More on Driving

I have been chipping away at the heap that is our driving.  I took an unplanned lesson today.  So happens I was in the right place at the right time and there was a cancellation.

Still doing a lot of walking as per the prescription of my last lesson and things are coming along really well. Z's staying back and actually feeling his sheep better.   We are also making MUCH better 90 degree turns.  The cross drive is shaping up better.  I really attribute it to the a walking, I can really be there to enforce keeping the sheep's side turned towards me and not letting him slip and turn them away or try to fetch.  More work to be done here though, to lessen the tension and get him more comfortable.  We'll keep on trucking in this vein.

One thing that was brought to my attention while taking my fortunate lesson was my dog is not walk up strait  EVERYTIME he walks up.  I didn't realize that Z was even cheating me on this. Ok honestly, I knew somewhere deep down in my dark insides, but I didn't realize it was the root of  one of my issues.  Mostly he walks up dead on but sometimes when I say walk up he moves to the side and forward.  Z really only needs to move forward.  I have some good exercises to cure this problem.  What I couldn't sort out was he knew to turn in when I said there, but he wasn't taking responsibility for the line after he turned in.  I really had to keep placing him where I need him to be instead of setting him and letting him go.  So now I am teaching him the "there" means turn in and hold that line.  I'm actually fixing this on the fetch since he is very keen to move forward.  Really excited to see how this plays out and quickly he gets it.

I also got some stunning help on my shed.  I have been having an issue with Z really watching the lead sheep and wanting to grab those instead of letting them go.  I now have a new twist on my shedding at least for awhile.  Actually I think this will clear up much faster than what we have going on with our driving.  He will get it much quicker as he is very keen to shed. We will stop practicing look backs while shedding first and foremost.

I must assimilate all the new information.

Winter Hibernation

I'm pretty much planning to take it easy for the next month or so as far as trialling.  The plan is to focus on the training issues that need worked on.

For the most part I will be looking at Z's driving and we will drive and drive and drive some more.  With that I plan to walk a lot to get the power steering and gears installed. I'm trying to get much more smoothness instead of the stop start we have been having lately.  Also I am working on opening up his inside flanks a little bit more.  As alway still working on keeping him back and getting him relaxed behind the sheep.  He really likes to goose the bubble and has a hard time letting them go a tiny bit to use the draw to our advantage.  I'll be setting up situations to work on this.

The next thing I will work on a little is smoothing out the shedding.  He almost understands this well.  So I plan to solidify it a bit more and start asking him in more difficult situations.  I will probably not work too hard on this right now as driving seems to be more pressing.

I'll make an attempt to work on his look back too.  We did few sessions on this in the late summer and he's got the basic idea.  He's turning back and taking off in the direction I want, but sometimes it takes a little work to get him to let go of the first group.

I'll be heading out in Dec. for a trial in Idaho, but after that probably not trial again until the end of Feb.  With any luck I'll be able to keep Z reasonably fit and we wont be too behind the ball when we start shaping up to go to North Dakota in June.  Hopefully we get into the trial! Take a look here.http://www.slashj.com/

Island Crossing_Z's run

Day 1 was by all accounts a tad rocky.  The field is a nice field with some tricks to the terrain.  The illusion is that left is the better way to send, but there is actually enough room to send right and not have to contend with the fencing obstacle. I sent right. Lost 1 on the out-run I called him in a bit at the bottom as he has the tendency to run too wide right away especially to the right. I thought he over ran a touch, but on reflection he was covering the pressure of the set out, 0 off the lift.  Lost 8 off the fetch, there were no panels and I find it challenging to keep a line with no target.  Post turn was sweet, we have been working on this.  It is still not the best yet so our drive away set up is still a bit mucky.  We lost 18 points on the drive.  The drive away was tough because the sheep were running back toward the set out.  I cut it short and just grazed the inside panel, my dog was really worried about losing the sheep.  Made and ok turn and had a cross drive into the draw of the exhaust.  It was really tough to keep him from over flanking, he was convinced he was going to lose them to the draw.  We were a hair low and I flanked him and we made the panels.  The turn around the panels was so sweet, one of the few dogs that didn't lose the sheep down the hill to the exhaust.  We made it to the shed, but had a tricky time.  I got the shed but didn't get it called due to my front sheep leaving the ring before I called my dog in.  The sheep weren't too forgiving about letting me try again.  So we died a painful death in the shedding ring.  We scored a whopping  53 for the day and ended up mid pack.

