I owe an update on training and trialing, but between the insane schedule I seem to have set myself, as well as the whole 'let's change domain hosts and servers' fun, I'm a bit behind. In the meantime, I rebuilt this lovely gallery of photos shot by my friend Bob Dusek. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words
I believe I've mentioned (a time or ten) my propensity to rush my training by glossing over fundamentals, or by seeing results once and then surging forward, certain that tiny success was a sign we were ready to move on instead of staying at that level until I saw regular, predictable results. I thought I'd gotten better after Steve's clinic. I had a new outlook. I backed up in my training with Jig, forced myself to be patient, to not succumb to frustration. I've been videoing my training sessions with both Jig and Dillon so I can watch them afterwards and get a clearer idea of where we are and what I need to do more of, less of, or just differently. Just like me to have a relapse when things start going well. I'm calling it The Most Monumentally Epic Set Up For Failure In The History Of The World. I told myself I did
What a glorious weekend we had for the Steve Shope clinic here at the farm last weekend! The weather cooperated wonderfully, and the group of handlers and dogs was one of the best yet. All eager to learn, all super-supportive of one another, and all at various levels with their dogs. We certainly gave Steve a work-out. He, in turn, pushed some of us outside our comfort zones in order to get the best from our dogs. For some handlers 'outside the comfort zone' meant merely turning their back on their dog. For others, it meant moving outside the pen. Literally. Talk about exercising trust in your dog while losing the ability to micro-manage them. A trap I fall into far too often. I was one of those who Steve had work their dog from the opposite side of the fence. Yes, I put Jig in the round pen with the stock, closed the
This clip of 5 month old Jig showed up on Facebook's 'See Your Memories' thing. According to my post that day: Took Jig into the small arena today, just for grins and giggles, and Tija was able to catch some of it with her phone. At first Jig was obsessed with one of the ewes that wanted to stick to me, she just kept circling me and the ewe, trying to get her to move by heeling her a couple times. I put the lead back on her so I could direct her a little further, put the sheep back together and then just wanted to see what I'd get when I released her. Got lots of promise, that's what I got. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdXYeJYM9Xs] Sometimes, to see how far we've come, it really helps to look at where we started. Five years and a lot of miles later Jig and I are *finally*
I think if I worked on it for a day, I could come up with stockdog related lyrics to that song. What would you do if I gave the wrong flank? Would you take it or do what I meant? Right. Okay. Um
In preparation for the beginning of our trial season, I've been reading over some of my posts to remind myself of all those things I struggled with and overcame last year as far as my handling/trialing. The SEMASA trial is this coming weekend and I'm worried I'll revert to my old ways. They weren't exactly good ways, and I'd really like to avoid revisiting them if at all possible. (Take a look back at some of my posts if you missed it. There were times it was not a pretty sight.) To help me get through this week without falling into obsessive mode, I've compiled a list of things to keep in mind: Don't get lost in the hunt for a title. We're two legs away from Jig's WTCH. Even if we get it, that's just the beginning of another journey. There is SOOO much we need to work on yet. Watch the stock, not Jig. She's
Some of you have asked me how Dillon is coming along in his training. I don't mean to ignore him in my posts it's just that he doesn't get worked near as often as Jig right now. That's partly due to time constraints, but mostly it's because he's young yet (as I'm constantly reminded by several people any time I whine mention our problems). And he's a boy. Worse, he is currently suffering from a horrendous case of Young Boy Brain. Or, more correctly, he's enjoying it. I'm the one suffering. I can only hope it's not terminal because right now it tends to make me feel like this
I threatened you with promised an update (whether you want one or not) on Jig's training, so here it is. The best thing I ever did for this dog was invest in cattle of our own. I wish I would have done it years ago, but something else always came up. Plus, even four steers are a bit commitment of resources. In any case, we won't know until the SEMASA trial Memorial Weekend if our hard work is paying off, but I'm feeling a bit more confident in our chances. Trialing on cattle has always been tough for us because Jig likes them a bit too much. So much, as a matter of fact, she tends to forget I'm out there with her. That's not to say we haven't had our moments. They just happen to be few and far between and the rest have been
It's been a moderately eventful week here at the farm. It all started on the 26th with the very early arrival of twin ram lambs. We aren't scheduled to start lambing until this week, and the ewe that lambed didn't even appear bred. She also didn't have any bag to speak of. Yet, there they were, two tiny ram lambs. And there she was, no milk, first time mom, wanted absolutely nothing to do with them. Ol' softy that I am, I bundled up the boys and relocated them to the laundry room without much hope of their survival. One of them especially, the red one dubbed Crybaby, wasn't even able to stand, and I'm pretty certain neither of them could see yet. Their first milestone was living through the day. The next was surviving for 2 days. I had to enlist the aid of friends and family to feed them
Yesterday was a big day here on the farm. Yup. Mr. Rebel Kitten officially assumed his position as Barn Cat. Given the speed at which he moved from place to place, and the efficient manner in which he kept an eye on absolutely everything, I'd say he's going to do things his own freaking way. Then again, that seems to be the theme around here. Since Rebel seemed occupied with coming to terms with his new responsibilities, I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and firm footing (that's something of a rarity this time of year) and get some training in. The calves have been here a week and, though they've met the dogs, I haven't done anything beyond having Jig walk in on a nose to turn them. Having her own steers is going to do that girl a world of good. Okay, it's going to do us both a