Dusting Off The Cobwebs

   It feels like forever since I have had anything to write about but, much to my greatest joy, yesterday Diva and I made our first attempt at getting back to normal. So where have we been these past 3 months (OMG, 3 months is a long time!!)? Well the story starts like this...

   On November 2, 2013 while at a family ice skating night I managed to slip and break my ankle. Never one to do anything half way I broke my Fibula in a bimaellor fracture and completely tore the syndesmosis ligaments allowing the ankle to become displaced. What this means in simple terms is that my foot was not facing the right direct :-/. I required surgery with a plate and 9 screws and haven't been allowed to bear weight for nearly 12 weeks. During this time Diva did nothing more than be my devoted companion and have the occasional session of ball throwing in the yard when I could crutch out there safely. It has been a very difficult time for me as I had to sit back and watch life happening without me. Sometimes the mind is ready but the body simply can't keep up. That is where I have been for 3 months. 

   But enough about the doom and gloom. Let's get to the bright side ;-). In just 9 days I will be allowed to begin weight bearing again and though I may have to walk in the ortho boot for several more weeks at least I will be more independent! Running agility may be months off but Diva and I are going to be able to resume working stock, doing obedience, and rally. We have also started doing a lot of "trick" training. The highlight though is that yesterday I met Kelly and Rae at Hog Dog for some much needed girl time and to test how it would be to work sheep while on crutches. Much to Diva's delight Kelly also took her around a few agility obstacles :-). I was pleased that she was enjoying herself and that she remembered her weaves and running A frame contact! Diva is always a happy girl but I could see that getting a chance to be with her Aussie friends and play brought her more joy. 

     I didn't get any shots of Diva "working" sheep because honestly there wasn't much to see. Rae put her in the round pen with 3 sheep and I stayed outside on my crutches. At first I thought to just let her move them around but 3 months of inactivity has let my mouth get out of control ;-). I got caught up in saying to much instead of just letting her figure it out. The sheep were being particularly cagey about coming over to the side of the fence I was at in part because there were other dogs outside and just behind me but also because these 3 weren't great about staying together. It became a small battle between me, sheep, and dog to get them to just stay in balance. Diva was happy to go out and fetch them but once they hit the boundary of their comfort zone they wanted to squirt around her and she was to close and not strong enough to stop it. Eventually I got what I needed to from Diva call a stop to the session but it was a very good reminder that I need to be quiet and work more from outside the fence where I can't move my body to influence her or the stock. Who knew you could glean all this information from 3 sheep and a 30' round pen ;-)?!

    So we blew the cobwebs off and got to have a little fun. I expect in the coming weeks there will be more posts as I continue to find my "foot" and learn to walk again. Diva needs to be brought back to condition also so we will start this next step together. My goals haven't changed for this year, I still want to get her CDX, PCH, RA, RTDs, do some AHBA, and if I can manage it get back to agility and pursue that ATCH.
 

Feels Like Fall...finally!

   Fall is in full effect now and for those people, like myself, who wilt during the summer heat this is a welcome change. It makes me want to get outside and do some training. This is obviously a good thing since our trial schedule (both agility and herding) is about to get a major bump up in November. Diva did me a favor (sort of ;-)) by graciously deciding to come into heat this past week. This will have her just out of heat before the ASCA agility trial November 3/4 but it does complicate our ability to go out and train. See what I mean, a double edged sword ;-). Fortunately Hog Dog allows BIH to train on the agility equipment so we will be getting in several practice sessions on our own. 

    Speaking of Hog Dog, this past Friday Kelly and I met there to work sheep and have a little girl time. I am really looking to tune up her go by outrun and inside flanks before the November AHBA trial. I want her thinking more round and listening when she hits the top instead of just kicking into auto pilot and stopping at balance as she is prone to do. It was pretty obvious after working the group of 4 ewes I sorted off that the HD sheep have been seeing a lot more work. They are still heavy but now a couple of them have learned a few "tricks" which they previously never tried. In a way this is great news and more than once Diva had to fix the mess she made by not truly watching the sheep. During our first training session I took the 4 ewes out into the large pasture and had her drive them up the field so we could practice that go by outrun. The sheep cheated her a little bit by turning well before she was able to make the full outrun and this caused her to cheat me and slice in at the top. Of course we can't have that so I set it up a few more times and pushed her off until it was more to my liking. Then we worked on driving around the pasture off the fences which Diva does very well. Just for fun I set it up so that Diva was doing the free standing pen without my help. I was trying to stay about 60-80 feet away minimum from the pen with the gate open and let her cover everything on her own. There was one ewe that was just savvy enough to brush by the gate if the dog wasn't out wide enough and fast enough on the flank and this caused Diva to really have to work on it to make it happen. It was a tough love moment as I stood back there and just kept sending her around until she figured it out but it also made me proud that she got it done. Once the sheep were in I had her hold the opening for a few minutes and then go in and get them back out. She still likes to watch me alot and I am not sure that I will ever "fix" this. Perhaps because I talk to much ;-). 

