Lesson with Patrick

You will have to excuse the old photos and poor quality with my old Pentax. I didn't take my camera on Sunday so no new pix but thought you might enjoy seeing Joe & Heather's beautiful Island Crossing Farm This is a shot similar to my 'home page' one but taken a few seconds later. Dusty gathering up the flock.
Here he has them moving nicely through the gulley and is pacing himself pretty decently. We put them in the round and gate sorted a group to work.
This is also why I posted these pix. This is a lot of what my lesson on Owen and Jayne was all about; getting the proper distance while driving(or fetching). You can see here that Dusty is too close; the lambs all have their heads up and ears back with tension. I have been letting both Owen and Jayne do this too much. In part because of working in a small space and by the time they are correct, we hit a corner. However I know I am still doing it even when we get out to Pam's big field. So I need to work on that a lot.
Sorry this is so far away but even so you can see how the better distance has relaxed the sheep and they are moving much better. I must confess that I probably didn't place Dusty here, he most likely did it himself. Owen and Jayne should both do it IF I help them feel it!
The sun was setting here so this shot is dark. But again, you can see how far off Dusty is and yet has nice control of the sheep. I wanted to post these last two shots so I can come back & remind myself what the correct distance looks like. Of course that distance can change depending on the sheep among other factors. But it will remind me I hope.
The lesson with Patrick was great as usual. He is very patient and explains things really well. It is kinda sad that he was saying the same things that I've been told over & over. ;-) You would think I should be making progress not just repeating the same mistakes. When Lee sent Jayne home to me, she said my biggest challenge would be keeping my commands soft with Jayne. Sure enough that was the big thing Patrick found that needed changing; all my whistles are of the "Emergency!!!STOPNOW!!" Or "FLANK FAST&HARD" Or even...sigh...."WalkUP!" For 6 years Martha has been telling me to develop nuances with my whistles....sigh...lol So my beloved big blaster capable of being heard at a 1/2 mile is getting hung up and I'll bring back out my baby blaster or the custom one, Margaret's hubby made. We'll see if that helps a bit too.
I need a shock collar and someone to zap me everytime my whistle or command is strident or harsh or even just too loud. Patrick used a soft "listen" or "Jay-ane" and she responded much better than to my "HEY!" or "AYE!" or "GRR!" or some other gargled sound intending to be a correction. Another note to self: use the same damn 'noise' consistently. I also find myself saying "There now" and "There" and "Right There" - I need to pick one and stick to it. Such basic things and I am still doing them. Along with blowing two commands, instead of one and then a correction if not taken. So that was mostly for Jayne although Owen would of course also benefit.
Patrick's read on Owen was positive and good to hear. He said there was enough dog there to keep on working and having fun with. He didn't think his stopping/slowing up short on his outrun was from lack of confidence as much as developing a habit of coming in tight. (because sheep have usually headed down the field) What I saw as Owen then not covering, Patrick saw as Owen pushing them off line from being tight. So we worked on teaching him an "Out" if he slows down=starts getting tight.
I absolutely LOVE working these sheep. They are forgiving if the dogs are right but will take advantage if not. One ewe kept trying to break off and leave the group in a very big way. Both Owen and Jayne did a very good job of picking her up & putting her back in. She got away on Owen one time near the end and we let her go but I was happy that he held onto to her up to that point. Plus it was a mighty test of Jayne to go after a single and not lose her head.
I would encourage everyone to work with Patrick if you get a chance. Lee Lumb is hosting a 2 day Open Handler's clinic followed by a one day clinic in Coldstream in April. I wish I could afford to go but....have chosen a closer one with Karen Child that month. Here's hoping that I can really concentrate on softening by then. And proper distance. So that Karen can see something different for me to work on. I have never had the right opportunity to work with Karen so I am really looking forward to Fido's in April.

January

Herding in Saskatchewan in January
Herding in BC in January
Kane hiding behind Margaret trying to find shade.
Dusty is the only dog Jana allows next to her spot at the fence.
Thermometer on McLeods' deck today. Enough said?

