To much pressure and they would run out straight and if there wasn't enough they would back up the way they came. This is the first time I have ever worked this type of obstacle with Diva and I plan on doing it again as soon as possible! Our group of sheep went in easily enough and the hold was no problem but I had to help Diva by getting in the obstacle and turning the heads. Diva kept insisting that because I was making noise and touching the stock that she had to move so there were at least 4 or 5 times I was forced to correct her and send her back where I had placed her. Her slightest movements were enough to turn the sheep the wrong way so it was frustrating work. Finally after a couple of minutes of messing with it things were all set and Diva was able to walk in and push them out the right way. Success! Once we were finished there the sheep had to go back in the barn yard and be put away into their stall. Our group was easy enough to repen and we were done! Time to celebrate! Total time allowed in a farm trial is 25 minutes and we finished in 21 minutes and change. Not the fastest time but we also weren't stressed and rushing.

    The results of the farm trial gave Diva a 103 which was 3rd place and the last Q she needed to finish her OFTDm title. I was very proud of her and of myself. I think I may just finally be the handler my dog deserves ;-)!

The Farm Trial Competitors and Judge

 

Heading back from the gather to the top field



 

In the barn yard about to go out to the chute



Sorting

 

Love when you get to see your dog with a nice square flank!



 

The lift! It was so pretty!



 

This photo is my favorite! It shows Diva heading away on her outrun and just how far out she kicked! What a good girl!



 

Thank you to Michael English for the photos! Also a big Thank you to judge Cheryl Padgett!

Fresh Beef...On The Hoof Of Course!

    Thanks in part to Kelly's great initiative we all ended up at a relatively local, meaning in the Mid Atlantic region (LOL!), farm to work cows this past Sunday. This farm regularly hosts AHBA and AKC trials and there is talk that next year one of the region's ASCA clubs may put on an ASCA trial there. Yipee!

    We were graciously given free rein to use cows for the afternoon which is something I know everyone appreciated. Cattle opportunities are far and few between so having fresh stock to work is exciting. The farm is home to a variety of breeds so there was a lot of fun to be had when sorting groups and figuring out how they all worked. If you haven't worked dairy cattle before they don't tend to stay together as well as their beef counterparts. Further more there were three types of dairy cattle, Holstein, Guernsey, and Jersey. My experiences raising bull dairy calves has left me with a rather well develop dislike for Jersey's. I think it is their deceptively sweet eyes that war against their often opinionated nature. As babies I dare you to look at one and not want to hug it! But what is the fun in life if you can't in good humor give your friends a hard time? So naturally as Kelly was helping me sort off my group I ended up with the Jersey and two Holsteins ;-). Diva was doing a nice job moving the cows around and we put them through the various obstacles that were set up a few times. The cattle moved very nicely off the dog and despite trying to set up a nose grip opportunity they just never really needed one while Diva was out there. We did at one point lose one of the Holstein's to the back by the re-pen/draw  and when I started to move in to push the cow out of the corner Diva suddenly decided she was going to come in full throttle and "help" me. This resulted in the calf making every attempt to not step on Diva while he hit the fence with his shoulder trying to get away. I really hate to lose my cool but let's suffice it to say that Diva got scruffed up and endured the walk of shame out of the arena without a chance to fix her mess. Probably not the best choice but there have a been a couple of times on cows since Diva gained her confidence that she has suddenly decided to get naughty and I want to nip it in the bud!

    After spending her time out in the truck away from everyone she came out much improved and working awesome! I made a point of telling her how good she was frequently and we celebrated together with her bouncing all over me and making silly noises. That is the great thing about Diva. She really does take emotional correction to heart but as soon as you find a place to praise she is 10x better. I was working on sending her all the way around in the corners to make a space on the fence and each time she was successful she would fly over to me and leap in the air with a huge grin on her face. Happy dog! She continues to be much more successful on the away side but we were able to end on a very pretty go bye into the corner which made me happy.

