All by ourselves

So Dave is out of commission this month and that leaves his students to practice on our own. Kola and I worked some 2008-born sheep in the big field. I like these sheep. They are very small, and they think they're very hungry. They are just light enough that they'll stop and eat if Kola stops to sniff grass, or get drawn to the fence and their buddies if Kola is sufficiently out of position. They are not so light that Kola cant work her way up to the slowest one and sniff its butt. Sheep-butt sniffing is kindof Kola's reward for getting the sheep to trust her. Its not a policy of mine but thats just the way it worked out. When she's wild they skitter off before she can sniff them, and when she's calm she can sneak up to them without pushing them past me.

Something that really helped our training session today was replacing a generic "AH!" reprimand with "out!" correction. When she gets a generic reprimand she stops herding and comes over to seek my forgiveness. Thats not what I'm looking for. Since the thing she does wrong most frequently is cut in too close, "out!" plus pressure seems to be getting the message across. She doesn't quit working the sheep anyway. She doesn't always swing out very wide. Actually she never swings out very wide but often she'll get out a little and almost always she'll stop cutting in further. These are both valuable things, and things I think I can shape further into a proper "out."

Saying "out" really helped her swing all the way around to the balance point when she wanted to come in too early and push the sheep in a circle. The other thing that really helped her balance was that I started turning deliberately towards her so that her being off center was even more inconvenient. See, she likes to hang a little bit to one side (her left side I think.) If the sheep are between us this pushes the sheep into me and I often wind up turning to get away from the sheep. When I turn with the sheep she's automatically on balance and thus rewarded for being off balance in the first place. So today, since these were such little sheep, I just shoved my way past them turning about 60 to 90 degrees in Kola's direction, which threw her way further off balance than a comparable turn in the other direction. I did this so often she started anticipating this and moved more towards the center. Yay!

One little guy broke off from the group and I ran with Kola to go get it. (Kola tends to chase rather than herd in these situations.) I got her thoughts more towards herding and she brought the sheep back to me, O.K. Then she sprinted ahead of me and I couldn't figure out why. Duh! She was going back for the sheep we left behind. That wasn't my plan but she couldn't know that. On the one hand, her leaving caused me to lose the sheep we were fetching in the first place. On the other hand, I like the fact that she is seeing ALL of her sheep.

She was pretty tired today, and she tends to melt a little in the sun. It makes it easier for her to go "easy." All in all I was pleased.

Also, Jesse re-proposed to me in the middle of the field when we were done with our sheep and gave me the diamond ring that had (unbeknown to me) just come in the mail. That was nice too.

Finally, I'm looking forward to Monday the 22nd because we are signed up for our first agility lesson with Chris Primmer. Should be fun.

Junior Herd Dog

I thought I had posted about this already but apparently not. Kola got her Junior Herd Dog title on valentines day. She also got a whoppin' huge green qualifying ribbon to go with it.

From The Kola Nut

The first day she was really really good. The second day she was out of her fuzzy little mind, but still got the job done. What a good dog!

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?