Sprite

Sprite, back when we had green stuff on the ground

Sprite hasn't gotten to work a lot the past few months.   First she ripped off a toenail trying to jump into someone's car (yes, she would go home with anyone, "reserved? what's that" she says.)   Then she got spayed, which is still just killing me that I'll never have any little Sprite pups running around, but her hips did not pass OFA, darn it.   It happens.   It should not affect her ability to work or trial though, and I have entered her in the Memorial day trial up in Michigan, just a couple runs to test the waters of the Open class. 

Today she worked on driving the sheep to different parts of the pen in all directions.  First I laid down a line of hay, then had her push them down the line of and then across the pen.  It gives her the chance to feel different pressure points than the sheep normally have.  We had one hungry wether that was constantly trying to double back to the hay and the ram leading the rest of the sheep the other direction.  

I'm hoping to be getting out in to the big field soon, but it's been snowy and icy again.    The barn is a complete mess with water coming in and turning to ice, so all the ewes and lambs are outside now.   I spend a couple hours last night chopping ice and trying to get the drainage off the barn roof fixed.  It might have helped a little, but it's not completely better.   The small pen is still pretty good footing because we have been trampling it down a lot and it didn't ice over.  

More work

Every dog seems to take a two steps forward and one back at times.   Yesterday I let Pepper get a little too close to the sheep before stopping her, so today I worked more on the line while driving,  stopping her and letting her think, do some outs and then have her flank with the line dragging.  It went really well, and so I was happy with today's training session.  

                I put the lambs out of the barn, except for the two youngest, so they have been frolicking in the snow all day.   Pepper is absolutely fascinated by the lambs.  She got to sniff one while I was feeding.  I had her lying down and one of the lambs went right up to it.   She thought that was pretty neat. 

Good girl Sally

Yesterday I worked the two youngest pups, Sally and Tessa, who are10 months old.    Tessa did about like she did last time but Sally reached a new level of brilliance.  She's always been wider than her sister, but for some reason yesterday she was just clicking- she was working intensely, but going out wide to the fence at times, and changing directions nice and square every time I asked her to.  I introduced her to walk up on the line and she was a bit confused by that, and leaning to go around but that is a first time for that.    She also stopped very easily for me on balance, and lay down when I went to her. 

With Pepper, on the other hand, I struggled to make progress yesterday.  It seemed like we went back a step to where she wanted to dive into the sheep while driving.  I probably put her in a bad situation and didn't stop her soon enough, especially for having the line dragging and not in my hand.   I'll have to be more aware of when she's likely to do that and pick up the line again BEFORE she dives in.  The odd thing is she's just going out of heat.   Some people have told me they don't train on females in heat at all since they are likely to be more sensitive and weird at that time.   Pepper may have been more sensitive, but only in a good way, not in a weird "I don't like this" way.   She was really listening to me and was more calm and careful.  

Here's some pictures of the girls- they get along better than most female (dog) siblings, I think: 

Sweet Sally kisses

Weird Ice and Cat Games

What do you get when you have freezing rain, blowing wind and rapidly dropping temperatures?

Icicles shaped like scimitars!

And ghosts

The gutter  on the barn needs repair

One of the cat, Butterscotch's, favorite games is to lie in the hay and bat at the sheep.  

Sometimes they step on him and he has to move, but he doesn't hold a grudge.

He'll be back for more

Working on the weekend

Thinking Hank

Concentration

Saturday and Sunday I worked four of the dogs each day.   Some of them got just little sessions and some worked longer.   Hank is doing well on his out, and I moved to the larger area, set down some hay and practiced doing a flank, stop, out, flank from every direction.  The hay kept the sheep still in the middle as long as Hank didn't cut in on them.   It was easy to see when he was cutting in because they would leave their hay.   Otherwise, they wanted to stand and eat.   When he did a good flank or out I'd let him walk up and move the sheep.   The out is hard for him, so I tend to look at what will be his reward for doing it well.  He likes to flank, and even more he likes to walk in and move them. 

Dodge watching the sheep

Dodger, even though he is Hank's half brother, could not be any more different than Hank.   Where Hank is full of intensity, Dodge is matter of fact and plain.   He loves to work, but it is a different sort of challenge to train him.  He really wants to flank around and contain the sheep, he doesn't want to push them.  When I put pressure on him he goes more slowly and carefully around them.   So I've been working with him on walking into them and pushing.   After his training session yesterday the sheep, especially one white wether, were being very impatient about their hay.  They kept running into the barn to try to take apart the bales, get tangled in my water bucket electric cords, and generally cause havoc.   So each time they tried I encouraged Dodge to walk up and push them out again.    He was doing more on his own each time and required less of me walking with him. 

Sprite does well walking in to a certain point, and then she starts to feel the sheep bubble push back if they don't want to go somewhere, like a deeper area of snow.  If they aren't moving she gets excited and wants to jump at them.   So I've been holding her on a line to get her to just calmly walk in and hold that pressure.    Jumping at them is a last resort, along with biting, but with these sheep the dog can move them just by keeping the pressure steady and I want to show Sprite that.   Since I have the ram in the working group, leaping at him is a pretty bad idea as he is willing to fight back.  I'd like the dogs to hold steady and move him without biting unless he comes after them, then I encourage them to bite.  

Sprite

Pepper is perfectly willing to walk up on the sheep, but her preference is a nice big fast flank.   It seems to be her joy in life to run around the sheep.  She seems to already have a good grasp on go bye vs. way to me.    So she's been working a lot on a steady walk up and hold the sheep, and patience.   When she does walk up she goes fast- like Ben I think she would like to drive them at a gallop.   It's nice to see in the beginning they are willing to drive fast, but I have to show them that slow works better most of the time.   If you drive into the sheep too fast they are likely to squirt and split. 