    
    For our second group I added 2 more ewes and we worked in the small field on shorter go by out runs and then reminders that we aren't always driving, sometimes you need to fetch :-). I wanted to try the free standing pen exercise again with the added sheep so we took our group back into the pasture and set things up. Once again Diva had to really work and be correct because now there were two ewes who figured out how to skim the gate and go around. Where we seemed to run into trouble was when I had to flank her around the pen to bring the evaders back to the opening Diva was cutting in a little to close and not catching their eyes fast enough to turn them into the opening. It was a matter of being off my a few feet and a couple of seconds. Once she finally had them all in there I asked her to hold them before we moved on. I have to say that i love this exercise and it is something I will revisit the next time we are out (hopefully with the video camera). I think that by changing the position of the gate I can effectively tweak the degree of difficulty enough to provide a variety of learning experiences for Diva. During our two tries this time the gate was open so that it was completely straight with the one side panel.

I'm an Aunt!

    Yep, that's right I am officially an Aunt to my cousin's new Aussie puppy, Myst. Myst joined the family about a month ago having hailed from Solstice Aussies in Virginia. Myst is Jessica's first Aussie and therefore Diva and I are taking an active role to make sure that they get off to the best possible start. Truth be told it has helped my horrendous case of puppy fever. Besides, there is much to be said for getting all the puppy kisses you want without having to do any of the house breaking ;-). I hope that Jessica will start her own blog about raising Myst but for now she will be making appearances in Diva's blog when it's appropriate. One such blog worthy event came last weekend when Myst got her first chance to meet sheep! 

   
    My own experiences with Diva and now having watched my friends start a few puppies has proven that the more exposure a pup has to stock the better. Now before anyone has a fit when I say exposure that doesn't mean any hard core training or pressure. What we want is for the pup to have fun, show some interest, watch the older dogs working, and learn to relax around stock and take it for granted. The premise being that when it comes time to start letting them really work you won't have a dog that is so hyped up they aren't thinking. What this boils down to for Myst's future is having the her go in the round pen with the sheep once a month or so just for few minutes to see how she reacts. No yelling, no force, and no serious expectations. We will do this on leash and off leash (if she is calm enough). Myst will also be spending time on leash in the pen with Jessica watching Diva and I work sheep and when Jessica can't come along she will learn to watch from the fence. Do I expect this to make everything all peaches and cream when we begin work? No, but I do believe that it will lay a good foundation that she will quickly build from.

   When Jessica and I decided to take Myst out to see sheep it was really just  for fun. No one puts to much weight on a what a 10 week old puppy does or doesn't do their first time seeing stock ;-). I had sorted off 3 yearling ewes and put them in the round pen. Hog Dog sheep are usually very fetchy and don't challenge. Jessica brought Myst in on leash while I had Diva move the sheep around and once it was clear she wasn't afraid the leash came off. There was one ewe that kept turning to face Myst (I think because she was so small) but she didn't get scared and I would have Diva come in beside her and move the ewe off. Jess caught Myst up and we went out to sit in the shade for a bit to let her "think" on what she had experienced. The next time we went in I decide Diva should stay out and I would let Jessica just walk around with Myst and the sheep. Clearly the first impression was a good one because Myst went straight to the sheep and did her best to get to balance. I was giving direction from the sidelines about where Jessica should go and the result was a very engaged puppy that showed a nice sense of group and sustained interest. She only made a couple of little messes and immediately covered the one that broke away. After just a couple of minutes Jess picked her up and that was that. We were both happy with the outcome :-). I think that Myst has a lot in there to work with and Jessica was bitten by the herding "bug". Till next time, enjoy!

