Improving Inside Flanks: Step 1

   Yesterday Diva and I made it out to Hog Dog for what was day 1 of implementing our "homework" from the Terry Wofford clinic. This isn't going to be a terribly long post because frankly what we did was pretty boring and very basic. I am not saying that it wasn't insightful though!

    The set up was us in the round pen with three sheep. I like the round pen at Hog Dog for exercises like this because it is relatively small in diameter and well, it's round :-). This seems to naturally invite the smooth continuous motion I am looking for. On the down side if you aren't careful or you do to much in such a small round area your dog can quickly lose their nice square flanks. So with my back up against the fence and Diva at my side I sent her around on the away side flank and when she got to the top, before she turned in at balance, I gave her another flank command combined with an out to keep her going. As soon as she got past the stock I gave her the flank command again and called her in to me. Sometimes this went really well and other times my poor timing at calling her in had her coming in straight line by the stock. Not such a big deal on broke sheep in a tiny round pen with no where to go, but in a trial situation the sheep would have been long gone by my center obstacle :-/. I did this direction several more times until I had success getting what I felt was a more continuous circle and then changed direction to work on the go-bye side. This side was much harder as Diva isn't as wide and she really, really, wants to balance as soon as she is on the back side of the stock. I had to make more adjustments in my position to have success but in the end I got enough to call it a day.

   What I noticed about myself was that I say commands way to many times (Duct tape anyone?) and the tone of my voice escalates. I am a firm believer that tone makes much more sense to a dog that the actual words itself especially with a sensitive dog, which Diva is. The louder I am I can actually see her start to lose focus on the sheep because she is trying to figure out what I want. In a 30' diameter round pen there should be no space between us that Diva couldn't hear me whisper and so the next time I am out I plan on trying just that. I am going to whisper and be very careful of my tone of voice and we shall see if Diva *hears* me better.

Here's To Having A Good Plan...

  So I know I left the last blog post kind of hanging in regards to what my *homework* was but I did so because I feel it's an important enough topic to have it's own page. I am also hoping that by writing it down before I go out and try to put it into practice that I will be better set to think on my feet if it doesn't go exactly how I envision it. I am a firm believer in the power of the mind which is what usually keeps me awake the night(s) preceding a trial. I will run through my game plans over and over trying to work out the best strategy for several different scenarios. If I am lucky this will get me some extra sleep over the next couple of weeks ;-).

  Terry's advice was simple...go back to the basics and work on inside flanks. It didn't matter what type of stock I was working but I was to start and end each session with inside flank exercises. The middle of our training would be configured of a healthy dose of driving so that I didn't suddenly end up with an orbiting dog with no sense of walk up and push at trial time. How we were going to accomplish this was by doing the most baby step of all. In a small pen with my back up against the fence I am going to flank Diva around and BEFORE she stops at balance I am going to pat my leg and call her in to me. Rinse, repeat, and for good measure, repeat some more(In both directions I might add)! When I am no longer having to pat my leg to get her in to me and I can send her around continuously in both directions we will move up to a little larger area and start the entire process again with my back up against the fence. Gradually I will step away from the fence and we will progress to playing the around the clock game with flanks. Once that is reliable then comes handler movement to make sure that her flanks are independent. This isn't something I expect to get done before SEMASA but you have to start somewhere and anything I do between now and then can only improve our performance at the trial.

It's clinic time!

    Coming off a trial that gave me much to consider I knew that I needed to fix some of the things that I had neglected to solidly proof as we moved up the ranks. Everyone is excited when you finally teach your dog to drive. It's one of those milestones that marks your ability to start trialing with the *big dogs*. Suddenly, Fido gets the concept and off goes the stock and your dog! But what happens when you realize that you still need Fido to get around the stock in the corners to come to the center obstacle or that you need Fido to start taking true inside flanks that can't depend on you being there to help with your body? The trial in Indian proved two things to me without  doubt. Diva didn't truly understand inside flanks and what little she did get revolved around me standing perfectly still. As soon as I moved her brain says that se needs to get to balance and she will quit a flank mid go to do so. This made for one blown cattle run where instead of kicking out as I had asked her and coming in behind me to set up for the center obstacle she very neatly balanced and ran the cows right by me (and the mouth of the chute, lol)! I am laughing now but you can bet that at the time I was far from it ;-).

