weekend herding update
Well, while I wait for Kristine to come on and explain how wonderful poo- I mean SYbil was, I'll share a little of Marley's class from today. Its a two hour drive to herding and today I only took Marley cause Morgan just had the drains out yesterday from is back and I thought sheep poo might not be all that antiseptic - and knowing a sheepie, he would try to roll in it if he didn't get his way. So newly shaved Miss Marley and I got to herding and she was full of herself. Just about everything I asked her to do (like sit at the gate) earned some sassy bac talking. now this only occurs when she is shaved down - I have no idea what the correlation is. we started in the bigger pen with five sheep and quickly got demoted back down to the smaller pen with the three heavy sheep. about three quarters of the way through our hour plus lesson, both the instructor and I were struck by the fact that miss marley knows wxactluy how to move the sheep, she has excellent ballance in golding them and she can catch the strays without losing the flock (by know we ar eonce again in the big pen). what was striking though was no matter what we told her she used all of these excellent skills to keep the sheep right where she wanted, and keep herself between me and the sheep! we have decided all we need to do is convince her she really wants to bring the sheep to ups and all will be well. anyone have any clue how to do that, because I have to tell you my instructor has never seen a dog as determined as she is. we keep wondering what she must be thinking about the two crazy humans who can't ge tit into their heads that sheep belong in the corner and musn't be allowed to move!!! actually she does move them well - most of the time, but today she was in rare form and made it very clear that she thought we didn't have a clue about what we were suppossed to be doing! |
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| "OK, I've got the under control and NOW you want me to let them go? Are You Nuts?" |
| If she knows the difference (and you are positive she does), then she needs to have some consequences.
Give your command - away to me, go bye, or whatever fetch type command you use - and see what she does. If she consistently is hoarding the sheep, she needs to leave the ring. Use good timing, and with minimal fuss take her out. Have another dog work, and have her watch and cool her heels. Try her a bit later. If she does it again, she is done for the day. She has to learn that sheep are a privelege and she is not the owner of the sheep. You work as a team, but the sheep belong to you, Kerry! |
| yeah and if we could have a nother dog anywhere on the premises that would be great. this is Marley we are talking about and I think her favorite thing about herding is - she is the only dog in the world for the hour.
normally she does leave the ring when she misbehaves - and I agree with you. but today (since its probably our last session for the year) we thought we would see how she did when we stepped back a bit - trying to get her to figure out the idea of fetch. her balance and timing were like poetry in motion her fetching - not so much  |
| Why the last session of the year?? it is just getting nice enough to do some serious work!
We used to go into the winter until it was too cold and/or the snow was too deep (or too much ice). I know it's Marley  , but can't there be another dog in a nearby building or crated in a vehicle that can work after you pull her out? Heck, you could even run around out there, and chase the sheep and sound all happy..........  |
yes I do a good impression of a herding sheepdog 
when Morgan is feeling better we do switch them out - right now Marley doesn't know any other dogs are at the barn - she smells them, never sees them. when we herded before and she knew there were dogs around she had absolutley no interest in the sheep 
snow if our enemy - they already had 2 inches this week and who knows what can happen in the next couple of weeks..... |
| Ah, yes, Sybil herding update.
I've been kind of busy, got another young foster in on Saturday who is a handful, add him to my already in-residence foster bitch, I now have two puppies in the house in addition to my six. It's a lot. He's pelted to the skin and undertrained. Gee - I'm just shocked  My vet and I are going to shave him together (sainted OES breeder) before she does the snip-snip and he won't be coming back to my house since I'm heading out of town next week. Daphne will be sad, but I'm sure the rest will breathe a sigh of relief. He's not a bad dude, but in need of some manners, which irritates my girls to no end. Che is just miffed that he's playing with "his" Daphne. Belle and Sybil and Mace are busy explaining the basic premise of life to him: bitches rule, (boy) dogs drool.
Last night I allowed him up in my bedroom for a while which was kind of interesting. I have a crate in there. Nobody's been put in it for a while, but when I first started letting Daphne sleep loose, my girls would make her go in there to sleep. I never saw them do it, but I got to watch them in action last night and it was really pretty impressive. At first Mace wouldn't let him in the room at all. Not a peep out of her. Just laying there in the doorway was enough. I called her back so he could come in and immediately she and Sybil went to work on opposite sides of the room, putting pressure on him then releasing it until his only comfortable option was to go in the crate. I figured it was sort of like a tag team penning sheep and nice team work, which leads me to my herding lesson with Sybil on Saturday which did include sheep, not so much on the team work, though she held up her end of the bargain. Kerry, you may bring out the Poor Sybil emoticon only because her is yet another venue where her handler seems destined to screw her up. Shannon came in the pen with us and would literally tell me where to be and I would literally not get it. How hard is it to move forward when someone tells you to move forward? Harder than you may think! I kept "closing the door" on the sheep for her. Shannon would tell me to let her do her job but being at the right place at the right time was - near impossible for me. I should give Shannon my agility instructor's phone number so they can call each other and commisserate when I'm being especially dense.