A Gorgeous Fall Day

    It's not often I feel inclined to rave about the weather, especially early September weather in Maryland, but today mother nature delivered a beautiful fall like day that was perfect for working stock! Diva and I had morning plans to meet our agility trainer at Hog Dog to help her do a first exposure for her young Sheltie as well as get in some work for one of her Border Collies. The first order of business was to go out in the big pasture and bring down the flock. It's been a while since I have worked on Diva's blind outrun and so in the interest of having things go smoothly I walked to the top of the hill before sending her. Once she had the sheep to me I had her push them off and drive them down the pasture to the smaller working fields. The feeling of working in such a wide open space after doing a lot of trialing was awesome and I was able to enjoy my walk while appreciating how Diva was managing the group. Once the sheep were  where I needed them to be I proceeded to sort of 3 older ewes to put in the round pen and a group of 5 to put in the "arena" field (said loosely because it is a tad to small to be a true arena). The rest were left in the back field to serve as a draw for the arena group.

   Today really wasn't about a working on a specific task but more just enjoying the day and relaxing. I spent a little bit of time working on a better go by outrun and then practiced some inside flanks and walk ups on the group in the arena and then decided it would be wise to work the round pen ewes some before putting a green dog on ;-). Diva was happy and confident, the sheep were calm, and I remembered to smile :-). With her job done I put Diva away and we got down to doing the instinct test with the young dog. Instinct tests are the best! I know I have said this many times before but I LOVE watching a dog turn on. What I saw from the sheltie was a very engaged, confident, and naturally balanced dog. He was fast at figuring things out and never once in either of his two trips in did he stop to sniff, eat poop, or even look away! This one has the potential to be a very nice working dog and I hope my agility instructor sticks with it with him (hint, hint ;-))!

    As exciting as that was the best part of the morning came when Diva helped her BC friend have a major break through in working through the pressure of a fence and stock. Her first time in the arena she worked very nice but it was easy to see that she was very sensitive to the "bubble" and any fence or obstacle. Rather than force her or continue to cause stress by repeating a failing exercise I suggested that we put all of the sheep (about 20) into the round pen and then let her work with and watch Diva. Diva is awesome at working with other dogs because she doesn't get distracted by them nor is she possessive of her stock or space. While we stood on the fence line I had Diva drive the sheep around and then flank to pull them off the fence...rinse repeat. At first the BC wasn't sure but then she really started working with Diva and following her lead. It was actually a really touching thing to watch one dog helping another to figure something out. Our input was very minimal and in the end she was able to start going between the stock and the fence! I am told that this has been a long time issue for her and that it has prevented her from moving forward. My guess is that another time or two in a packed round pen with Diva and she will not be nearly as worried about the external pressures! I am continually amazed by Diva and how far she has come. He capacity to be what I need in the moment is what makes her so special as well as her easy going nature. Truly a dog I can take anywhere and get results!

The Next Big Goal

“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.”

 

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988);

    I love this quote! It is very fitting considering we have just finished a major title and I am now looking forward to our next set of goals. I have been very fortunate in surrounding myself with a group of friends that are more about the journey than the end and so after the hugs and congrats were over what I heard was, "So now it's time to get her PCH, right?" The answer is, YES! Getting Diva's PCH is definitely on my radar as well as getting her ATCH. I also plan on trialing in AHBA this fall and have toyed with doing some AKC. Diva and I have many adventures ahead of us and I don't see getting her WTCH as the end of anything.

    So with the PCH (Performance Champion in ASCA) in mind I sat down to evaluate where we are and what we need to do to accomplish this. The requirements for a PCH are 2 advanced stock titles, all of your open level agility titles, and a CDX. This means Diva needs one Open Regular agility leg and her CDX to finish this goal. Not that much! I have been talking about getting back in to obedience for a while now and I definitely want to continue on in Rally. What I don't want to do is go back to obedience classes because I feel like that took away the fun. Instead I plan on working at home and with friends to make sure I keep things light and exciting for Diva. I doubt we will continue on to utility work but ya never know ;-). So my first step in training is to build my own set of obedience jumps. I have agility jumps but I want to make a nice set that is specifically related to obedience. The next thing  need to do is order a new dumbbell. Diva has a plastic one but I think that a wooden dumbbell will suit her better. Her retrieve is very natural, my throwing...not so much ;-).

    The one leg of RS-O will play a part in not only the PCH but also because I want to start working towards her ATCH. Our agility training has been sporadic but I am committed to changing that this fall/winter. I have continued to work on training the box for her running A frame and we will be proofing our other contacts as well. We will be back in the agility ring soon and burning it up! In the mean time everyone needs to take a vacation once in a while and our family just got back from a fun weekend on Chincoteague Island! Diva enjoyed just hanging out with us but we are both itching to get back to working stock. Good thing we have some sheep time scheduled for this Friday!

   

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.