    With dreams of a WTCH still fresh in my mind I decided to enter SEMASA's 35th annual Great Lakes Stock Trial on Memorial Day weekend. So when the opportunity presented itself to participate in a Terry Wofford cattle clinic I jumped on it. I have worked with Terry a couple times before including back when Diva was more afraid that not of cattle. This time I knew we had a lot more going for us and I was hoping that Terry could give me some tips to fill in the gaps. I explained to Terry what I wanted to work on and so what he had me set up was first putting the cows in a corner and then pulling them back out. As they were coming out to our imaginary center obstacle I was supposed to flank Diva around and work on getting her to continue that flank until I said other wise. Diva did as I expected and then I did as I expected. What's that you ask? I get flustered, I yell commands louder, and I inevitably change position and try to correct Diva by chasing her on the flank. If you think sounds hilarious then you are right and believe me you should see how it looks! Terry blamed me for moving and said the dog was right, and I blamed the dog and silently accused Terry of not knowing anything ;-). Hahahaha...sorry Terry! So we continued to work on it and when we finally had success we called the first trip in the pen done and made a big deal over Diva. Session two went along better and Diva was getting around in the corner nicely. We were still missing the complete flank though unless I moved to help keep her motion going. On a good note there were so many things that I would normally stress over when working cattle that I didn't have any time to focus on and low and behold Diva did them wonderfully. She held her ground, stayed in the pocket under pressure, worked her cross drive at a good distance, and turned back a challenge from one of the steers. These are all things that a year ago I wasn't sure I would ever see from her on cattle.

   At the end of our time with Terry I left knowing what our homework was going to be and how I needed to go about starting. It really wasn't a surprise as it's what I had been thinking myself but getting confirmation from someone of Terry's experience made me feel good about my own growing knowledge in the world of stock dogs.

The Long Drive Home

     I have been sitting on this blog post for more than two weeks now while I gave myself time to digest what happened, what didn't happen, and more importantly why. To say that the weekend was less than spectacular would be an understatement and yet to say it was a wash would be lying.

    One of my dearest college friends passed away unexpectedly the Monday before the trial and at only 34 years old. Meghan was a bright and shining star who touched not only my life and my husband's, but our lives as they were first joining together. She had a smile that could light up a room and a laugh that made you want to join in. I think the most shaking thing for me was that I am never going to get to experience those things again and in the last few years I didn't reach out as much as I could have. In a single word, regret.

    As if the emotional heartache wasn't enough Indiana decided Spring was over rated and that a dose of winter mixed with 40mph wind gusts would be fun for all. The mornings were bitter cold and the wind cut straight to the bone. I suppose this should be expected since I am convinced trials don't ever happen during nice weather ;-). The good news was the dogs and stock were feeling great. The bad news was that none of us were prepared clothing wise. I ended up wearing a hodgepodge of various items that had been left in my truck which included one of Taylor's winter hats and two different colored stretchy gloves (I think one was Jayden's and the other was mine, lol!). Anyway, as they say, the show must go on and in this case so must the trial.

    Saturday's trials were using course F and so with that thought in mind I decided to only enter cattle and ducks. Diva and I were coming off a long winter of very little practice having only worked cows once in January and once at Easter time. Our duck practice was even sketchier with just 15 minutes of work back in January before our time on cattle! So one might question why I chose to not enter on sheep which we had at least 6 practice sessions on in the last 4 months ;-)? The answer is that I simply wasn't sure how the course would run, how the sheep would be, and I didn't want to frustrate my dog. When it comes to stock Diva and I make an interesting pair. I have the most experience with cows and am comfortable working them in all situations while Diva found them scary at first. Ducks I have the least experience with, and am not fond of at all, but Diva loves them and is a very natural duck dog. Sheep seems to be where we log the most hours but I also find them to be the highly variable when going from one farm to the next. From light to heavy, fetchy to flighty, and everything in between. So right or wrong my logic when entering a trial on a course I had never practiced before was to pick the two types of stock we felt the most comfortable with and hope that our combined skills carried us through. I dare say that I also might have had a touch of overconfidence going that I could secure the 2 needed advanced Q's on sheep the next day on course A ;-).