   

 

 

A Sheeping We Will Go

   I am rejuvenated! Not that I wasn't enthusiastic before but all of the pressure is now gone and I can look forward to what's next... an ASCA farm trial! I love farm trials! Diva needs 1 leg to get her OFTDm title and I think we are in a good position to wrap that up nicely. We are two weeks out from that trial and my plan is to get Diva thinking "sheep" and chores.

   Today I was able to meet Rae at the Renn Farm to work and assess where Diva's mind is at. The good news is she was VERY steady and calm on her sheep. The bad news is that due to me dialing down on her she is back to looking at me a lot on the drive :-/. Also, our old nemesis of not completing her flanks until told otherwise (especially on the go by side) reared it's ugly head. She just loves to get to balance and bring them to me ;-)! I mainly worked on getting wide continuous flanks and she did get much better. My thought is that if I re-visit this enough in the next couple of weeks it will stop being an issue. We also worked on straight walk ups which is something of a pet peeve of mine. I have seen so many dogs in a trial situation that can't just walk straight into pressure and it teaches the stock to lean on the dog. What you end up with is a dog that has to constantly flank to make motion and/or the stock are zig zag around. Diva doesn't have a lot of power but I want her to use what she has effectively and it is my observation that if a dog comes in straight, holds, and waits 9 times out of 10 the stock will turn away even if the dog doesn't have a bite. This definitely works on sheep and it also works on cows. Patience, patience, patience! I need to continue to polish this in Diva as sometimes she wants to flip away or take a few steps either direction before walking in. This is often enough to turn the heads away from where they need to go.

  Overall I was pleased with her work today. Maryland has brought August weather back in full force so it was humid and rainy but she kept working and did a nice job of settling sheep that hadn't been worked by a dog much. The little bit of pen work we did today was also decent but before the farm trial I will have to make an effort to do some gate sorting and serious pen work practice. More pressure exercise! ;-)

We Did It! New WTCH Diva! *Part 2*

   Sunday morning my entire demeanor was different. I was of course riding the high of WTCH'ing the day before and also enjoying the feeling that nothing was riding on our performance today. Don't get me wrong, I still wanted good scores but there is a difference, in my opinion at least, between wanting something and needing it ;-).

   Our first draw was a really nice and workable group of all Herefords and as I was walking in to the arena I was thinking I had things pretty much in the bag. Diva did a decent take pen and the group went straight up the fence towards obstacle one with no break in motion. However for whatever reason Diva suddenly decided just before obstacle one that she was dying to eat some grass and cow poop. Talk about infuriating! Here I am with my new WTCH and she is acting just as casual as can be on this drive. My group of cows was being very good and had she not been off contact they were willing to move along a nice pace. After I yelled at her to get out of it she did go back in to work and had a decent cross drive. We got all three cows through obstacle 2 as well and once again despite there being an opening on the fence for her to go through on the away Diva decided she just couldn't come to head when it was just as easy to fetch them to me :-/. I laid her down while I moved myself to block the cows. My intent was to stop things, re-organize, and send her around on a go by to do what we had done in other runs. What happened though was as soon as I started making motion to stop the cows Diva had a ye-haw idea and rushed in doing a drive by on the heads which pushed the cows right by me and past the opening to the Y. I sent her around to stop them which she did but when I asked her to walk up she once again blew me off and took a cheap shot. I actually couldn't believe that she was doing this and I know at one point I yelled outloud, "You are such a bad dog!" :-). I finally managed to get 1 in the center but Diva wasn't even trying to listen at this point and so I did what I had to do. I yelled at her to lie down, said thank you to the judge, and walked her off the field without finishing the run. She went straight into the ex pen and believe me I had a few choice words for her that left her with no doubt about my unhappiness. I suppose in looking back I could have finished and re-penned the stock. It would have been a Q had I done so but I felt in that moment that I needed to make a point with Diva. Once I had a chance to cool down some I could appreciate the significance of the fact that Diva now has enough confidence on cattle to be naughty.