Sunday at the big field

Pam hauled her sheep to Brooksdale Farm again for us today. The rain was threatening but held off til we were done. Pam worked her young dogs up in the back field while Lynda, Kristi & I worked our dogs in the main field. What a nice treat to get out in a bigger space!
Blair did a nice big blind outrun to kick things off as the sheep had ducked around the corner out of sight. I was really pleased with him as I sent him on an 'away' which is his weak side if he can't see the sheep. He went out nicely all the way to where the 'top' should have been, then stopped and looked at me for help. I gave him another 'away' whistle which kicked him out beautifully.
I was also very happy with young Owen. There may be hope for him yet. There were a couple of moments at the beginning where he might have lost them to the corner but he took my inside flank and covered them. He did several big outruns showing no hesitation at the distance. He listened well on the fetch and showed his nice natural pace. We did some bigger drives where he also took every flank. He would still like to fall off the pressure and head them but did as he was told. I can't wait to work him with Patrick and get an experienced opinion of him. He is the best listener of all my dogs but then there is that stubborn streak at times. He shows a lack of confidence but he has never backed down from sheep. I don't know how much is inexperience and how much is genetic.
Jayne was also a very good girl today. She did a couple nice big outruns and had to really 'lift' them off of Lynda one time. A couple mos. ago that would have blown her mind and she would have flew in. This time, she controlled herself, listened to me and did a nice walk up and lovely pace on the fetch. She did bust in once later but it was all my fault; I was using her to hold sheep for Lynda and Lark. I should have given her a that'l do but instead allowed Lark to push the sheep right over top of her. Me very bad. Stupid move, should never have expected her to hold still that long & with sheep coming right at her. She also took off after the sheep while we were sitting around and the sheep were very close. But again, I should have been paying more attention & stopped her. She bust through as I called her name but I could see that she 'knew' she was in the wrong. lol

The usual

I've been working Owen & Jayne every Tues. & Thurs. as usual at McLeods'. Jayne is still doing well and not busting through except the odd time which is my fault. Owen has some good days and some....not so good. But making slow progress I hope. He is a funny boy; very handler responsive but with a little stubborn streak about some inside flanks. It could well be my lousy training & handling skills or it could just be his nature. I have been doing the corner exercise that Lee gave me to incite his enthusiasm; me & sheep backed into corner with me giving him a "watch em! watch em!!" I've also been working him with more speed to build confidence and enthusiasm. Which is working well for his outruns. If left on his own, he would check himself into a trot at about 11 or 1 o'clock....which would be awesome if Jayne would do that, LOL However Owen needs to feel more power not less.
I haven't been to Flyball yet this year. It was pouring and windy last Friday so I wussed out. Of course it then cleared up mid-morning and has been dry with sunny periods every since! Not complaining as it was sure nice sitting out having coffee with Bruce yesterday in the warm sunshine. It was just he & I yesterday as Rose was at the dentist & Margaret had a lunch appointment. Bruce worked his young Sam and man Oh man is that pup every a natural! Doing gathers pretty much the length of the field and little steps driving...he is coming along like a champ. Funny how littermates can be so different; his 3 sisters are coming along the way you would expect keen young dogs...but a lot more work on the part of their handlers! lol It will be interesting to see how they all turn out by age two or three.
I am also doing the happy dance these days as it doesn't get dark til about 5pm! I changed the timer on my living room lamp forward from 4:20 to 5:00p. Yippee spring is coming. The grass is showing signs of re-growth already and next thing will be the snowdrops budding.
Lynda is coming with me to the Karen Child clinic at Fido's in April. Plus Lynda & I just got a couple of the last available lesson spots with Patrick Shanahan at Island Crossing Farm in Arlington on Sun. Jan.31st. I love working Joe & Heather's sheep, so am very much looking forward to that day...and hoping that the weather won't be too ugly. Spring may be on it's way but we still will see more winter rain&wind storm fronts blow through. I predict no more snow though. I bought my first time ever snow shovel for the one day of snow we had in November thus we've had nothing since.

Report from Whidbey Island trial

Hi all!
FYI:
Alison wrote up the results for the Whidbey Island trial and I want to
thank her for doing it!!!
If you need break downs from your runs or your final score, please
contact Susan Crocker at ezecho@whidbey.com
I don't have the score sheets so I can't help you.
Looking forward to seeing you all on the 23rd and don't forget the last
one at Susan's on Feb. 7th!!!
We are getting quite a few entries for our next trial, days are getting
longer, but sheep will be fewer.... we start lambing on this coming week
end! So if you want to run at MacDonald's in two weeks,get your entries
in to me ASAP!
Sue McDonald




*From:* Alison Deilke
*Sent:* Monday, January 11, 2010 12:47 PM

*Subject:* Whidbey Island trial results

We lucked out once again weather wise for Sunday’s trial. Lani Dorman
came down from Canada to judge and, in true Canadian style, threw in a
tough dog leg fetch for the Open handlers. The dog leg fetch proved
difficult but doable for both dog and handler, once we figured out that
you can’t hold the sheep hard on set out in the direction they are
supposed to go on the dog leg fetch. LOL Thanks for pointing that out
Sue. A couple of re-runs, a minor adjustment in the set out and the
trial was under way. I was lucky to be at set out when the first open
dogs ran. This was a great vantage point to see how the dogs and
handlers worked the first part of the fetch, which was against the
strong draw back to the pens.