    Without picking apart the details of each run I will say this. If you haven't run course F before and your dog is not familiar with driving off of the fence then you will likely find it frustrating and have little success. It is a very tight course, particularly at the free standing pen. Time was also an issue when working cows. Those 10 minutes seemed to go by very fast ;-). Diva and I didn't have a very successful first attempt because we struggled to get everyone going up the middle. I was reminded that I needed to work on teaching Diva to come out of the take pen and cover her cows more effectively so that we aren't starting out with the cows already going down the fence line. On our second go I think we both had a better idea of what was happening and we had a pretty decent run. We managed to get something through every obstacle and put 2 in the free standing pen. At that point time was ticking away and I can remember hearing people on the sidelines yelling, "run!" as I was headed to the re-pen, lol. As it turns out we made it with 14 seconds to spare...phew! When I left the arena the general consensus was that we had likely earned our first advanced Q but truth be told I was on top of the world for just having successfully navigated the course. Diva had worked her butt off for me! At the end of the day course F came out the clear victor with no advanced Q's in 2 trials on cattle.

     Day two presented pretty much the same as day 1, bitter wind and cold. At least everyone was in better spirits since we were trialing on course A! The cattle were very happy to go around the fence line but they were no longer waiting for the dog to get around them in the take pen. Instead it was a flying leap to get out even if that ment going over the dog. Diva's new found confidence in doing take pens with cattle suffered a hit but nothing that I don't think we can fix. She was put off her game when the cattle came charging over her and I can't say I blame her. My desire to have her hit and be tough doesn't include having her suddenly become suicidal ;-). I was very proud of how she worked away from me and we had some nice pieces that finally came together and earned our first advanced cattle Q. Our duck runs went much better also and she earned her ATDd title with a very nice 105. I wish I could be as positive about the sheep but unfortunately we had little to no success. Diva was very steady and working at a good distance for her so the drive through obstacles 1 and 2 went pretty well. Where it all fell apart was trying to work the sheep at the center obstacle. They were very reluctant to go in the chute and I watched many a good dog and handler teams struggle at the same spot. For the few who found success the dog had to be way off and lightning fast on switching flanks when told. If you couldn't do this then the sheep would squirt right or left of the opening and haul for the re-pen area. I had not encountered sheep like this before so there were many lessons to be learned but no Q's to be had. I left feeling very frustrated and being a little hard on Diva but once I had time to reflect I was able to see how nice she worked and how hard she tried on those sheep. She is normally a much closer working dog and always stays on her feet so the fact that I was having to push her out behind panels 1 and 2 to work the center obstacle was very hard on her. Despite that she stayed engaged and tried to make it happen for me so what more could I ask for?

   So after a long, hard, and emotional weekend I settled in to make the long drive home. 9 hours gives a person a long time to think about what went wrong and why. As is human nature I started out trying to find reasons to justify our failures. Its easy to place blame and deflect responsibility and I am certain we have all done it, even if some people won't admit to it. I wanted to explain it all away by talking about Diva's short comings on each type of stock but eventually I came to this conclusion. Herding is hard. The dog is a reflection of its training, experiences, and genetics. Two of those things are variables that depend directly on the human(s) in their life and what you do with them. The third is the raw talent they are born with but again it's the humans job to utilize these strengths and channel them. What does this mean? That when thinking of success and failure, through a haze of disappointment I might add, the only person I really needed to hold accountable was myself. Stock will be stock and they can change from day to day or run to run. It's all part of the puzzle when you walk into an arena and go about making animals with an independent mind move where you want them to by using yet another animal with an independent mind. Diva can only give me back what I have put into her and yet time and time again I have watched her try to give me more. What does this say about me? I can't take credit for her ability to forgive and exceed but its her love for me that makes her dig deeper when I ask. What I learned as I drove home was that I need to aspire to be the handler my dog deserves and not the other way around.

