Fun run and outrun

Last week at her herding lesson Kola and I worked on off-balance stuff and putting the sheep through a Y chute. The key was to have Kola flank outside the sheep's flight zone and then come in, or just hold them. We had one really beautiful time through the chute. Kola was right where I put her, slightly to the left of the chute. She held the sheep there and perfectly balanced my draw as I walked to the left side of the chute and led the sheep to the other side. With Kola where she was relative to me, the sheep went perfectly straight through the chute. The other thing that was pretty neat is, for the first time, I had Kola hold the sheep off the gate while I opened it. Then flanked her so the sheep could just start coming in the gate. I didn't take my eyes off Kola (and she eventually broke her "down") but Dave says the sheep marched in single file, which explains why it was so much easier to close the gate. Usually they mob the gate and you just can't close it until all the sheep are already through and voila, you've lost your gate sort. This time we got three in and kept two. I was intending to do the opposite but I wasn't fast enough with the gate and Kola broke out too soon so, that's how that goes.

Last weekend we went to the Agility Fun Run in Yamhill, sponsored by the Three Rivers Working Australian Shepard Club. TRWASA for short. I mistakenly thought that Kola had to jump 24" so I set the jumpers course up to 24". Jesse thought it was too high but I assured him she could do it.
As it turns out we were both right. Kola could make the jumps, but they were much more difficult than what she was used to so it was hard to get her to do more than a few at a time, let alone 13 in a row. (Later at our lesson Chris suggested that next time I try to make her jump 24" that Jesse beat me with a light stick. Point taken.) Turns out she should be jumping 20" (in ASCA 24" is always optional, AKC and USDAA would have her jump 20" as well.) We didn't get a chance to do the jumpers again but Jesse ran Kola in the regular agility practice ring at 16" and she did pretty well. She did a full competition-height A-frame without a problem and she went over the teeter totter without looking like she was trying to kill herself. She did have trouble with a tunnel entry. Not sure what that was about. She also got distracted and ran out of the ring to go sniff things. Very embarrassing.

She was good for her agility lesson. We had a problem with another tunnel because she found something fascinating inside it and often wouldn't come out until Jesse stopped and called her more forcefully. She isn't doing her 2o2o (two on, two off) on the contacts very well but she is getting the contacts so that's nice at least.

This weeks herding lesson we worked (unsuccessfully) at slowing her down. Because I had to "down" her a lot, she sheep were frequently running back to their favorite corner. That meant she did a lot of outruns. The outruns are starting to get really good! One time I just stood there and watched while she brought me the sheep. No running, no flailing with the stick, just sheep.

My new plan, which I've now cleared with Dave and with Jesse is to start saying "Easy" but having her lie down. That way, out in the field, when I say "easy" then she'll do that compromise slow slow almost ready to stop type of walk that I like. That's the idea anyway. We'll see how that works out in practice.

At some point I'd like to put together a chart of her commands and the minimum requirement and the ideal or maximum requirement.

Think ahead

On Tuesday Chris was not around so Jim taught the lesson. One big difference between their teaching styles is that Jim likes to put us through courses that are a technical challenge for the handler. They're not necessarily the most physically demanding for the dog. Its a little mystifying watching the dog and the handler and trying to figure out what made the dog do what she did. Were the handler's shoulders out of place? Said the command too soon, too late? Front cross, rear cross, push, pull, here, out. Jim urged Jesse to think at least one jump ahead, if not more. And he made Jesse describe his handling plan ahead of time. This meant Jesse had to actually have a handling plan ahead of time. Lots of technical exercise. We barely did any practice in the intervening time but I swear when we get our new house and our new yard I'm going to train Kola to do her weave poles using the 2x2 method. It will be hard for me to have patience to do this but I think its the best way for Kola to really get the idea of the weave poles.
Somehow we will get her to slow down on the teeter totter. At practice the first run through she jumped off right after she passed the fulcrum. Very impressive jump, but still a big "no, no"

Penning

I was super late to our herding lesson so we only had 20 minutes. I kept Kola home that morning rather than send her to her buddy Lucy to play. As a result she had a lot of energy. I like that because she has all that energy to run down the sheep as needed but she also has all that energy to flank flank flank flank flank and then flank some more.

