I landed back in NY this past Friday for an extended visit which gave me the chance to get together with Dawn and Amanda for a girl's day at Dawn's. Diva and I haven't worked sheep in many months because I have been cautious about the sheep knocking into me and hurting my ankle. Time waits for no one though so I need to get past my fears and move forward, and that includes working sheep ;-).
Dawn's farm presents a great chance to work on sorting and pen work that I don't usually get so that is where I started with Diva. I was very happy to see that her lack of confidence on cattle had not carried over to sheep. She was eager to work and listening well. Our problem with sorting has always been the fact that Diva doesn't understand the concept of holding pressure and walking in to split the sheep. I tend to over command her and then she starts watching me and things don't go well. Don't get me wrong, we manage to do it but it isn't pretty and polished like I would like it to be. I started out trying to sort one ewe and her twin lambs from the flock but it wasn't go so easily. Dawn pointed out I was in the wring position and talking to much ;-). To make things easier we took it down to just the ewe, her twin lambs, and three other sheep. Diva and I still struggled to make things happen but eventually we did get the right ones in there. Dawn suggested that I needed to first work on shedding and then apply that to my sorting so that is what we will do next time.
Our next session involved the flock and working on the free standing pen. Diva gets out wide now but her circle lacks speed. I don't know if I will ever get her back to the speed she once had but that is another training goal. It took us a while to get everyone in and Desmond the ram was the last to go. Even though it wasn't pretty I stuck with my plan to make everything positive so Diva and I had a little party once I closed the gate. Much to my surprise when I sent Diva in the pen to pull everyone back out Desmond put his head down and challenged. I was equally surprised to watch Diva transform before my eyes and really get in his face. She never once backed down and Desmond left the pen. That should have been enough but one of the wethers crammed himself in the back and also started to challenge Diva. I really didn't have to say much of anything because she was focused and serious about the challenge. It was an awesome moment for her and I was beaming!
As the day went on we got to a point where all of the dogs were accompanying us everywhere and helping out as needed. Diva helped out with one puppy on sheep which was a cool experience on it's own. I stayed outside the small pen and Dawn went in with Diva and the puppy. At one point one of the lambs made a break for it and managed to get through the gate and back to the flock. I sent Diva out to bring the flock back from the arena (I am still outside the fence) so we could re-sort of the ewe and her two lambs. This for me was probably the coolest part of the day. Dawn was at the gate and Diva brought the sheep. I gave her one command and then I couldn't see her so dawn said to just be quiet. Lo and behold Dawn and diva sorted the right sheep with out a word and on the first try! Point made, lol. It's me. Pretty funny when someone else can sort with your dog without saying a word ;-).
We ended our girl's day by heading over to work cattle at a local farm. These cattle were very light and not into challenging which is exactly the type of cattle Diva likes to work. She did an awesome job being steady, driving around, working halfmoons on the fence, and holding pressure when needed. I was very happy with her work and decided to end after just one short session (score for me for being a good handler ;-)).
I must apologize for I am horribly behind on my blog. In part because I haven't had the chance to get out and work much but also because I didn't have an experience go the way I wanted last month and it really got in my head. Staying true to the intent of this blog I feel compelled to share the story but it has taken me this long to really be able to. Wounded pride takes a long time to heal!
After a long winter off because of my broken ankle Diva and I had finally started working again. I am not sure what made me think we were trial ready but when I heard of an all cattle AHBA trial in NY with very affordable runs I decided to enter. Getting an AHBA CH was on my "to do" list for this year and I very foolishly decided to enter HTAD and HTD level III. I assumed my dog was more than able to handle it and I assumed that we would get our Q's and start towards that CH. When you have these grand ideas about what will happen and things go vastly different it really knocks you down a peg or two. As it turned out the cattle were very combative and cranky after going through a 3 day clinic prior to the trial and the footing in the HTD field was very difficult for me to handle with my ankle. On our first run I, which was HTD, I walked to the post optimistically and sent Diva out the 300' to the cattle that were being held to a feed pan. I should have known by the way Diva left my side that things weren't right. She casually went out away but cut in to early and instead of pushing them towards me she was driving them back towards the draw. All of my attempts and re-directing her were ignored and she barked but lacked commitment. What I needed to do at that moment was walk out there and help my dog but the footing didn't allow me to do so. It was an epic fail. Ultimately the cattle moved out of range towards the draw and I called the run. Based on the first run I pulled the second HTD run and opted to wait for the HTAD where I was sure things would go better. It didn't. Diva failed to engage the cattle at all right from the start and she actually quit working. I was so embarrassed and angry that my WTCH dog was acting as if she had never seen cattle before that I once again didn't go out to help her. Instead I made it clear to Diva I was angry and called the run. Diva went back to the ex-pen and I vented my frustration. Nothing I thought was going to happen did and everything had gone wrong. In the final HTAD run I had decide that I would finally go out and help her have some success no matter what happened. Diva was slightly better but I had to be very close to her and really cheer lead things along. I called the run on a good note and went out to stew about where things had gone wrong. If not for having Kelly with me for the long ride home I might have just cried the whole way. I was embarrassed at our poor showing, disappointed in Diva, and mad at myself. Never mind that this was only the 3rd time Diva had worked cattle (or anything for that matter) in the last 8 months. I had envisioned us being great and we sucked.
This kind of failure left me with a burning desire to get back up to NY, work those same cattle, and have success. So a couple of weeks later Kelly and I were once again in NY. This time for a girl's day of working cattle. I had stopped pouting and realized that my expectations had been unreasonable. My plan was to stay in the arena and help Diva as much as she needed. The cattle were just as tough but I stuck to my plan and got right in there with Diva. In return she did so much better and when faced with a challenge she got down and gritty. As she got tired I could see her starting to lose her power so for our last go Dawn and Enya came in to work with us and we let the girls have some fun mixing it up :-). This was just what Diva needed and it was clear she was having a good time.
I left NY feeling much better this time and Diva left with a smile on her face!
To be continued...
