Litter pictures continued, year 2000

Dane and Izzy

In 2000 Dane was in vet school in Madison.    Here he was posing with little Izzy, from the Becky/Dude litter.  She was a real sweetheart and went to a companion home.    It was so hard to choose which pup to keep, although Cinder had decided from week 5 that she was going to be my dog and eventually I had to agree with her.   Izzy was a close second favorite though. 

Buttons and Becky -  I just love that face!

Cinder

Cinder was usually at my feet looking at me just like this, her same look of "I'm your dog, don't you want to do something with me?" that she still has.  
Cinder, Maggie and Luke all went to puppy class, where Cinder discovered her dislike of rambunctious puppies.  She was such a serious girl.  The other pups pounced on her and she looked concerned for a second and then said plainly, "Get off me, you bozos".   So she was relegated to the quiet puppy corner, gated away from the rowdy labs and such.    So much for socialization.  She has never cared for strange dogs in her face.  

By the time Cinder was 5 months old she was obsessed with tennis balls, and attempting to round up sparrows in the yard.  It was time to get her on sheep.    Her first time out she took right to them and was doing so well that from a distance my mom mistook her for Becky.    She got faster and faster as she got older and more intense, until she had to wear boots and duct tape in the winter to keep her pads from being sliced up every time she worked.  

When Cinder was a year old we moved to Las Vegas and I started working her on my own.   We were having some issues, related to Cinder being much more determined and intense than my previous dogs, so I drove out to  Steve Shope's ranch in New Mexico for some lessons.  David went with me (he was 8 months old then) and my mom came from the other direction to meet us there, and of course visit the grandbaby. 

Cinder worked really well for Steve and I got some ideas on how to back her off.    Once she decided I could be in charge she started making great strides at home and was soon driving and working the ducks and sheep really well.  

I entered her in started everything in August, 2002 at the Three Pines trial in Estancia , NM and she was Most Promising Started both days by judges' choice, under Roger Stevens, Rachel Vest and Rick Pinney.  

Becky and Dude litter

Dash, Maggie, Luke and Cinder

 In 1998 we went out to Colorado to watch the Nationals and I was really impressed with the quality of working dogs there.  Several dogs really stood out to me, especially Dude.    WTCH. Hangin Tree Dude RTDcs, RD, PATDcs was then owned by Joni Swanke but by the time I was looking for a sire for Becky's first litter he had moved to Michigan to Becky Bailie's farm.     He had just the right combination of power, intensity and finesse that I wanted when I was looking for a sire, and was well know as a producer of good working dogs as well. 

The Becky/Dude litter was born in 2000 and I consider it a very successful cross all around.  I really liked the look of the puppies and the ones who went to working homes did very well at their jobs.   They are tough and determined and very instinctive.  

Becky in the desert near Las Vegas

Becky winning Most Promising Started, and Judge Jerry Rowe

Dash, who I named for his white dash, lost his namesake marking as he grew up

Birch Hollow's Dash O Whiskey STDcds

Dash belongs to my mom, and is the go-to dog for dog breaking cattle for her.  He is an immensely powerful and bold dog, and a strong header.    He is also Ben's sire. 

Dash

 Gracie,   Birch Hollow's Amazing Grace

Birch Hollow's Amazing Grace

Gracie was the loving companion and obedience class demo dog for Sheri Stack.  

Luke at 7 weeks

Luke we ended up keeping, my mom and I together, because of how he looked on sheep at 5 months.   He was quite fearless.   He is a powerful heading dog who will heel also.   He is pretty nice on sheep too.   He's quite an extraordinary dog, I think.  

WTCH. Birch Hollow's Quick Draw Dude RTDcs  (Luke)

Luke

Luke

 Cinder     WTCH Birch Hollow's Red Hot Cinder RTDcs, PATDcs, my little girl

Dot,  AKA Birch Hollow's Buttons N Bows 

Buttons (Dot)  has been a very successful working dog for the Menkes in Wisconsin.   She works the beef and dairy cattle for them. 

Working puppies

Sally

 

 

 

Today was the day to work the puppies.  We have a pretty good group of older lambs/wethers plus the ram so we don't have to worry about the ewes that are lambing and can't be worked.    Sally is a 9 month old pup from Smudge and Emma's litter.   She got to work sheep in the arena down at my parents' farm and did really well.   I let her circle the sheep and hold them to me.  She changes direction and kicks out off the sheep very easily, and stops when I get between her and the sheep, and "that'll do's" really easily.   Overall she's just a pleasure to work and really wants to please, also she loves to work, so that's a good combination.   I haven't started asking for a down with her yet, just a standing stop.     

Tessa

 Tessa is Sally's littermate, and she also got to work today.  I have been doing a little more consistent training with her because she seemed able to take pressure earlier on than Sally did.    She has a more of a tendency to come in close and want to bite heels also.   She seems to have a bit of eye and works similar to Hank when he was that age, which makes me very excited.  I really like Hank, for all his pushiness, or maybe because of it.    

With her today I did some of the exercises from Tenley's clinic.  First we walked around the sheep together and I had her move off my pressure to the side until she was going around a wider circle and I was closer to the center, then I dropped my rope and let her go around 360 degrees, then blocked her and stopped her.   First I get her to stop moving, then ask for a down.   She's not really quick about it, but she'll do it.  

I worked on having her walk up next to me and do a very short drive, just moving the sheep a few feet really until they were on the fence.   The first time she was really pulling to the side trying to go around, but now she's starting to walk straight.  