I sent her for her outrun and I was super thrilled with the shape of it. Basically she was headed out on a circle around the sheep and outside their flight zone. I headed up with her to support her but I wasn't running and flailing like usual. Then, about half way around her circle she decided she'd done enough and turned straight for her sheep. Doh! So I told her to 'get out.' Apparently I used my overly mean mommy voice because she came over to me with her head low and apologetic. NOT what I wanted. So I'm flailing madly to keep her away and then finally said, "away" and that she understood. Went back out on her circle and it was beautiful again. The sheep came right towards me and I was pleased with her. Good Girl.

We went basically straight to the pen and I opened it up. Then I walked out with Kola to get the sheep lined up nicely towards the pen. All the over flanking made it difficult to get a straight line to the pen. We spent about ten minutes basically going around and around. A big part of the problem was that I gave Kola no direction. Dave was after me to ask her to stop and ask her to cover and I somehow just tuned him out. When I finally got tuned back in we had a lot better time.

One time we got the sheep most of the way in. I stopped Kola and thought, "Ok, I can shove them in with the gate, Kola can experience some success and yay, praise for Kola. Now, in a trial situation I cant shove sheep with a gate so Dave wasn't super pleased by this strategy. Plus, Kola broke her "stop" and shoved the sheep out of the pen.

The next time we got them lined up I led them most of the way into the pen. I stopped just short of the pen area itself and closed the gate from the inside. I scooted to the outside of the gate just before I closed it. Very calmly executed. Still, I didn't use the dog to get them into the pen so Dave was, again, not super pleased. He said he liked the one where I shoved the sheep in better except for the fact that I was shoving the sheep in rather than using my dog.

The take home lesson for me? Help Kola to help me get the pen. Watch the sheep and watch Kola and ask for what I need. Also, keep working on Kola's "stop."

Next we needed to get the sheep out of the pen. I hadn't anticipated any problems there. I sent Kola around to the other side of the pen and opened the gate. The sheep did not see me open the gate as they were too busy stamping at Kola. Kola was not sure what to do to move the sheep. She tried flanking left and right as usual but this only had the effect of convincing them that leaving the pen was a bad idea.

Since getting them to move with Kola outside the pen wasn't working I figured I'd send her into the pen. As is typical, Kola wanted to charge straight into the middle of the sheep, rather than go around them. So I was trying to guide her to the edges while the sheep tried to guide her to fuck off and leave them alone. Unfortunately, I finally got her to go round the side, but rather than move off, the sheep closest to her gave her a head butt right in the face. Kola whimpered and ran. Damn.

Until now Kola worked sheep in total ignorance of their potential danger to her person. Now she understood what they could do in close quarters and she wasn't interested in a repeat. I tried to encourage her to go back in but she just tucked her tail between her legs and gave me a super pitiful look.

With Dave's blessing I took her by the collar and guided her in. I kept myself between her and the sheep. The sheep moved but didn't leave the pen. They all circled up and stared at her. Kola wasn't super thrilled to be trapped in a pen with angry dangerous sheep. I dont really have a walk up command on her. To her "walk up" means to break her down and come towards me and the sheep. So I told her, "go get 'em" and she launched straight into the middle of the sheep, and the middle one ran and she chased it down. So, Okay that wasn't pretty but the sheep consented to leave the pen now that Kola was gone and one of their number had left.

Kola was pretty wild bossing the sheep around. I didn't get after her about it too much at first because I wanted her to feel in charge of the situation. We got some semi tolerable work and then quit for the day.

I'm anxious to see what effect this will have on her willingness to move a stubborn sheep in the open. I plan on doing some close in work with the brigand's sheep to remind her that most sheep will move off her even when basically trapped.