One team handled it near perfectly with a score of 91. Ron Green and
Tigr, owned by Hope Harris, laid down one of the prettiest runs I’ve had
the pleasure of seeing. Congratulations, on your first Open win Ron.

Results for Open class

1: Ron Green and Tigr

2: Charmaine Henderson(Canada)and Reo

3: Heidi and Pete

4: Diane P. and Nan

5: Brian R. and Doc

6: Diane P and Roo

7: Sue Mac and Jan

8: Diane P and Scott

9: George Mac and Chris

10 Brian R and Mig

11 Diane P and Lucy

12 George Mac and Huck

13 Ron Green and Kane

I got to scribe for the Pro-Novice class, giving me a different
perspective of the field. Most of the teams were pretty successful
dealing with the draws and the re-active sheep. I really enjoyed
watching the different penning techniques people use. The highlight of
the class for me was watching Susan and Zen, ( we all know how Mom
complains that Zen is so slow )J

Well I was biting my nails when they got to the pen, and had not timed
out yet, the sheep were almost in the pen…I felt like yelling, “Mom just
slam them in there and shut the gate!” as the timer ticked down 3,2,1
seconds…I think poor Lani really hated calling time because it was such
a nice run. Low and behold, Susan and Zen won the class anyway, in spite
of no pen points. Janet and Scott had a very nice run, too, coming in
second place. I don’t know a lot of you very well, but I could sure tell
the seasoned handlers from the nervous beginners while scribing for this
class. Dick Wilson and Raygan are continuing to improve, …Dick, relax !


Pro-Novice Results

1: Susan C and Zen

2: Janet T and Scott

3: Corinne B and Tay

4: Jo- Roach and slider

5: Sue Mac and Jackie

6: Dick W and Raygan

Ranch class had a little bit longer out run and drive than we have had
at the past few trials. This didn’t seem to bother the dogs too much.
Most handled the sheep very well, and, though some may have retired, the
dogs were all trying very hard and are coming along nicely. In my
opinion it is better to retire than to have a wreck that may take months
of training to recover from.

Ranch Results

1: Diane P and Faye

2: Norm R and Lana

3:Ron F. and Steve

4: Kathleen T and Emma

All in all it was a fun trial. We want to thank Sue and George for all
their help. Lani for judging, Susan for providing a wonderful lunch, and
facility, Dave and Karyl in the pens, Dick tell your wife thank you for
the scones…yummy, and whoever brought the peanut butter cookies, too. We
look forward to more fun at the February trial.

Michelle Pardee has posted a number of pictures from the trial here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluegemdog/sets/72157623185514724/

Alison Deilke…Susan’s daughter and trialer in training


    And 'I'= Lani, might add:  Ali ran Susan's Kelpie, Zen as a non/compete in Ranch and would have won the class. 
Look out novice handlers, when this gal gets her own young Kelpie up & running, they will be a team to look out for!
Her pen with Zen was one of the prettiest of the day bar none Open or ... 
 As my first time to judge a trial, it was a fun experience.  Thanks to the small and informal entry which helped to alleviate my nerves.
I was determined to be consistent with all runs but ended up being overly tough on the drives I think....however I think the right dogs won looking back on the placings.
To be honest, I knew that Ron and Tigre had the best Open run of the day, but really had no clue how the other placings in all classes played out.
If I could have been tougher on my hostess, Susan(and Zen) I would have....to show 'no favoritism' LOL but....there was just no place to take more points off!  LOL
Luckily for me, the dogs that were out of their league a wee bit were pretty obvious and the dog that 'had them' also, so it made judging a lot easier.  I can't imagine how
one would judge a trial where you have 10 or more almost equally proficient runs....arrgh!  Thankfully that will not be in my near future!!!!!!!!
  And the bottom line:   would I judge again - yes.  I plan to spend more time on studying runs...do more scribing, and duh, hope to gain enough respect to be asked to judge...
but for all of you out there:
It was a good experience and as Sue McDonald says...."if you can run Open, you should be able to judge".  Plus another little bonus:  I think this will help
me understand how my runs are judged, which should make me train better.   My scribes were awesome all day - it wasn't til the last nonCompete run that I had a clue about how the timer worked.
And all three of them: Jo, Ali, & Charmaine made my job SO much easier!  I did my best to explain to them some of my opinions and seemed pretty successful by end of day.  I encouraged them to express
Opions and said I would explain my reasoning(s).  So I hope they had a positive experience too.