This is a video of Pepper learning to drive last fall.   You can see she starts out walking slowly but when she makes contact with the sheep she speeds up.    Now I am trying something different, which idea I got from Tenley.  Instead of starting next to her, I leave her way back, I stand near the sheep and have her walk up to the sheep.  That way am am always next to her or in front of her, never behind,  and I can use pressure to get her to flank squarely or to stop without having her turn around and look at me (as she did on the video- this can become a bad habit).    I know she has plenty of confidence driving in front of me, so much that she wants to tune me out, so I'm literally staying in her view this way.   

Pepper driving movie


Ben this weekend was working on driving straight and steady also.  In some ways he is like Pepper in wanting to drive fast, but he has far more experience so I don't have trouble with him running around to the head, or jumping at and startling the sheep.     I have trouble getting him to flank squarely since I didn't really enforce that very well in training originally.   He doesn't have natural square flanks, he has flanks that push.   He also for some reason has trouble with go bye/away.  He seems to pick randomly sometimes, or go the way he thinks my body language is saying.  I think he has trouble with the words, I know he is not just being stubborn, he's really trying to be right.    Luke was kind of that way too- directions were hard for him, just like some people have trouble remembering left and right I guess.  

Ben

More lambs

We had two new lambs yesterday, and I think we are done now, assuming the yearling ewes were not bred.  My ram management was not at it's best last year, so we'll see.   They don't look pregnant anyway. 


Anka, the ewe Dane had to pull a lamb from two days ago is looking much better today.   She's eating with gusto and not standing oddly hunched anymore, so I'm feeling optimistic about her.  

I have all the lambs eartagged now, one little guy castrated, and all but the most recent have had their tails banded.  I tend to wait a couple days on that because sometimes the first stools are runny and I don't want the banding to be messy.  Hopefully you are not all grossed out now, but it's about to get worse.  Stop reading and come back later if you are eating and reading.    People ask why dock tails at all, and it's for cleanliness and their health.  In a pure hair sheep flock the tails are slick and don't collect glop.   In my part wool sheep, or in full wool sheep, any time the lambs get the runs the tail collects it, then you get flies and flystrike, which is pretty unpleasant to even think about, much less have to deal with.   So it is better for the sheep to have short tails.

We only had one ram lamb this year, and six ewe lambs, the opposite of last year when it was practically all boys. 
 
Here are the newest lambs:

Kip

Baby Kip

In 2002 I was looking for a male dog to train and possibly for breeding, and I contacted several breeders with really nice litters.  It was hard to choose, but I eventually decided on Starstuff and the Keep/Sory litter.   Since we were living in Nevada I'd have to fly out and get him.  For reasons that seem a bit mysterious to me now I decided the best way to do this was to fly to Madison, where Dane was going to be attending a convention, and then drive to Michigan with my friend Sheri. 

There were two males left at the time that I picked and Kip seemed to show more of a preference for being near me, as well as accepting a first time on a leash more willingly.   He was very well built, as was his red brother.    The ride to Madison was pretty good, but at the airport we ran into trouble.  Our flight was delayed, and delayed and delayed  for 6 hours!  We finally took off at 1 am.   We had David with us, and he was just one year old.  He and Kip actually share a birthday (June 7).   So here we are sitting in the airport with a one year old toddler and a 9 week old puppy trying to keep them both amused and not have any accidents.  Kip was very good- every time he had to pee we had to walk all the way outside to the grass and he never had an accident on the floor.    David was getting a bit over tired and squirrelly by then, but no major meltdown.

While boarding the airplane Kip had to be in his carrier, but once we took off I took him out and put him on the floor.  He was very good and quiet and no one complained about him.  Being black and it being dark on the plane helped probably, hardly anyone noticed a puppy lying on the floor.  Then I tied him to my wrist and fell asleep!    I am not a late night person.   David had fallen right asleep as soon as the plane took off. 

Kip a few years ago

Kip started training on sheep at about 10 months, and he was really very simple to train.   He liked to be out wide, he was very biddable and responsive.  He was fully confident in driving and just was and still is a real pleasure to work.   His first time trialing he got very close to a perfect started sheep score, driving most of the course.    With ducks, first he had to be convinced not to bite them, but after that he did ok.   We practiced a lot with chickens also, and he learned they should not be eaten either (at least if I was there, if not, all bets are off for the chickens).    On cows he is a natural heeler, and prefers that to heading.  He got some training with my mom for three months on cows to boost confidence on going to head, which really helped.  I don't have regular access to cattle otherwise.   

Kip finished his WTCH at the Portage Wisconsin trial when he was three years old.    One of my favorite trials with him was at Becky Bailie's ranch trial on sheep where he earned first place in a big class of nice dogs.  Post advanced sheep he did pretty easily also, as open areas are where he does best.  

Kip herding sheep yesterday, also below are from yesterday

driving the sheep to a corner

I sold Kip two years ago, but got him back when his owner's health was poor and he was cutting down on stock and possibly also losing his farm.  I missed the big boy, and am happy he is back.   He is a little rusty on commands, and missing a lot of front teeth from working cattle, but as eager to work as ever.   I was a little rash in starting him up again.  The first weekend I had him back I used him as the cattle set out dog for two days of trialing.   Most cattle don't take a dog to set out, they are sufficiently wary of people, but my mom's cattle are quite tame to people and if the choice is being near a person or going into the arena with a dog, they will choose standing by the person.  So we used a team of dogs, not in a mean, stir them up way, but just one dog to gently bring the cows from the back hold pen and another to push them out into the arena.  Laurie Nichols and Rainie were our partners and it seemed to work very well and the cattle came out calmly.