**Note: I am late finishing this post so "yesterday" was actually last week on Wednesday ;-)**
Yesterday Diva and I went out to work sheep at Hog Dog. I was originally planning on going over to Doug's to work the Icelandic sheep, but Rae was available to meet at HD, so I chose friend time. Diva and I got there first so we gathered the sheep from the big pasture and brought them down to sort. I know that in the videos I shared last time a few people noticed the rather lame ewe that was in the group and expressed concern that she was being worked. Normally we try to not work her at all, but she does live with her flock so no matter what she has to get moved from the pasture to the small fields and then sorted off if there is a place to put her. Once Diva and I had everyone down in the lower fields we sorted off the lame ewe to her own space, left a group of 4 in the round pen, put 6 in the small pen with the sheep shelter, and stuck 7 in the arena field. This made a nice mix of groups and gave us options for exhausting sheep as needed. Sorting is one of the hardest tasks for Diva so I used it to begin my quest to train commands for the short flank movements. This is where I think it will serve us the most in the long run also. I don't think it will take long to cement these commands but I do have to be very careful to be consistent and clear in my use. Another "me" issue that I want to tie into this is the volume I use when giving commands in close quarters. Whisper and keep the tone calm!
My tone and over use of commands causes Diva to start watching me and in return she stops watching her stock. I get frustrated so I use more commands and this is a vicious cycle. In an effort to stop this I tried to wait Diva out and just let the chips fall where they may...let me just say how much I suck at that! We actually spent the better part of ten minutes out in the arena with me just saying nothing and Diva alternating between fetching the sheep to me and then driving them away again. If I hadn't been so annoyed I would have probably been laughing. See if you can picture this...I am leaning up against the gate which is located in the middle of a long side of the arena (so no corners ;-)). Diva goes out and gathers the sheep straight to me but since I don't tell her to "stop" she pushes them on me and then past. At which point she kicks out to go turn them back and then proceeds to drive them by me and out into the arena. She looks back at me and I haven't moved or said anything so she kicks out again and fetches them straight back...rinse repeat about 5 times (no joke). Finally on the 6th fetch back to me I can no longer take it and I raise my hand, no verbal command though, and she stops and holds the sheep to me. The look on her face is priceless because I can clearly see it all right there..."Ohh, you've finally decided to do something eh? Good human." I wanted to be mad because Diva didn't just fetch them and hold them to me from the beginning. I wanted to be mad because she was watching me for instruction. I wanted to be disappointed because she didn't work with intensity or focus. Umm, hello, she isn't a Border Collie and by now I totally know this ;-)! So what did she do? Exactly what I have taught her to do. She channeled her instinct and brought me the sheep. When I said nothing she assumed that wasn't what I wanted so she took them away again. When she got a certain distance away she looked to see if she had done the right thing and because I said nothing she once again used her experience to make a decision and brought them back. When I finally said something she immediately stopped and held the sheep which is what I had wanted all along. It made no sense to her that I suddenly stopped communicating so her default response is the same as with any training we do...keep trying something until I get it right. The point of this long rambling is that my experiments are just my idea and Diva has no idea why I try something new. At this point in her career she has certain behaviors and skills and those will naturally be what she does because she has been rewarded for them in the past. I really like the idea of seeing what a dog will do on it's own but yesterday showed me that with no way to communicate that to the dog it can be an exercise that causes stress for both parties when things don't go as they hope or expect. Now, I will say that this was probably doubly frustrating because the HD sheep are very well broke so there isn't as much finesse needed from an experienced dog. I will definitely try the "wait and watch" again when we get out to work the Icelandic sheep because they are no where near broke and can be challenging. In that case Diva will have more to do on her own and I expect to see a much different reaction as she has to work harder and focus more to get the sheep to me in the first place.
When we worked the second time Diva blew the gate sort and pushed the sheep through me so we spent time fixing that. When I sent her out to pick the sheep back up and bring them back to the pen I said nothing and she got caught fetching them but not rating or finding the right balance point. The result was sheep that split a few times as they reached the pressure point of entering the re-pen area because they didn't really want to come back in the pen and she was applying to much pressure to fast. Rae was there now so I tried to keep my sense of humor about it as I kept my mouth closed and made Diva figure it out. It took another failed attempt on her part before something clicked and she suddenly rated herself and walked the sheep straight in. Diva needs more chances to do this and I need to let it happen without feeling the need to micromanage. We need to spend time sorting, moving from pen to pen, and holding stock to me. The reason I have perhaps neglected this portion of our work is because it can be very hard on the stock. Sheep don't love being in a packed pen and they certainly don't like when the dog gets that close to them. Many times you get sheep bunching up stepping on each other or rushing the gate. If I owned my own sheep I wouldn't worry so much but because I don't I am acutely aware of this and always try my best to use the stock in such a way that they aren't knocking themselves around. When it comes to cattle it is simply a lack of opportunity in general. When Dawn had her calves we made huge progress because she had a set up where you could push the calves from one pen to another and really get the dog in close quarters feeling confident. I am a firm believer that when a dog lacks confidence on a particular type of stock getting them moving them in a close pen does wonders. They can't bounce out of the pocket and this keeps the handler from having to say to much or getting frustrated. Of course it is very necessary that you have nice broke stock when you do this or you stand the chance of just getting your dog beat down. Anyway, pen work is our weakest link and I need to really make an effort to do more of it.
Something else that has me thinking is that I recently joined a Facebook group called "Cattle Dogs Only" at the suggestion of a working Aussie breeder I trust and like immensely. Her advise was to just sit back and read, which I have been doing. What I am gathering is that there are a heck of a lot of people out there using dogs to work cattle and most of them are pretty far removed from the trial scene. Things that I see on videos posted that make my eyes pop out are praised as quality work from "real" cattle dogs. The other thing is a pretty prevalent disregard for the Australian Shepherd. Most are working Border Collies, ACD's, Catahoula's, Hanging Tree Cattle Dogs, or some cross of the above. More than once while reading something I have almost let my fingers loose and made a comment but I can tell that nothing I have to say will be well received. I really want to defend the Aussie and put up my "proof" that they can work but when I actually step back and see what kind of work they are interested in I know it's not the same. Now there may be a few of the usual Aussie people piping up but it's the ones who prize the same qualities, and that quality is working cow/calf pairs on big open land and hitting both ends hard. This is the group of people who we, the Aussie fancy, are missing out on and I think we need to ask ourselves why? Why aren't there more Aussies being chosen for ranch work? Why don't we see more Aussies in the cattle dog trials? A few days of reading this group has shown me that the market is there but what isn't is the proof that the dogs can actually do it. If you never see something then you may never know that it exists. I fear that what these people are seeing of Aussies is sub-par working dogs and that has cemented their opinion. Both sides are to fault here as far as I can see. The more I read the more I realize how closed off some ranchers can be. They do it the way they know and because that works for them they keep on and see no need to look beyond that. On the other side we have some people who clearly have dogs that are useful on their hobby farms and/or are good trial dogs that get above themselves and can't see that there is a difference in the work done on a large scale ranch working pairs vs. taking broke stock around an arena. They assume their dogs can do it without actually testing it or proving it. While some of those dogs might very well be able to do it it's not fair to assume anything. There is a responsibility that comes with representing your breed in the working world and that supersedes putting labels on dogs like "working bred" just to make them more marketable. Riding on the pedigree and working accolades of grandparents and great-grandparents is no longer adequate if we want to retain any respect in the real working world. The dogs simply must walk the walk, and not just talk the talk.
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