Not much new

No pix just look at Boxing Day for more of the same. Wee bit of sun, mostly cloudy and brrrr cold wind adding to +4c temps. Hot coffee & snacks from Rose kept us going as usual. We had lots of laughs and now& again ventured out to work dogs. Pathetic city slicker 'shepherd' that I am; wondered at how light the group was for Owen, and how some of the pretty colored ones seemed smaller than usual, and how he could actually get in a 'lift' before they headed up the field. Then a couple dog/sessions later, overheard Rose mention to someone that we were helping dog break the dozen lambs sold to my friend on the Island, Julie Carter. Duh...I did not notice that this was not our usual working flock of sheep. (now I can hear Kathy Knox saying 'watch your sheep not your dog') It is so embarrassing I should not be admitting it! Worse...we worked these lambs last week too.

However, both Owen and Jayne worked pretty well. Although Owen is being very stubborn about inside flanks at times and I have to confess that I lose my patience with him. But he shows no sign of quit so perhaps I am not being too tough on him. I also did some corner work with him and at one point he had to shove his way with a couple air snaps to push them off the fence; very good confidence work for him. Plus I hope, teaching him to trust that I am not asking him to do something he can't.

I was very pleased with Jayne's initial walk up into the corner at the gate; she kept her cool and took it one step at a time with no sign of needing to bust in. I think her eye was holding them in the corner a bit so I halted her & went in to help move them down the fenceline a few feet, then asked her to continue walking up and driving them down to the bottom of the field. With them being willing to stand & hold, I was able to get in several nice little outruns for Jayne with actual 'lifts' happening! Yay! Good work. Sorry that these lambs are leaving on Sunday.

While having coffee we discussed meat loaf recipes which inspired me what to cook for dinner tonite.(thanks Rose) I used 1/3 ground pork to 2/3 beef, added one egg, half a sweet onion, few gloves of garlic, spices, diced up mushrooms and a can of mushroom soup.
I've never used the soup before but it turned out pretty good. I often add blue cheese instead but didn't have any. It was quite yummy along with a potato and some broccoli.

I'll be heading down to Whidbey Island this weekend to work my dogs at Susan Crocker's farm and....gasp.....judge her trial on Sunday. Needless to say this shows at how desperate they are for volunteers to judge over the winter series of trials. lol But...Sue MacDonald said that if you could run Open, you could judge. So I knew this one would be one of the harder ones to find someone and Susan is such a good friend. I have no aspirations to become a judge in the future, just wanting to support her willingness to host these trials. My biggest fear/goal is to make sure that I am consistent for everyone and that I don't miss some blatant mistake.
So more news to come next week! Maybe some pix if the weather isn't too shitty.

Nice Kickoff to 2010

Ms.Bis Cotti and friends proved to be very challenging for the dogs this day.
Blair trying to settle them.
Blair driving and doing his best to hold a line. He was working way off to their left to hold the pressure from the draw.
Finished but would still like to work some more....please?
Kristi's Lou is also doing his best to settle them and hold the pressure. He is such a gorgeous manly dog. :-)
Owen is thinking "Wow! These girls are really taking off!" He was very challenged by them at the beginning; not covering with gusto and allowing them to escape to a draw. However I made him recoup by going into a corner along a fenceline which was very hard for a slightly hesitant fellow....but in the end he made some big gains in confidence with holding pressure and taking inside flanks.
Young Lark did amazing on Ms.Bis Cotti.
'Meerkat' Lexy had to watch all afternoon and was very composed for her age and the activity going on. But head held high as possible so as not to miss a thing.
Try driving the 'nicer' group.
Our generous hostess, Pam with a couple of her dogs. If only we could work here every weekend......sigh.......
Kristi working her new young Rex.
Rose's Meg did some awesome work too. She has shown some of the biggest advances with Rose really taking charge of her. These sheep were the type to trigger every button in Meg but she kept control and didn't lose her head once.
And I am very happy with my young Jayne who also held her composure despite the strong draw/pressure(much like Meg).
I think our breakthrough in Oct. is still holding out. Jayne handled everything I asked of her with no busting/flying though. We did a lot of driving because they were not holding for any type of outrun. I also did some flanking with whistles as it is long past time that I put those on her.

It was SO nice to get out in a big field again and see how the dogs handled being stretched out to bigger distances. They all rose to the occasion and surpassed expectations. Plus it was a lucky break in the recent stormy weather to have some blue sky and no rain - what a treat!
Good weather, great company, spend an afternoon watching awesome working dogs.....life is sweet.

All photos thanks to Rose McLeod.