Nothing Exciting...And That's A Good Thing!

   Maintaining a blog can be hard work. Especially if you are trying to keep it fresh and interesting. I try to keep mine honest also but that doesn't always make for the most informative or exciting read. It is a struggle to decide what is "blog worthy" and what is just re-hashing the same ol' same ol' on a different day. I honestly wasn't going to write anything about our sheep working session this past Friday for a couple of reasons. 1.) I have no videos or working photos to share. I don't know why, but for me to want to present something to people I also feel like I need a visual aid to go along with it :-/. And 2.) Nothing exciting or new happened. This got me thinking though that not every time you work do you have a break through or do something new. This in itself is an important lesson for those who are moving up the ranks to learn and plays big into handler expectations. So Friday for me was neither an epic failure nor did any fireworks go off. We came, we worked, and this is the way it went.

    Hog Dog is down to just 7 workable sheep at the moment due to lambing. These 7 are all of last years ewe lambs that were not bred and though they have been worked regularly for many months without a more seasoned ewe, or two, to anchor them they don't always make the best choices. Nothing as wild and crazy as some sheep might do but they are lighter that what you typically get at Hog Dog. I actually love working them alone as it offers a lot of awareness opportunities for Diva who can get rather complacent working on what to us is home turf. I didn't have a set training plan for Friday but as usual we started the work session by going out and gathering our sheep in the big pasture. Once we had them gathered I had Diva drive them down to the lower fields and we split them into two groups. Diva doesn't rate very naturally and as we were driving down the field she seemed to have lost the concept of a straight line walk up in favor of flanking to make motion. I decided to put her in the field with the sheep while I stayed outside at the gate and just let her go do her thing and be "responsible". This is a great exercise for her and for me! I always want to say too much and she likes to look at me more than she should. As an extra bonus I forgot my stick over by my truck so I had nothing to wave around like a wild woman, lol!

   The first couple of minutes Diva just went and fetched the sheep to where I was outside the gate. Typical of her she just pushed them right to me and when they didn't stop she pushed them on past and was forced to get around them again and bring them back. I let her work at this for a few attempts before I pointed out that she needed to get back and actually watch the sheep to hold them to the gate ;-). Once I was sure that she was thinking more about her position I started having her drive them to various spots in the field and in particular to the one corner they don't like to get into. This was very hard for Diva because I wasn't in the field to help her hold a side and she lost them several times before we had any success. To get that success I was forced to move down the fence line to put  myself in a more natural position (though I remained on the outside of the fence). After we accomplished getting them into the corner I wanted to practice a little exercise there using the gate to the small pen. Basically I was just having Diva drive the sheep into the small pen, then stopping at the opening to hold them in a down (or sit as directed), and then sending her in the small pen to bring them back out and do it all over again. She took them in and out a few times and I was happy with how she was able to work independently without me in the pen. To finish off we worked on inside flanks and getting some very direct straight line walk ups to drive the sheep away. As soon as I got a really nice walk up we quit and I made a big fuss about her.

   So there you have it. Nothing exciting happened...and that's ok :-). Also, I will leave you with a few non working photos to look at because I just can't seem to bring myself to have a text only blog post ;-).

Lambie cuteness. This ewe had twins but rejected the smaller one.

 

Another view of the big ram lamb

 

Unfortunately momma didn't want the little black ewe lamb. She is now a happy bottle baby :-)

 

No stick is to big, lol!

 

Diva posing for a picture in NY

 

 

Another staged photo in front of the pond

Now that's a happy working dog!

Bring on the cows!



