Finn loves to play even if no one else wants to, he's been that way since he was a puppy. He'll amuse himself with a stick, a pile of leaves, a chunk of ice, or zoomies through the tall grass. It's a behavior which never ceases to both baffle and annoy Dillon, especially when Finn does everything in his power to get Dillon to join in. There are times Dillon loosens up and romps a bit. Other times
November has been pretty mild so far which means I've been able to work the dogs with relative frequency. Given the shortness of the days, this usually takes place on the weekends, which also means I can generally talk a training partner into joining me. It's helpful when it's someone unafraid of telling me when my bad habits are showing. Not that I always agree, or want to hear it at that particular moment, which can lead to some spirited arguments discussions. There are, after all, multiple ways to skin the proverbial cat (sorry, feline friends) and perhaps there's a reason (in my mind) for what I'm doing. More often than not, however, I'm not even aware of doing whatever it is because it's just one of those things I fell into while training solo. And that happens far too often. Just ask my dogs.
If you've spent any time reading this blog, you will know Dillon has been a challenge. There have been times when I questioned if we would ever overcome our many issues. Many times frustration overcame good sense and I took it out on him by being blatantly unfair. All I can say is it's a good thing Dillon loves me as much as he does. He's willing to forgive and forget just about all my transgressions. And it's a good thing I pulled my head out of my backside and started training to his strengths instead of pounding on him for his weaknesses. I've gotten in some steady work on all the dogs the last week or so. None have shown more improvement than Dill. He gets to do the bringing in and sorting, then I'll give him a break and take him out after Jig and Cian for an actual
I have a tendency to mention the problems I'm facing during training, but the video clips accompanying those posts are usually ones in which things are going fairly well. Today I'm going to step out of my comfort zone and really put me and my dog out there with a few clips that illustrate our problem areas. Apologies in advance for the quality of the video. I had my cell phone strapped to the fence post. Also, if you're thinking this group of sheep was a bit light, you'd be right. They're light on purpose. And one more side note, I feel the need to point out that I'm not picking on Dillon. He just happens to be the 'problem child' at the moment. That's not to say we're not making progress. A session or so after this video was shot, he took a Go Bye from about 60' off the
Between the 4th of July falling in the middle of the week, and another blast of heat and humidity, I didn't get a whole lot of training in since my last post. I got in one very short session with Jig and Dillon on Tuesday evening, but the weather got the better of us. The weather and the damn bugs. They're the only ones who seem to enjoy these hot, muggy days. I have a tendency to get a bit cranky after too long a stretch, and that's not very conducive to training, or much of anything else. One of the things I was watching for when I worked Dill, was whether or not his chiro adjustment affected his Away. It didn't. Not yet, anyhow. I'm thinking that if he has been physically uncomfortable going in that direction, it has become a habit of necessity to move a certain way. That's
Life has been busy of late. That's my explanation for the lapse in posting
One of the pitfalls of training alone is that it's sometimes hard to see improvement which, in turn, can lead to frustration and discouragement when we get to feeling like we're spinning our wheels. Thankfully, I have friends who turn up from time-to-time and aren't afraid to tell me what they're seeing. Such was the case over the past weekend. My original plan was to have one of them work Dillon because it's so much easier to see what's going on when you aren't in the thick of it. Yes, I could just video our session, which I have done in the past, but I really wanted to know if I'm the source of our problems. The only way to do that was have someone else handle him. Dillon, however, is apparently a bit of a momma's boy. No way was he working for anyone else. So much for that
Sunday was a gorgeous day - finally - and I had every intention of taking advantage of the beautiful afternoon by getting in some training. First, however, I had to feed the bottle lamb. Done with that, I decided a quick walk-about was in order to check the footing in the pens and arena. The day before they had been slick and soupy. On my walk-about I noticed the duck-proofing was off on part of the arena fence. I don't have ducks this year, so could have just removed it. That would have taken more time than I wanted to spend, so I opted for a quick repair with baling twine instead. Before taking care of that, however, I needed to bring over several wheel barrow's worth of wood chips to fill in a soft spot in the roundpen, which reminded me that Cian's outside run needed a bit of
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