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.

Long agility session, short herding session

Our agility class wasn't any longer than usual, but it sure felt that way. When we got there, only two other dogs were present so instead of being able to rest through the runs of 5+ dogs, and two jump height adjustments it was two dogs and one height adjustment. In the middle of the class we got one more dog who jumps the same height Kola does.
Notable events included Kolla being more worked up than usual about other dogs running her course; Kate, the terrier, coming over to tell Kola to shut up; Kola jumping on the teeter totter right on the fulcrum and then back off; Kola breaking early for the jump, having too much momentum to stop and executing a very apologetic/athletic leap over the triple jump right from the base.
Her weave poles have gotten better but we've still got a long ways to go. Homework for this week is weave poles and teaching Kola to lie down between Jesse's legs so that he can line her up for the jump more easily.

Herding:
I was pretty pleased, for the first few minutes of our practice session today the sheep were not pressed up against me, or past me, they were right where they belong between Kola and me. Then I thought to myself, "hey, look at this, I'm not wet yet." Shortly thereafter a bunch of wet sheep were pressed in tight on all sides.

Kola didn't do as good a job taking her "down" commands today. She seemed pretty tired though.

Weave videos

Here are a couple of videos of Kola's weaving lessons:
At brigands (admittedly after some home practice also:


At home:


One time she did a beautiful run at home where she was weaving in and out just like a pro. She got a lot of praise for that effort but it has yet to be repeated.

Easy does it

General:
Kola is getting a new house! Its got 8,800 square foot lot. Most of that is in the back. Its got enough space for agility equipment. Although probably not a whole course. Its big enough to maybe fulfill my fantasy of getting some herding-broke ducks for Kola to work. Obviously theres a lot to do before that can happen. (Not the least of which is get Kola driving well so we can start her on ducks.)

Herding:
Dave is out of town this week (and next week and, shockingly, the week after that) so we practiced on our own on Thursday at brigands. I used all six practice sheep because I thought that would be fun. Dave suggested that we do some work along the fence line working on Kola keeping her distance and working on her keeping the sheep between us, and so on. That was moderately effecting. I also introduced a new command: get out. Its not really new per se, but "out" is getting transferred over to agility and so I'm making a fresh start with "get out." So far so good. She's moving off me pretty well. The problem is that she doesn't know that she's supposed to be moving off the sheep! Oh well, that will come in time.

The best thing we did was use her "down" command to work on "easy." I was reading a sheep herding book recently that reminded me the importance of keeping "down" from becoming a correction. Even though most of the time it kinda is. I kept my "down" commands nice and pleasant until she ignored it and then she got the growly kind.

When she hit balance I asked for my "down." Once she was down and I'd gotten a little distace I'd ask for "easy walk" as soon as she trotted (which was frequently right away) I asked for another "down." If she walked nicely for her "easy walk" I'd tell her "good girl." This almost invariably caused her to start trotting. So basically I spent my time repeating a command followed by good girl followed by aigh (correction noise) followed by another command. Rinse repeat.

The good news is that by the end she was slowing down when she hit balance, she wasn't resenting being asked for the "down," she held an easy walk progressively longer and longer, sometimes even after being told "good girl." She also didn't do any crazy flanking but I think that's because she felt pretty in control of these sheep.

Agility:

Kola had her first lesson in Advanced Agility class. I think she did really well, and boy was it a lot more fun.

For one thing, instead of patiently waiting in line while dogs are introduced to various obstacles with varying degrees of success, we ran a small course (usually 6 to 12 obstacles) one by one. Much more fun for me to watch. Also much more educational. Beginning agility doesn't do very much to teach you about being a handler. Watching other people and their dogs run a course and then running it yourself and then watching more people run it is a great way to learn. Another thing that was cool is the jumps are higher so Kola has a little more challenge. The courses are run off-leash, which is how Kola has been trained at home and has eliminated that difficulty we were having before.

Kola did a chute for the first time with no problem. I think it really helps her to watch other dogs do something like that.

Weave poles are the biggest thing we need to work on to keep up with the rest of the class. I was relieved to see that we're not the only dog who doesn't have the weave poles down yet. Right now we're practicing at home with the poles in a Weave-a-Matic style set up. Which is to say they're set at ~80 degree angles alternating left and right to help Kola see how she needs to weave. I'm thinking of switching to 2x2 and a clicker. I don't want to confuse her though. Also, 2x2 is probably the most tedious way of teaching the weave poles I know of.

Kola also needs to work on not blowing through her A-frame and teeter totter work. We're using the same word for slowing down while herding as slowing down for obstacles. Easy does it. Unfortunately we can't "down" her while she's on the equipment. Oh well, she'll get it eventually.

Overall I think we fit in pretty nicely with this group, although now I need to learn a new set of dog-handler names. (Oh, who am I kidding, I really only ever learn the dog's names.)

Obstacles (not the metaphorical kind)

Wooo! Kola learned something from our terrible time last week. After a lesson of trying really hard to bring me the sheep and failing, this week was awesome. For one thing, I sent Kola a different direction. Usually I send her away from the fence so she has a chance to bend out. This week I sent her along the fence to make it easier for her to cover the draw from the fence. Kola looked at me like I was nuts, but she crept up the fence line and voila! I had some sheep. That was my shining moment of being the brains of the operation. After that I was just the target/oppose-able thumbs. We went through the Y-chute and Dave explained to me the error of my ways trying to approach it dead on. Then we did a blind chute? A blind something or other. its like a U chute. The sheep go in one way and one direction and follow the chute around a U turn and come out again right next to where they come in. I'm not describing it very well, but, no matter.
Kola did not want the sheep to go into either of these obstacles. Sheep going through obstacle != sheep balanced on handler. I cant really say I find this attitude displeasing. She is trying to do well. Now its my job to explain to her that we're re-defining a little bit what it means to do well. Dave thinks we might teach her some driving soon and I think that will help clarify things for her a lot.
We also tried penning for the first time. Kola tried her little heart out, and got super sick of having the sheep run around the pen every time. Eventually, between Dave coaching me and Kola getting tired of watching the sheep run around the pen, we got 3 out of 4 sheep into the pen. It was pretty cool! Call me crazy but I think Kola might wind up being a really good penning dog. I hope so anyway because I'm not going to shape up to be a very good penning handler so I need a good dog. My project for myself is to work on remembering that "uhhh, other way!" is not a flanking command.
In conclusion, squeeee!