Fetch!

Today we had our lesson with Dave. He is pleased with how she's coming along holding her distance out from the sheep. So today we worked on fetching.
Kola has a much easier time going out on the Away-to-me (counter clockwise, or anti-clockwise to help you remember.) I think it might be because she's trained to walk on the right side and I've been adding the flanking commands to our walks so away-to-me I push her around the corner, rather than come-bye where she follows me around the corner.
I dont think she quite knows why she's supposed to stay out so far but I have hope that she'll figure it out. Her fetches ran the gambit from, "oh wow, my dog did that?" to "uhg, I cant believe my dog did that, again" and everything in between. She is pretty consistently slowing down at the top of her outrun, which pleases me. She really wants to cut in on her sheep though. This tends to send them into an unstable orbit around me rather than straight to me.
Dave suggests that we can work on our stops along the fenceline, that way the sheep are still between us when I ask for the down. I also picked up some tubing to throw in case Kola needs a little reminder of how it works. Its clear tubing and I am considering ways to decorate it. Right now it has rolled up pieces of paper that say things like "knock it off" in big letters. I thought it was cute. We'll see if anyone agrees.

Sit Down! Now stay that way.

Today was better than before. I've been working with her at home on staying down even after I say "good girl" because she needs to wait for "ok" or a new command. We also milled around at brigands for a while and worked on holding a down while I circle around her. That was very difficult for the little mutt.

Still, I think that extra work paid off, she had several rounds of sitting and staying until I asked her to walk. She also did OK sitting back down after she had gotten up without authorization. It was still a frustrating session because more often than not she decides that I don't really truly want her to sit in the first place, or hold it after she sits.

She also chased the sheep quite a bit in the beginning. Splitting off our sheep went terribly today. We wound up with just two sheep. They were displeased to be away from their buddies. I'm going to have to re-think our shedding policy because I think it starts us out on the wrong foot. Maybe a gate sort sans dog would be the way to go. They're happy to run out to the grassy area without any dog assistance. I'll have to try that next time.

Sit Down! I mean it.

Ugh. Kola was not interested in staying seated today. The sheep weren't being super helpful either but, hey, they're sheep. We spent most of our lesson trying to get the sheep between Kola and me. Kola wanted to help me move the sheep. I wanted her to watch the sheep and let them do the right thing if they're so inclined. Kola knew I was annoyed and wanted to make it up to me. Possibly by sitting at my feet and staring up at me. Thanks Kola but no thanks. No one had much fun today I think.

slow down

Today and yesterday Kola and I worked on slowing down and building distance between herself and the sheep. Yesterday I said eeeeaaassssyyyy a lot and then eeeaassyy-sit. I was hoping that she would think of "easy" as a prelude to "sit" and thus slow down in anticipation of the sit which then wouldn't come if she slowed down. I have two modes for saying easy, the relaxed one which was more eeeeeeeasy. Then the disciplinarian one "hey! eaSY!" I'm trying to use the former as much as possible but only the latter tends to get a response. Oh well. Mostly what gets her off the sheep is asking her to sit. Not because she sits, mind you, but because she wants to compromise. Instead of sitting she'll just slow way down like I wanted her to in the first place. "Why isn't that good enough mom? We both know thats really what you're after."

Kola is starting to get the idea though. She is much more relaxed while at the same time using a lot more eye to boss the sheep. It feels a little dishonest to work such heavy sheep because they're going to try to use me as a shield even if she's fairly well off. It was strange though, when she took her eyes off them sometimes they started to run off, even though her distance had increased. I'll have to ask Dave about that.

We did a little bit of fetching practice. That crashed and burned like nobody's business. Basically it went like this:
I asked Kola to come by and she started vaguely going in that direction but with her eyes on the sheep. You could practically see the wheels spinning in her little pea brain.
Ooooh, sheep, I wanna get closer.
Hey, they're starting to wander off in the wrong direction, I'd better head them off.
Oh, something spooked them, now they're starting to run in the wrong direction. I'd better run faster to catch up with them.
Damn those sheep are fast, but I'm faster!
Wheeee! I'm going so fast!
Stop sheep! Woof!
Sheep are headed for mom. Mission accomplished. (Think big sign hanging on an aircraft carrier)

Now at this point she's cut in front of me and run all the way to the other side, basically going neck and neck with a nervous sheep. Finally overtaking it and then barking at it. They all come running to me for protection from the crazy animal. Yay, sheep fetched. Right? Achem.

So I send her around again, much closer this time and that goes great of course. I guess I started from too far off the first time. Oh well.

Overall I'm actually really pleased with her. We'll see how long that feeling lasts come Saturday and the wild sheep in the giant pasture.

First herding of '10

Went back to herding for the first time this year. Ok nine days into the new year, but still. Fell over backwards a lot. Over sheep, over cones, over my own feet. It wasn't a great day herding-wise either. These were the lightest sheep we'd dealt with yet, in the biggest field yet. Kola wanted to chase them, or at least take them away and got pretty sulky when Dave told her she wasn't supposed to do either of those things.

My resolution is to not overdo it with the pressure so her sulking kindof got to me. She kept getting distracted and discouraged. The sheep would run off and she'd stop and get a drink or come back to me looking at me like, "mom, bad news: no more sheep. Love me anyway?" I felt bad because when she finally did bring me the sheep I praised her but then I had to get after her again right away for being too pushy. I want my heavy sheep back. :(

After a little rest she regained her enthusiasm but retained some of her hesitation as to what to do. She wants to cut in early and push the sheep around me in a circle rather than bring them to me. Very annoying. Not as annoying as the cutting and chasing. So, not a promising start to the new year but, there's nowhere to go but up, right?