At one point when she got them into a corner and Shannon told me to help her get them off the fence I would go in and try to move the sheep and couldn't figure out why they steadfastly refused to budge in the direction I was trying to move them just to look up and see that Sybil was putting counter pressure on them to stay put. So I'd try to move them the other direction just to notice that she had moved so I couldn't budge them in that direction either. I finally walked back out and took Sybil's collar and walked her along the fence till they moved. Reading about Marley's adventures I'm thinking maybe they read the same "hold'em in the corner" advice at the same time and Kerry and I need to find the source of this misinformation and make it stop
For all that I really enjoyed it. Another venue where I get to feel like a complete idiot. Yippee! Actually, it's the challenge I enjoy, I think. And there is something near religious about a sheepdog being allowed to do what they are supposed to be bred to do that I don't even get in agility. It's hard to explain. Nonetheless, as I was heading home afterwards I immediately called Dawn up and informed her I have to come visit her so she can explain Sheep 101 to me. She only laughed oh, four-five, times as I described our adventures, which was very nice and restrained of her, all told 
Yesterday we went to a rally run-thru where she showed glimmers of getting it, though we're not there yet. Oh, and I ran her (officially) through advanced for the first time. Or rather, it was the first time she saw the offset figure 8. She was soooooo excited to see food and toys allowed in the ring with her....("for ME???? Oh, boy!") Gonna be doing some proofing on that one
Her jumping and then coming back to heel is the nicest I've had with any dog which came in handy since the course was designed for a Yorkie I think. It was jump, halt-90 degree pivot left halt with about 2 feet to land and halt and she nailed it including a straight sit. She has her moments. I'm really beginning to have a lot of fun with her. Kristine |
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I really think the corner penning is an instinct for them - just Marley sould know better, actually we decided she does know exactly what she is doing. yet another instructor commenting on how smart she is - unfortunatly she does not always use the power for good
Morgan will be great at this herding once he gets back out there. he doesn't have a clue what he shoud; do and will believe anything I tell him Yeah for somewaht dim witted males
but yeah - I enjoy the Marley challenge much more - and seeing her manage the sheep in the field - so cool. Morgan is going to rally class this Sunday - he hasn't been in a class for quite a while. this may be fun. Oh my herding instructor mentioned a CPE agility trial I should try in the end of January - that might be a good venue for Miss Marley to make her debut...... |
kerry wrote: 8)
I really think the corner penning is an instinct for them - just Marley sould know better, actually we decided she does know exactly what she is doing. yet another instructor commenting on how smart she is - unfortunatly she does not always use the power for good They never do....
The shaved thing - Liz is like that too. Shave her down and she goes nuts. The curious thing is she's my least confident dog but when she's bald all bets are off and the world is her oyster. Odd, huh? CPE is a great place to start. You have quite a bit of it out your way, too. Let me know what Morgan thinks of rally. We had two OES at the run-thru yesterday. Jan was there with her Sadie who has made such great strides with her reactivity. She didn't go off once and that includes when there was a group of us sitting ring side watching the Open ring and an OTCH border collie was playing and bouncing just feet away from her in front of the broad jump. Marnie brought one of Sybil's younger cousins for the socializion and you can tell she was really impressed. She fell sleep under Marnie's chair while we were watching utility.
I haven't really looked that far ahead but if I end up coming back to NY again next spring we should see if there's a rally trial convenient to both of us. Or maybe a CPE trial. It really is more fun when there's another OES entered. Kristine |
| Per Kristine:
Her jumping and then coming back to heel is the nicest I've had with any dog which came in handy since the course was designed for a Yorkie I think. It was jump, halt-90 degree pivot left halt with about 2 feet to land and halt and she nailed it including a straight sit. She has her moments. That must be a sibling trait. Chewie does it so well too! That is one thing I'm glad he decided not to emulate in his beloved Aunt Bebe!! Hang in there herding girls - it will come together.  |
Mad Dog wrote: It really is more fun when there's another OES entered.
Kristine you don't fool me - you're just looking for cover |
kerry wrote: Mad Dog wrote: It really is more fun when there's another OES entered. Kristine you don't fool me - you're just looking for cover Bwahahahaha!!!! Was I that obvious? When I handed in Syb's agility entry, I noted to the trial sec, AKA my instructor, that another OES was entering two of the days and I was really happy about that. Otherwise you're just so damn conspicious, I pointed out (I suspect she was thinking: well, if you focused on doing well, you wouldn't be worried about being conspicuous, now would you? Which would probably be HER response to consistently running the only dog of a certain breed. )
Kathi and I both entered Yoda and Belle at a certain USDAA trial some years ago. During the briefing on the second day the judge noted that it had come to her attention that a certain extraordinarily hairy dog (how many of those do you think there were? Exactly!) had been run with her collar on the day before (you have to run naked in that venue. Well, the dogs. Handlers are encouraged to run fully clothed  )
Kathi and I both stared innocently into space. Which would have been a LOT harder to do had only one of us been there
KB |
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