Tessa is in heat now but it doesn't seem to bother her attitude about working.

Serious dog Tessa

Working on "out"

One useful part of trialing is you really see where you need to fix the training on the dog since it becomes really obvious when your dog won't do something that he supposedly knew.   I do wish I could go and train other places more often, so I'll try to make that a goal when the snow melts.   
Hank completely did not do "out" when we were trying to pen the sheep at the trial.  He just went side to side, or stood behind the pen, not taking off pressure at all.   The sheep were not going to be penned that way.

So we've been working on a refresher of "out" in the last few sessions.   It has to be built up in little steps and it seems like I do the first steps pretty well, then skip over the last few steps and expect him to do it in a high pressure situation like a trial.   You can probably guess that doesn't work.  

Where we are now:  he will do out if I am between him and the sheep and the sheep are still.  He will kind of do an out if the sheep are against a fence and I am on the other side of the sheep.   He won't do out if the sheep are moving, not against a fence, and I am on the opposite side of the sheep from him.   He also won't do out if I just say it and don't put any energy/body language into it.  

From there I have to build up some steps in a training plan so the out will work in every situation.  

Lambing

Of course my sheep started lambing while I was gone, when they should have waited for me.   And by Murphy's law things did not go well and we lost several lambs.  I'm pretty bummed about the whole thing.   Life goes on though, for the rest of us, and for the little ram lamb and ewe lamb born to Diglett the ewe.   They are in the barn where I can keep a watch on them. 

Here's the little girl, Gidget.   I love the way her tail curls when she goes to nurse.

Trial

Saturday and Sunday were the trials at Purina.  I only went to watch for a short time Saturday, then went Sunday in hopes of getting a run.   I didn't send my entries early, then when I heard it was full I wasn't sure I was even going to be down here.  

The quality of dogs and handlers was very high.  The stock was also good, which made for some very high scores.  Sunday in the am trial the top three advanced dogs on ducks were 125, 125 and 125.  I've never heard of that happening before.   It was a real pleasure to watch and was the same kind of fun I get from going to watch the stockdog finals.  I love to watch good teamwork.    Hank did get a run in the afternoon on ducks and sheep, and he did pretty well but not enough to be in the ribbons.  

The sheep were tricky to pen as usual.  Hank did not remember "out" in spite of having worked on it for the last 5 or so years.  (Did you ever get the feeling you were beating your head against a wall?  I do.)   Even the dogs who had a good out had a hard time with the pen because the arena size limits how far they could go.  There seemed to be two strategies that worked on the pen.  One, let the sheep settle after they exit panel 2 then send the dog "go bye" to the back fence, putting on no pressure back there, then open the gate quick as the dog comes around and catches the heads.   If done perfectly the sheep would walk right in.   A big "if" , especially for Hank, who does not do no pressure well.     The other way was to position the dog behind the pen, way behind, and having him turn down pressure until the sheep sucked toward him. 

Hank and I fiddled with it until the judge called "3 minutes" then I gave up and put them away.   Hank still scored a 110, which I though was pretty good.

His duck run was ok, he got a 107 and got them in the pen on the second attempt.  He would have had them in there the first time if he had stopped where I told him because they were nicely lined up.   

Clinic

Thursday and Friday I went to audit Tenley Dexter's clinic in Missouri at Purina Farms and got some good reminders on things that I wasn't doing that I had learned at Bob Vest's clinics and some new ideas to fix some problems.   That's one thing about herding- there is always more to learn and some days I feel like I really know nothing at all.  The clinic was full, so I just watched every one else, but then I came back to the farm where my parents live and worked with Hank on the "out" in the arena with sheep, worked Tessa on a line in a small pen getting her to turn her head out as we walked around the fence.  Then when she was moving out away from me parallel as I stayed more in the middle (and the sheep were going to the middle of the pen rather than hugging the fence, which told me she was thinking "around") I'd drop  the line, let her go around 360 degrees, step in front of her and get her to stop.  Then repeat with the line work.  Letting them go round and round beyond just a small amount to give them a reward will wind them up to get faster and closer, which Tessa does not need.   I also tried getting her to walk up for the first time, and she was pulling to the side, so I kept her on a short line and tried to straighten her walk toward the sheep.

With Dodge I worked on having him down and stay a ways behind me, and walk up as I faced the sheep.   I think that will help his driving confidence if I do a lot of that and don't insist that he goes out in front of me.  

With Pepper I did the same  thing as Dodge on driving but for a different reason.  She tends to forget I'm there and drive at high speed until she thinks she needs to run around to the front.  So I'll do some nice long walk ups starting with her far from the sheep but me near the sheep so I can be in her field of vision.   Then I can make her flanks correct using the stick to show her also.

One of the interesting things about the clinic was comparing the methods to the Gordon Watt clinic I went to last summer.  Their methods seem exactly opposite- line vs. no line, small pen vs. open field.  But when you get to the essentials, they agree exactly on what is important.   Getting the dog's mind right is the basic idea.   There are different ways to get there, but that is the goal.   Letting the dog work is used as a reward for good behavior.  They might not put it exactly like that but I see it as "you give me the step back, the out, the softness of response, the give,  the right attitude and I will let you go around the sheep."   Otherwise they get more pressure until they do give and they do not get to go around the sheep if they have a wrong attitude.

Personally, starting dogs in a pen works for me because there is a lot of room for error in the open and I don't want the dog chasing the sheep all over.