Day 2 saw a much better go for us.  I really put my head down and worked harder to make a better run.  I sent right again and he broke nicely and I did not have to call him in :)  No points off on our out-run, lift or fetch!!!!  I could have just walked off there.  That is what I have been training for in the past few months.  I blew one steady whistle when he turned in to lift.  He really held the fetch line on his own and I just tried to steady him and keep him backed off.  He really read the sheep and took it upon himself to be responsible for the line.  Our post turn was ok the second half got a a bit wide.  Our drive away was ok, it was hard to get him to let go of the pressure a let the sheep be on line.  We drove towards the exhaust, made the panels with a good turn.  The cross drive was one of the best we have done.  He had to push on them and it really helped.  I was beginning to feel like he was taking some responsibility for holding the this line as well.  We penned first and this went well, I managed to break our string of foul luck at the pen.  Then we shed.  We lost 6 points here because I didn't have a good plan for getting us from the pen to the shedding ring.  The sheep kind of bounced around.  We took and nice single though once we manage to get down to business. I don't know where we ended up for that day I went home to get out of the pouring rain :)

Update: We finished 8th!

Here is the video of our Sunday run.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9BSHIvRASc

Z's really beginning to show some maturity when it comes to the lines.  He's starting to take some responsibility for keeping the line I ask him to hold.  I also feel his confidence growing. On day one although we didn't get the job done I felt my dog was much more supple, listening better and had nicer pace.  On day 2 I felt he was running through me some what and things were going a bit too quickly.  Although the only time I really felt I needed to correct him on day 2 was when he was about to goose the sheep's bubble.  On the other hand the few times I did stop him he moved on his own right away instead of waiting for me to tell him what to do, super stoked about that.  This work in progress is just so cool.  He's gonna be something next year!

HTCh Del Mar Mick HTAD IIIs,d, HTDIIIs, RLF IIIs, HRD IIIs

Mick and T-shirt Over Long Underwear Girl

 

This is blog is about Mick today.  He is second Border Collie I have owned.  He is a very good guy, honest and always tries hard.  I bought him when he was a little over 3 years old after Scott Glen ran him as a Nursery dog.  I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time to be able to acquire such a talented and well started dog.  Mick has taught me many things about sheep and I have gained tons of experience at the post with him.  This weekend he finished his HTCh  in the AHBA ( http://www.ahba-herding.org/ ) program.

I have retired Mick from running USBCHA Open.  He has some health problems that make it very difficult for him to run at that level.  The last time I ran him was in May at Fido's Farm in the AHBA Triherdalon trial.  We scored a 99 out of possible 100 points.

Mick and Tanya

Since then Tanya has been working him.  In July they went to Sheep camp at Fido's Farm for 5 days.  They came back from that really looking like a team!  This was Tanya and Mick's first AHBA trial.  On Friday they scored a 91 and earned one championship point.  On Saturday they were second in the HRD III class with a 93 and were Reserve High in Trial earning the tenth and final championship point.  I am very proud of Tanya, she has put in a lot of hard work.

Mick is going to be a very good teacher for Tanya and hopefully she will learn as much as I have from him.  He will make her a great handler.  He is not an easy dog to run and he will make her work hard, I believe they will succeed!

I love this dog!

Memory Lane

Trip to South Dakota-dog work

I have been trying to find the time to write about this for a week now.  I'll try real hard to keep it brief.

The drive out there was uneventful.  In Billings MT I got my Cracker Barrel fix and a cushy stay at the Motel 6.  I was so excited to be headed out to Jamie's huge ranch near Sturgis, SD.

On Friday morning I got up and drove the 6 more hours to Jamie's house.  I worked Z once that day, twice on Saturday and twice on Sunday.

My main goals were to take him out in the big open spaces, use the tricky terrain and tougher sheep to expand his experience.

For the most part I worked on out run issues.  I set up some shorter ones at a comfortable distance but used the hilly undulating terrain to make finding the sheep a difficult.  He would often lose visibility several times, sometimes leaving my feet blind or seeing them only for the first bit of the run.  I placed them up on hills, on the side of big hills and sent him from all over the place.  Usually the fetching was kind of tricky because the terrain was hilly and he really had to work at keeping the line no matter the terrain  I also had big spaces where the out running was pretty straight forward.  In these place I was sending him 400+ yards.

We did some driving.  It went alright.  These tougher sheep are very sensitive and not very forgiving if the dog is and whisker out of place.  I didn't work too much on the line just keeping him going confidently on, just letting him chug a long.  It was nice to not have worry about a fence.  I also practiced 90 degree turns while driving.  I have been struggling with my timing at the drive away panel.  Often I let him go too far.

I did work a little on shedding these sheep.  They were pretty hard to shed.  We managed it a couple of times, but failure out weighed success in that department.  Which was ok with me, it is a skill he knows but he's not practiced enough to come through small gaps and hold sheep that want to fight a little bit.  I practiced just making gaps and not calling him through too.  This really tuned my eye up.

We also worked cows a tiny bit while we were there.  He was interested but a little unsure.

Thanks so much to Jamie and her family, it was great!