   Between the first and second run I made up with Diva and we had ourselves a little discussion. It was foreign territory for me to have to dial down on her when working cattle but I wanted her to show the patience and strength she has had in training leading up to this. Our draw for the last run was a group of Hereford/Dexter crosses that had been some what challenging all weekend. There was one amongst the group that didn't like to stay with the others and they leaned on the dog a bit. Diva's take pen was very good but as they came out each cow went a different direction. It took us quite a bit of work and patience to get everyone back together and to that first panel. Diva was having to work each cow individually, walk up on the head, and wait. I was actually very proud of her for this work and the pictures from this run show a very engaged dog. Once we got them through panel 1 they drove well on the cross drive and all went through panel 2. This time Diva listened and we were able to get a decent set up for the center with 2 out of 3 going through. She did a fantastic push off the -re-pen gate and that was that. In the end our score for this run was the lowest of the weekend (100) because we did have to spend so much time and effort getting to the first panel but from my view it was the best work she had done all weekend!

   So now what? Diva and I have many adventures still ahead of us and though I was very focused on finishing her WTCH I also realize that there is always something to work on. We have a farm trial coming up near the end of the month and I also have my eye on heading to GA in the late fall in hopes of getting her RTDcs. Up until now I have done very little AHBA but that is another venue we will be exploring.

   Before I wrap this up I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way. Without this network of friends and family I would not have been able to reach this goal. First, my husband. I know he really can't understand why this is important to me but he does recognize that it makes me happy and he supports that. Second, the lovely ladies who I am proud to call friends. Kelly, Rae, Dawn. We work in the rain, the heat, the cold, and the mud and we do it with a smile on our faces :-). Thank you for never letting me give up and for offering advice, encouragement, and places to work livestock! There are many more people who have played a role and I hope they will forgive me for not mentioning each and every name individually in the interest of saving space ;-). I thank you all!

 

We Did It! New WTCH Diva! *Part 1*

   You can cry for many reasons and along this journey I have cried my fair share of sad tears and frustrated ones. Today, after getting home from the Tee Creek weekend, as I was editing photos, I finally cried some happy tears. It all came pouring out as I re-played my runs in my head, our successes, our failures, and what it took to get here. Overcoming obstacles and finding our way to this, the golden ticket so to speak...her WTCH. And then I remembered one of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes (and we all know how much I like Dr. Seuss :-)). "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." I haven't really stopped smiling since. Besides, it's not really over anyway. Not by a long shot. I could get very mushy if I stayed on this path of thought but I know what everyone is waiting for is the play by play of our runs so with out further ado let's begin!


   Saturday morning the AM cattle trials were set to run back to back and such is my luck I was drawn to go first. To further heighten my anxiety I noticed as I was waiting to go in that I had drawn a group with a steer that was familiar to me from last year. This particular steer would challenge the dog if it was pressured to much. I had this big game plan about where I was going to position Diva before opening the take pen and where I would stand to influence the cows but the cows seemed to have missed the memo and just went around me, lol. Diva was a little barky and not as willing to get deep into the take pen as I would like but I can't say that I blame her when all 3 head of cattle are staring at you with their butts firmly tucked into the corner. Diva went out and rounded up the cows to start the drive to panel one which went very smoothly. We got all 3 through the first set of panels and she executed a pretty nice crossdrive. The group did stop at one point but she quickly got things going and brought them through obstacle 2. When it came to setting up for the center I opted to flank her out on a go-by and then have her come up behind me and around so we could do a parallel drive to the center. All three cows went through and her re-pen was independent and wonderful. The relief I felt at the end of that run was incredible. While I couldn't find out my score I was fairly certain that we had gotten the needed Q to finish her WTCH. I was right of course and she did it in style with a nice score of 113!

