there has been much herding of late!
In a bid to get over my issues with herding, I signed us (Eri and me) up for sheep camp at Fido's last month. A whole week of nothing but sheep...eek! He didn't turn into an amazing herding dog all ready to compete in the week but we did make great strides and I'm no longer hung up on killing my dog if I screw up. I know where all the sheep belong, how to get the ones I need, how and where to put them back, and I have no doubts that I can do that with Eri's help if I'm up there practicing on my own. So huge, massive, monstrous mental block overcome and a big thank you to Chris, Elsie, Karen, Dave, Erin and Cynthia (the instructors) for working with us for the week.
Here is the quick summary of the week --
Day 1 - Elsie let me work a bit with Pert who thought I wasn't nearly as incompetent as *I* thought I was which was a kick in the pants; then packed pen work in the afternoon (seriously? who thought this would be a good idea with a totally green dog?!?) - I got clipped by a sheep on the bad leg, sprained the ankle, torqued the knee horribly and got hauled to the barn in the ATV to put ice on it...I was thinking this was a very bad way to spend a week at this point!
Day 2 - work on calm around sheep in the morning including going back into the packed pen with a chair, tethering Eri to the fence and telling him what a good dog he was for minding his manners; the dehydration migraine had me puking by the end of the day but thankfully our afternoon session was with Karen who was willing to work Eri for me (pics below!)
Day 3 - we had morning chores so I borrowed Chris' dog, Roy, who promptly decided that hunting for voles was WAY more important than gathering the flock to me and I had to walk him down in the field and haul him back to work...eventually we got all the sheep put out, Roy started to mind his manners and we got on with our day. Eri and I started seriously working on calm around sheep, long-line work in the pens and giving to a paddle. Chris worked him a bit in the afternoon with a trailing line and what he gave her was really lovely!
Day 4 - our group got assigned lamb worming for our morning activity - turns out I can still flip a sheep upside down and immobilize it better than just about anyone else at sheep camp...it's surprisingly not that hard if your technique is good; afternoon was more long-line work, and more and more and more (he was getting the hang of it!) and finally a little work with the trailing line for me that was halfway decent!
Day 5 - more long-line work, calm around sheep and a final session with Karen working Eri who was approaching overload but still managed to put in some lovely work; afternoon session included 'ranch trial' so I borrowed Roy again (really!?) and we actually did the whole thing quite nicely including using the cutting race and gate sorting without a single sheep going into the wrong pen. When I commented to Chris that Roy grazing with the sheep as we fetched them through a set of poles, she said that was actually better than he did for most handlers and that his usual mode is to blow people off completely and do his own course, so I felt pretty good about the whole thing by the end.
Since sheep camp, we've been back up to Fido's twice to practice. I signed Eri up for a run at HT at the beardie national *gulp* I know he can do the work, but I'm not sure how well it will go if he's totally wound up by the other beardies at the trial. So just like agility, our big goal will be to keep our cool getting into the arena!
Pics by Ronna Stewart
Here is the quick summary of the week --
Day 1 - Elsie let me work a bit with Pert who thought I wasn't nearly as incompetent as *I* thought I was which was a kick in the pants; then packed pen work in the afternoon (seriously? who thought this would be a good idea with a totally green dog?!?) - I got clipped by a sheep on the bad leg, sprained the ankle, torqued the knee horribly and got hauled to the barn in the ATV to put ice on it...I was thinking this was a very bad way to spend a week at this point!
Day 2 - work on calm around sheep in the morning including going back into the packed pen with a chair, tethering Eri to the fence and telling him what a good dog he was for minding his manners; the dehydration migraine had me puking by the end of the day but thankfully our afternoon session was with Karen who was willing to work Eri for me (pics below!)
Day 3 - we had morning chores so I borrowed Chris' dog, Roy, who promptly decided that hunting for voles was WAY more important than gathering the flock to me and I had to walk him down in the field and haul him back to work...eventually we got all the sheep put out, Roy started to mind his manners and we got on with our day. Eri and I started seriously working on calm around sheep, long-line work in the pens and giving to a paddle. Chris worked him a bit in the afternoon with a trailing line and what he gave her was really lovely!
Day 4 - our group got assigned lamb worming for our morning activity - turns out I can still flip a sheep upside down and immobilize it better than just about anyone else at sheep camp...it's surprisingly not that hard if your technique is good; afternoon was more long-line work, and more and more and more (he was getting the hang of it!) and finally a little work with the trailing line for me that was halfway decent!
Day 5 - more long-line work, calm around sheep and a final session with Karen working Eri who was approaching overload but still managed to put in some lovely work; afternoon session included 'ranch trial' so I borrowed Roy again (really!?) and we actually did the whole thing quite nicely including using the cutting race and gate sorting without a single sheep going into the wrong pen. When I commented to Chris that Roy grazing with the sheep as we fetched them through a set of poles, she said that was actually better than he did for most handlers and that his usual mode is to blow people off completely and do his own course, so I felt pretty good about the whole thing by the end.
Since sheep camp, we've been back up to Fido's twice to practice. I signed Eri up for a run at HT at the beardie national *gulp* I know he can do the work, but I'm not sure how well it will go if he's totally wound up by the other beardies at the trial. So just like agility, our big goal will be to keep our cool getting into the arena!
Pics by Ronna Stewart