From There To Here: January 2015

When you get a 46 degree day with sun in January it's best to go make the most of it. I have been trying to get together with Doug for a couple of weeks now so that we could do a training session with Buddy. Buddy is 11 months old now so it's time to start laying the foundation for him to be a useful farm dog. Doug has been very gracious in offering me free use of his sheep whenever I want and it is my intent to give him something back in return by helping him start his dog and using Diva to make tasks that are normally a headache less stressful. Eventually I expect that Doug and Buddy will no longer need our help but for now this mutually beneficial relationship is working out great. Diva and I have set about really dog breaking the one group of 6 sheep so that they are easier to put a young and very enthusiastic Buddy on. The Icelandics have proven to be wonderful sheep to work with and in the group we are using there is a badger faced ewe that is what the Icelandic farmers refer to as a "leader sheep". She is head of the flock, incredibly smart, and I love working with her and watching her figure it out. She has already sorted out that if she comes to me and stays close that is the place I want her to be but she is not at all heavy so as soon as the dog gets to pushy she goes on by. I believe she has her last year's ewe lamb by her side, an all black ewe, and she too is picking up on the fact that the dog isn't a threat if you just move where they ask you too. Doug has told me that these 6 will be alone for the next two weeks at which time he is going to bring the rest of the ewes back together and sort off the rams to their own field again. He also told me that shearing day will most likely be the 2nd weekend in April so we need to have the flock working nicely with the dogs and practice sorting them.

Diva didn't have to do much work at all to get the sheep into the small pen so that we could work Buddy. She went out and fished them out from the section of trees in the barnyard field but when it came time to push them into the chute she lost them because she didn't wait and apply a steady pressure. The lead ewe had stopped and turned to face Diva and instead of waiting a few seconds and doing a nice walk up she blew in at her and caused the stock to split. A quick verbal correction from me and we set things up again at the mouth of the chute and the sheep went right in. I wasn't really mad at Diva for getting after the ewe because I could see that there was some exchange going on between the two of them as they were starring each other down but I was disappointed that she stirred the pot and chose to breach the bubble. What I hope Diva will learn from these sheep is to make better choices under pressure and to watch all of her stock as opposed to getting caught up in the moment when some action goes down. Anyway, once we had the sheep in there it was time to really get a feel for what Buddy would do. I asked Doug if it was ok if I took him (on leash) around the stock a few times so I could watch his response. Buddy is everything an un-schooled young Aussie can be...he is strong, rushing, pulling, and completely zoned in on the heads. My stick ment absolutely nothing until I hit the ground in front of him once really hard and then I got the, "fine, if I can't play my way I don't want to plat at all!" attitude. He wants to pursue, split, and really pull some wool and he has no stop. I tried letting the line go to see if he would eventually get around but for now he is just intent on making them move. So what does this mean? It means I am going to be come a better trainer (Yay!!) and Doug has a lot of homework to do, lol. I gave Buddy back to Doug and then Diva and I showed him what fetching was supposed to look like. I explained to him about the basics of directional commands, walk up, and how when he was guiding Buddy around the stock how to tell if Buddy was truly releasing pressure or still leaning on the sheep. We talked about loose eyed working dogs and I explained that he need to get a good stop on Buddy. Buddy needs to start going out to "work" daily and even though it might be frustrating using a young dog that turns 20 minutes of chores into an hour, if you don't use him he will never learn what he needs to do and be able to do it. As we stood around talking dogs and sheep Buddy noticeably relaxed which is what I was hoping for. I then had Doug take him on leash and just move the stock around the pen, changing direction periodically and practicing downs when he had them held in the corners. It was much better (more productive) and it gave us a good place to call it quits.

So until I get out there next week I hope that Doug finds some time to work on his homework with Buddy and perhaps just getting more exposure will help him settle down. If we find that having just a few sheep gives him to much of chance to focus on one or two then we can look forward to having 30 ewes together and seeing if working the flock as a whole changes his approach. This is what I love the most about working livestock with a dog and particularly about starting young dogs. You need to figure out what works, develop that teamwork, and it doesn't always just come easy.

Ok, it's finally here. 2015! I have been putting all of my hopes and dreams on getting to this years ASCA Nationals and it's time to start kicking it into high gear. My working resources have once again been smiled on and I have 2 new prospects for working large numbers of beef cattle as well as a large (180+) flock of sheep. Both of these farms are about an hour to two hours away from me but when you want something then you need to push for it and that is what I intend to do. My other blessing for stock work is much closer to home and that is where Diva and I went today. You might remember me mentioning that I had found a group of Icelandic sheep to work and that their owner, Doug, has a young Pincie Creek Aussie. Doug has his ewes split into various groups now so they can be with the ram he wants to use on them for breeding. The last time I was out he had all 35 ewes together and the 5 rams separated into their own field. Doug and his family are really wonderful people and he is genuinely interested in getting his dog to a point where he is useful on their farm. I had made mention that if we had a smaller pen to start his dog in as opposed to the large pasture it would really help and when I got there today there was not only a lovely 40 x 50ish pen but also an awesome 6' x 50' chute that we can utilize! Did I mention how nice Doug's fencing is too ;-)?

The group in the barn yard for today was comprised of 5 ewes and one ram. The Icelandics love to turn and come at a dog but they are also very smart and quickly learn what is being asked of them. When Diva and I went in the ram right away made a big show about coming towards her and I just let it play out. Diva hit him once on the nose and did her bounce bounce bark routine and he turned tail and smartly joined the ladies. While we worked he would periodically try again but Diva had his number and it was never a real issue. I did a little bit of work in the new pen but it was mostly just to see if I could get them in there with Diva as they are fairly cagey about being pushed down to the corner where the gate is. The sheep were being so good so from there I took them out into the pasture and worked on driving them and then having Diva peel them off the fence line and start teaching the sheep to fetch. I guess I expected them to want to run more but I have to say I am impressed at how quickly these Icelandics really figure it out. If the dog is fair (and Diva always is) then they work very nice. Part of me is thrilled that I am only "dog breaking" this small group so that the rest will remain as they are because they have so much to offer in keeping a dog sharp. Of course perhaps Doug will disagree because our big "chore" will be coming up in March when we need to be able to use the dogs to help with the sheering. My guess he will prefer the dog broke and compliant ones for ease of handling ;-).

I didn't bring my camera with me today but I should have. Instead you get a few lame cell phone pics and a short video clip of Diva driving them. As a bonus you also get a video of Diva meeting the hogs for the first time :-). She was skeptical at first and then tried to put on a good show. Those pigs were not impressed...poor Diva, lol!!

The approach was cautious...