 

    Every trip to up to NY I always make a point of getting over to Dawn's to get in some cow time. This trip it was particularly important because we have a trial coming up and this will likely be our only chance to work cows before then. My focus for today was to work on our take pen skills and just establish more confidence in close quarters. The last time we worked cows was back in January and Diva did a very good job of working the off side and taking control. She has become very fond of getting to the heads and turning her cows but I have yet to get the much coveted heel grip. If we had more access I think that she would eventually get it but I can't say I am unhappy with how she is working and therefore I am confident that we have enough skills to make a bid for our WTCH in April.

 

    Below are a sampling of videos from today though some of the better work that came near the end I didn't capture. What we were doing was using a set of gates, small pens, and two fields to work. The idea was to have Diva push the cows from one pen to the next, back and forth, and then out into one field or the other while maintaining control and immediately turning them back and re-penning. I wanted her to get comfortable applying pressure and holding it as she has a tendency to want to bounce out of the pocket and go to the heads. In the first video she did a nice job of pulling them out of the pen but she lost one when it came to covering in the field. The next time she was faced with same task she covered better and the calves turned immediately and we re-penned.

 

   We also did an exercise in the smallest pen where I went out and then Dawn and I were both (from opposite sides of the pen) encouraging Diva to move the cows and grip. We made a lot of exciting noise and offered encouragement for every time she got close but in the end she hit the heads (and a couple of shoulders :-/) but no heel grips. On the bright side she ducked kicks appropriately and didn't take any hits and for that I am always happy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Is Just Around The Corner...

   Seven weeks. That's how long it had been since we worked stock until yesterday, March 1st. I have committed myself to going out to Indiana to trial in April and to be ready for that Diva and I have to get out and dust off the cobwebs. The time for softness and excuses has passed. We are 5 Q's away from a WTCH and I want it so bad I can hardly stand it. Perhaps after the first one I won't feel so much excitement about the next? Who knows, but I am not too ashamed to admit that at this point and time it is foremost in my mind.

   When we got out to the farm yesterday the workable sheep were out in the large pasture. Most of the older ewes are separated now into the back pasture with the ram for lambing time so what is left are a few ewes that are pregnant but not as close to lambing and last years ewe lambs. A total of 11 sheep which gave me plenty to work with. I started Diva by gathering the sheep and then working on flanks out in the large pasture. Diva has a notoriously strong sense of balance and it can be hard to remind her that she must continue on her flank until I say otherwise. Particularly to the go bye side. It's the basics that make the whole and so I find myself wanting to re-visit and polish good flanking, "there", and walk up. Once I accomplished what I wanted in the pasture I had Diva drive the sheep down to the smaller fields and sorted sheep off into various areas. I put the 3 older ewes and one lamb in the round pen and 3 lambs back out into the big field. After a short break I took Diva back out in the large field with the 3 lambs and worked on driving and inside flanks. There is a free standing pen out in this pasture and it wasn't long before the lambs figured out that they could use it as a shield. It was a great opportunity to get Diva taking her flanks and walking up so we worked at it until she was able to push them past the pen without them cutting around it and coming over to me. After getting them driving up the field I had her navigate the lambs through the panels and around the cone. This was all done out in the open and off the fence line. We took another short break and then went in and worked the ewes in the round pen. This is a pretty small area and with very fetchy broke sheep it was a nice way to work on inside flanks again and challenge Diva to keep them driving while I stayed stationary in the center. For not having worked in a so long I couldn't have been happier with how she did!

   Rae came down to Hog Dog and joined me which was another wonderful part of getting out to work stock. She brought along with her a 6 month old puppy that belongs to a friend and is visiting for some training, Esme. Those who know me know how much I adore watching first exposures. I find it so interesting to see the raw product! I ended up taking Esme in to the round pen with some nice broke sheep to give her a first exposure to stock. She showed a lot of interest for a 6 month old puppy but naturally she wasn't 100% secure working with me(a stranger). To help her get comfortable after the first time in the pen we brought in Diva to show her the ropes. Diva likes to work with other dogs and she really thinks its fun when I am not on her case about working to close or cutting her flanks ;-). Below is a video of Diva and Esme having a good time!