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?

Level 2!

So, a while back now Kola and Jesse and I got approval to start practicing on our own. Its been going pretty well lately. Dave said we looked really good on friday. I have two big complaints about the little dog right now.
1) Instead of going around her sheep she goes straight for them. She gets close and then you can see the wheels turning, now what? She's on the wrong side. So she usually winds up doing one of two things. Either she pushes them in a big circle and finally gets back to me. Alternatively she barges straight through the middle of them and then turns around and gathers them back up and brings them to me.
2) Once the sheep are headed for me she breaks off and does other things. If I move and call her to get the sheep then she dutifully comes up, pushes the sheep at me and then eats some more sheep poop or whatever. Its like she's playing billiards instead of herding sheep.
Dave thinks is that she's not sure what she should do once the sheep are headed towards me. It is true that once they are headed towards me she does get some discouragement from me because she always wants to come in too fast. I guess thats not mutually exclusive with my conclusion that she doesn't like sharing the sheep. She either has them or she doesn't. When she has them she moves them pretty hard and when she cant have them all to herself she would rather eat poop. Either way I agree that she'll get over it. In the mean time its a little strange to have to keep calling her off the poop and back onto the sheep.

Things I'm really happy about include:
She is slowly slowly starting to give her sheep more distance.
When I give her a flanking command she kindof does the right thing.
She is really trying very hard to do the right thing.
She is spending more and more time actually thinking instead of just running.
She is back to hustling to get her sheep instead of meandering up there.
She is coming off the sheep when I call her off them.
She rarely splits off a sheep and chases it anymore.

Ambitions I have:
Keep a little bit of a herding journal/blog so I can track our progress better
Do lots of trials with her this season
I want her to be able to run in the USBCHA novice/novice trials by the end of the year.
I want her to DROP when I say "down" and creep up to her sheep consistently like she does with dogs.

The border collie emerges!

She's starting to slow down, she's starting to creep and she's starting to do the stare thing. I've put some narration of mine into this movie to make it easier to figure out whats going on. At least, you can see what I think is going on. I'm still learning how to "read" the sheep, and the dog.

Flanking

Last friday was the first time I really felt like Kola and I were working together on the sheep. She's learning her flanking commands and I actually got her to reverse direction a couple of times and we managed to bring some sheep in. I was so jazzed.

Today I tried lunging Kola. It went allright, I guess. She's not moving off the stick very well, she sees it more as a potential toy than as a source of pressure. Still, we got some good circles and maybe I'll try another session this evening. Once she gets the circling idea then I can push more on the "out" idea. Next task after that will be getting the different gaits, I dont have a plan for that one yet.

HCT first leg

Today Kola attempted the first leg of her official American Herding Breed Association herding capability test. I figured it'd be no big deal, she knows what to do. I was a little nervous, of course, being in front of all these people with my lab-ish dog. Indeed people kept doing double takes when they saw her at the sheepdog trial.

We were the last to go out of 11 people. So Kola had to sit and watch 10 dogs go before her. It was an hour and a half. Kola kept getting more and more frantic. Whining and pulling and panting. Everyone else had a mellow Burmese mountain dog and a lot of them were giving us a look of some kind or other. I was mortified. Towards the end of it all I had Jesse take her so I could try to relax a bit, cool off and focus.

Finally it was our turn. Kola maintained her composure while we walked through the first gate to meet with the judge. I picked up my stock stick and half a second later Kola just went ballistic. Her whining sounded more and more like screaming. Despite being more than three times her size I could not pull her off the fence. Jesse reports that a pair of people walked off saying "Lets not watch this, that dog is going to be completely out of control." I eventually pulled Kola off the fence and she was reasonably composed to walk through the second gate into the sheep pen. Then she just about pulled me over lunging for the sheep, who ran to the other side of the pen, further agitating her. I swear I could have brought a half starved wolf in there and it couldn't have been any more wild than Kola was. The judge looked worried and said, "I guess she wont be any calmer off leash either."

Somehow she again composed herself long enough to walk a few steps on a loose line, sit, come when called and sit again. It was the absolute minimum but, we forged ahead. The judge stood between her and the sheep, to help remind her what her mission was. I let go of her collar and she waited a whole second and then I told her, "Ok!"

She went off like a gunshot. I held my breath.

With a frantic bark she drove those sheep straight past the judge and right to my feet. I started walking and she worked the sheep behind me. When she over flanked she actually responded very well to my signal for her to go the other way. I could tell she was on the job, so we walked around. Kola continued to whine and bark, too worked up to stop, but she did her job.

Going out the judge remarked, "I guess she really was calmer off leash." He didn't bother concealing the surprise in his voice. He added, "She actually... is a pretty good dog." A couple of people congratulated me as we walked out. I was so relieved I could have cried. My trainer, Dave, had come to watch us. He grinned and said, "I think people were all a little afraid when you went in there." I have to say, I shared the sentiment. Dave was pleased with how we did. So was I. So was Kola.

Jesse thinks we had the best run of anyone there. He's a little biased, but I think we were probably in the top three. Jesse also thinks we could do the Junior Herding Dog test. I'm thinking about it. There would be a lot more people watching that one. Tomorrow we go on to round 2. If she does as well tomorrow as she did today, I think we'll be getting a certificate for her in the mail.