It's Sat and I spent a bunch of money today. I got this really cool t-shirt that has a cartoon of a dog with dirty feet and it says Dirty dogs have more fun. Cute
I bought something to take care of the urine smell in the yard, I hope it works and some bug spray for Dare because the horseflies are bugging him. Along with sheep grain,layer pellets,dog food and cat food. I am leaving for a week and I want to have everything all set for the farm sitter.
I was supposed to build a frame for the roof of the duck pen today but I couldn't get motivated. It was hot today. I did some gardening and put the grain away and worked 2 dogs and gave a lesson. The lesson went well and the training went well too.
Dare worked on staying where I put him in the sortingchute instead of coming up and biting the rear (lambs) all the time. This has been getting worse and worse and I have been letting it go. Well it's going to bite me in the ass this weekend at the Farm trial because I have to use a sorting chute and go in a trailer and get the sheep out quietly (hah). Then we did a little work on walking up and turning in on the There command. He is not sharp at all and sometimes (a lot)doesn't turn in at all. Obviously a flaw in my initial training. Ah well keep on trucking..
Dually was a good boy and still jumped in on the pressure but was better without the pinch collar on. I used a body harness and he jumped in with less panic. I think the pinch was making him panic and then being that close to the sheep. He did much better tonight without it. I also worked on the stand from the down and vice versa. He got it today and last time not so much . He is very quick to learn, but I do have to train him.
Kathy called from the agility trial and told me Peaches was being a good girl and doing very well for her. Apparently some people at the trial recogized her and also told her she was handling her very well. That's great!! Peaches is having an outing.
Mikey went swimming at Joan and Michaels camp. So everybody had a good time today.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
So yesteday and today I worked on doing quick flanks with Dare in the control pen. He got it pretty quickly, but I think it ramped him up for the rest of the training sessions which didn'tgo that well. The down was bad and he was not thoughtful although he did some nice presents to me. I did a little work on his getting up quietly by (trying) to down him as soon as he got up. And I worked on his out. My goodness we worked on a lot of things!
Dually worked on walking up and not diving in with little sucess. He seems panicked when we walk up within 10 ft of the sheep. I'll keep calm and keep working on it. His flanking was very nice and I did a little work on quick flanks with him too, but I don't think I will do that again. It seems to get the too high.
It's cold out and wet today, about 50 deg. The ducklings are doing well 1 wk old = 8 Indian runners.
Tomorrow I am going to the BobVest handlers clinic. Hopefully the weather will be better.
Okay here goes nothing--
My first blog --I have to write about the Bob Vest clinic last week --It was great and Dare did some really nice things. He did and outurn that made my jaw drop. It was about 175 by 350 ft field and I feel strongly that he could have done a bigger one had he been asked. His lift was stupendous,but then he couldnt bring them to me straight. He kept breaking out to catch the heads and nothing I said was going to change his mind. Oh well... Something to work on next week with Bob.
Dually was a cutie pie but he needs more basics. We worked on him taking pressure by walking the sheep into a corner and also cover when we pressed to hard and squirted them out. He was great at cover but the pressure was hard for him. I have worked it a couple of time since then and he seems to be getting better. I just didn't feel like doing anything Sunday so all I did was let the sheep out next to their pen and held Dually on line there to keep them from eating stuff they weren't supposed to. Dually was very relaxed until I asked him to walk up and move them. He only dove in once though and then thought better of it. He walks up readily but slowly and with a great deal of eye. Nice..
Oh ya--I was giving an instinct test on Sat and I brought Dare into the pen to work the sheep a little so the new dogs could see the sheep move from the outside and hopefully get interested. They were but that's their blog. So I am in the center of the 35 by 40 and talking and ignoring Dare because he was moving them by himself quietly. I remember thinking I probably shouldn't be letting him do this by himself but then out of the corner of my eye I could see he was trying to move them to me and get them to stop . Usually he would hold them against the fence so I dared not breathe in case he changed his mind. He pushed himself up against the fence and started to barely move and the sheep slowed and came 1/2 way to me and then he turned his head and moved them all the way to me and then just held them there. It was a thing of beauty. It was a beautiful moment for us.
My first blog --I have to write about the Bob Vest clinic last week --It was great and Dare did some really nice things. He did and outurn that made my jaw drop. It was about 175 by 350 ft field and I feel strongly that he could have done a bigger one had he been asked. His lift was stupendous,but then he couldnt bring them to me straight. He kept breaking out to catch the heads and nothing I said was going to change his mind. Oh well... Something to work on next week with Bob.
Dually was a cutie pie but he needs more basics. We worked on him taking pressure by walking the sheep into a corner and also cover when we pressed to hard and squirted them out. He was great at cover but the pressure was hard for him. I have worked it a couple of time since then and he seems to be getting better. I just didn't feel like doing anything Sunday so all I did was let the sheep out next to their pen and held Dually on line there to keep them from eating stuff they weren't supposed to. Dually was very relaxed until I asked him to walk up and move them. He only dove in once though and then thought better of it. He walks up readily but slowly and with a great deal of eye. Nice..
Oh ya--I was giving an instinct test on Sat and I brought Dare into the pen to work the sheep a little so the new dogs could see the sheep move from the outside and hopefully get interested. They were but that's their blog. So I am in the center of the 35 by 40 and talking and ignoring Dare because he was moving them by himself quietly. I remember thinking I probably shouldn't be letting him do this by himself but then out of the corner of my eye I could see he was trying to move them to me and get them to stop . Usually he would hold them against the fence so I dared not breathe in case he changed his mind. He pushed himself up against the fence and started to barely move and the sheep slowed and came 1/2 way to me and then he turned his head and moved them all the way to me and then just held them there. It was a thing of beauty. It was a beautiful moment for us.
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