 

 

Drive to obstacle 1

 



 

 

   For our second run I drew a group of all Dexter's that worked very nicely. Diva had a nicer take pen and our run was pretty smooth with everything going through obstacles 1 and 2. Again the set up to the center was our weakest link mostly because Diva wasn't taking her away side flank all the way to the heads to turn them. One of the steers ended up ahead of the group so I had to rush over to the fence to hold him while Diva continued to work the remaining two. We ended up with two through the center but it could have been better if we had clicked a little more. In hindsight I was doing a cardinal sin of center obstacles and that was standing to close to the opening which pressured the stock and made it harder for Diva to get the job done. Despite that it was a very nice run with a score of 103 under judge Chris Caldwell.

    With the WTCH in the bag we headed back to the hotel and out to dinner to celebrate! Commence the party ;-)!

Diva and Parfait. The hottest two WTCH dogs at the trial :-)



Gorgeous and Smart!



 

Every stock dog needs a little time play

 

 

So Excited I Can't Sleep!

After all of the talk and planning the Tee Creek trial is finally here. My stomach is doing flip flops and the excitement level has been rising. Yesterday Diva and I went out to Dawn's to get in one final pre-trial tune -up on cattle and things went very well. Diva was doing really nice in the pen work. Her confidence level is way up and I am no longer cheerleading. In fact now I am having to tone her down in some places. This makes me smile :-). Our first go on the cattle she was in full on drive mode. She happily put on her big trot and took the cows all around the arena (on the fence) but "forgot" that I needed her to make a space coming off the second panel so that we could set up for the middle. On one hand I was happy to see she felt good enough to blow me off and the other I was  annoyed to see her get sucked into the motion and forget that she can "fetch". How amusing that a year ago I complained about my fetching dog that was hard to teach the drive to ;-). I decided to re-pen the cows and take a break to re-group because I really didn't want to yell at her, especially after the nice pen work.

  The second time in the arena I changed my game plan entirely. Forget the big picture and trying to practice the course. What I needed to do was remind Diva she can get around the cows when asked AND continue her flanks until told otherwise. She did a really lovely take pen and I must pat myself on the back for finally remembering to open the gate and then position myself (and my stick) in suck a way that the cows started out the direction I wanted them to! It's only taken Dawn 3 years to get this through my head ;-). *Thanks Dawn!* From there I immediately sent Diva out to cover which she did but it was slicey. From there I started doing the half moon exercises on the fence and periodically asked her to try and make a space on the fence. The first time she was able to get through on the away side I threw her a party which really pumped her up. We did this both directions until I could see her confidence at making a space on the fence really growing. Then it was time to put some more control back on her by asking her to walk slowly into the heads and wait for them to move off. She did a very nice job of this and as luck would have it one of the cows decided no to turn away. I couldn't see from my vantage point but Dawn had a very clear view and when I told her to get a hold Dawn said she went in and nailed him good on the nose! We decided that was as good a place as any to call it quits so we put the cattle away and went to relax for a bit.

   Just for fun Dawn put her 4 Geese in the duck arena so that I could see how Diva reacted. She had been very interested in them from the moment we pulled in and she heard them honking. When I asked her to get around her eyes got big as saucers and you could tell she thought she had just won the duck lottery! This was the first time I had worked Geese too and I was pleasantly surprised by how nice they are to work and how honest they were! The dog needed to be correct but even if they were to pushy as soon as the dog backed off they settled. We worked on getting them through the center Y chute which turned out to be a fun challenge. The set up had to be just perfect and a few inches made for near misses. Diva and I will definitely take any chance we get to work Geese from now on and I would love to trial on them!


   So there you have it. I am so excited I can't sleep! I am looking forward to a weekend with Rae, Parfait, Dawn, and our Canadian friends. Watch out for the partying ;-). For the friends who won't be there I want them to know how much I will miss them. This means you Kelly and Amanda ;-). Diva and I are going to give it our best and at the end of the weekend I hope we will be able to count ourselves amongst those who have earned a WTCH.