Here are some of the videos that were taken from the trip.
Blind out run
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2eGseo5qJg

Last Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T96mdZZ9sZs

Cows
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPkNgi1lBZ8

On Monday morning we headed home, staying in Missoula on the way back.  Just a couple hundred miles, me and my dog.

Vashon Sheepdog Classic

This trial was fabulous.  Next year I'm going both days.  Thank you Maggi McClure http://www.mightymutt.com/ for reviving this trial.  Thank you Patrick Shannahan for judging http://www.patrickshannahan.com/ . The terrain was difficult with multiple rolling hills and swales.  The dog lost sight for large chunks of the outrun on either side.  The lift and fetch were visible as was the drive away.  The cross drive was blind for the first 1/3 of it, due to a large hill. The sheep were challenging but very doable.  Thank you Eric Harlow of Harlow Hills West Coast http://www.harlowshillswestcoast.com/ for these fun sheep.  They didn't move very well for some dogs and other dogs picked a fight with them.  Confidence and patients were the qualities that made the successful dogs of the day.


I sent Z right and had to blow him out 3 times.  He kept coming down into the swales looking for sheep.  I thought he spotted the sheep before he left my feet, but apparently not.  He had a good lift, not one sheep though about not moving for him.  He was a little on the muscle for the first 1/3rd or so.  I got him back under control and things started to look pretty as we made the panel.  The post turn was wider then I'd like, but the sheep kept on moving.  Z chugged them right up the drive away line and did a nice turn.  He kept them on line until the last bit of the blind spot where he started to fetch them.  I had to work hard to convince him to put them back on line.  we made both drive panels.  I knew I was in good shape as he hustled them to the shedding ring.  We got the shed, he turned on  the wrong group for a split second.  I got him turned on the right group and he held them.  We had 4+ minutes to pen and it just didn't happen for us.  Mostly my lack of reading these sheep too well that day.  Grr on me.  Our score was a 63 and we were in 9th place after 30 dogs had run.  I left before it was over so I have no idea how we ended up.  I know the things I need to work on.

I need to be a better me during the whole run.  I have to get more work on sheep that don't want to pen.  I have to boost my dog's confidence on the cross drive so he is more comfortable holding that line with my help.  I need to look at my shedding.  I think he is turning on the sheep that are trying to escape, this is magnified in a trial situation.  Since he rarely does this in practice.  The sheep we practice on don't run away after being shed.

Video of the run

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Teik4Dzj8VM

Really I do continue to train my dogs

We have been up to the usual stuff around here.  Trying to keep dry already, yuck.

I've been taking the dogs out to Fido's and up to Whidbey Is. to work.  Z has been doing really well.  We have been focusing on the same stuff for a while.  Mostly working on our outwork, getting really exact.  I can now get him to do many things in his out work.  Starting with the outrun, I can stop him anywhere and pull him, cross him over multiple times or push him out.  At the top I can stop him short, flank him over, stop him on balance, or just blow a steady on the lift.  I can also swing him around at any point on the fetch and cross drive the sheep.  He will also gather them silently for the most part, usually needs a steady or 2 on the fetch.  This tells me I can put him anywhere I want or he can find his way if  I cannot  help him.  Pretty much perfect, he knows his job and is willing to listen.  This has transfered over to our driving really well.  I don't have the pace I want yet on the drive, but I am opting to leave it be for now.  I can slow him down or speed him up, but the steady push isn't there yet, like it is on the fetch.  I see him changing a lot and growing up almost every time I work him.

I've been really mindful of the gems I held onto from me most recent work with Scott Glen.  I have him stopping really well, now I barely have to stop him at all.  He's taking his steady fairly consistently and if that fails he will stop.  I'm really, really working on not letting the sheep stop him.  This is a bit troublesome on our fetch because he really feels my bubble at the end of it.  Otherwise it pops up on the drive occasionally and I do my best to give him something to do besides stop as long as it makes sense.  So many things to think about.  I also have been working really hard to not push him on his sheep, Scott got after me a bit for this.  So I have let him pick the pace, especially on heavier sheep.  I know he can move though sheep and he doesn't give ground, so I'll just let him go slow in training .  I also know at a trial I can speed him up on the heavier sheep if I need to, cross my fingers he doesn't grip ;)  He's still a bit sticky if I stop him so I have been ultra aware of giving him something to do right away to get him moving again.  I have implement a stay command to make the difference clear of when staying put is or isn't required.  Interestingly enough he's beginning to drop to his belly if I tell him to stay, like when holding sheep.  Normally he stops on his feet while working.  Hoping this will become more and more clear to him.  Honestly I probably hold sheep too much with him and this is not helping some of this sticky stop issue.

Guess that is all for now.  Off to Vashon Is on Sunday for 1 Open run.  Then we make a training trip to SD and have an AHBA trial at the end of the month. Oh and up to Arlington the first weekend of Nov. We will be busy!