I was a bit disappointed when I had to reschedule Ted's much-anticipated trip to "college" but I very much understand that his future trainer wants to make sure she does well at the Finals in September. Heck, for selfish reasons I'm very interested in her doing well - not to mention my best wishes for a friend and one of this year's few representatives from the East Coast. Now Ted will probably go in November instead.
But, I should know better than to have regrets over things that are not in my control. First, if everything goes as planned, he'll get a ride there instead of our having to take time away from the farm. That's a small thing.
But, the exciting thing. Since we are not driving to his trainer the first weekend in August, we might be able to do something I've wanted to do for a long time - participate in a Habitat home raising! Our credit union is supporting their latest push and supplying workers from their employees and any members that want to volunteer, too.
Meanwhile, I continue to grow and learn from Ted's training. After my week away we were both really rough this afternoon. It was hot, this exercise was a bit intense, and so I only worked him a few minutes. The idea is to discourage him from pushing all the time on the sheep - on flanks especially he's got a really lovely leeeeeeeeeaaaaaan in that drives the sheep a bit batty.
It's difficult to work this on sheep that are not dog broke, as I'm also working with his tension about "losing" them. I believe next time I'll work in this in the round pen. There's no dishonor in returning a dog to the pen to fix something, I believe - especially if we can make a major breakthrough on this!
An interesting fact is that there is a direct relationship between this problem (which I don't have the understanding or terminology to describe yet), and the fact that Ted doesn't really look for sheep when he runs out. Once he's got a set of sheep he keeps them together till death, et cetera, but he will blithely ignore sheep that are inconvenient for whatever reason. It's a maturity thing and I'm not worried about it. I sense that it's one of those "problems" that has a positive flip side.
I am using (well, attempting to use) two different approaches to helping Ted correct his "lean." In the first, I've placed the sheep so the fence and me keep them stationary. This "makes the right easy." As Ted begins to lean, I simply scold him, but also step back a bit wider (or try to do this - amazing how a week off will throw one's timing all off! We'll see whether I can get better at this.
The next phase, which was our assigned homework, was a bit of a disaster. I wish I had had time to practice this when I got home last weekend, before I hit the road for the week, so it would be fresh, but it was just impossible. My failure to execute this, I think, has to do with the difference between the lovely sheep at Robin's, and my knuckleheads (actually they are fine sheep, they just aren't hip to the whole "dog broke" thing).
What I'm supposed to do is create distance by, well, it's hard to describe but I need to keep him moving while at the same time make him think twice about "claiming" the space I've designated as "mine." Problem is, I am in this video, at no time, very clear about that message, and Ted finally breaks the tension with some tomfoolery. That's actually fine too as he needs to learn that he gets nowhere doing that, and also how to recover when things go badly (reducing his tension more - he gets scared that things "might" happen).
Enough yammering (nothing worse than novice yammering, probably - I'm sure there's much wince worthy in this but it will be helpful to me later to see how I perceived Ted's progress).
But, I should know better than to have regrets over things that are not in my control. First, if everything goes as planned, he'll get a ride there instead of our having to take time away from the farm. That's a small thing.
But, the exciting thing. Since we are not driving to his trainer the first weekend in August, we might be able to do something I've wanted to do for a long time - participate in a Habitat home raising! Our credit union is supporting their latest push and supplying workers from their employees and any members that want to volunteer, too.
Meanwhile, I continue to grow and learn from Ted's training. After my week away we were both really rough this afternoon. It was hot, this exercise was a bit intense, and so I only worked him a few minutes. The idea is to discourage him from pushing all the time on the sheep - on flanks especially he's got a really lovely leeeeeeeeeaaaaaan in that drives the sheep a bit batty.
It's difficult to work this on sheep that are not dog broke, as I'm also working with his tension about "losing" them. I believe next time I'll work in this in the round pen. There's no dishonor in returning a dog to the pen to fix something, I believe - especially if we can make a major breakthrough on this!
An interesting fact is that there is a direct relationship between this problem (which I don't have the understanding or terminology to describe yet), and the fact that Ted doesn't really look for sheep when he runs out. Once he's got a set of sheep he keeps them together till death, et cetera, but he will blithely ignore sheep that are inconvenient for whatever reason. It's a maturity thing and I'm not worried about it. I sense that it's one of those "problems" that has a positive flip side.
I am using (well, attempting to use) two different approaches to helping Ted correct his "lean." In the first, I've placed the sheep so the fence and me keep them stationary. This "makes the right easy." As Ted begins to lean, I simply scold him, but also step back a bit wider (or try to do this - amazing how a week off will throw one's timing all off! We'll see whether I can get better at this.
The next phase, which was our assigned homework, was a bit of a disaster. I wish I had had time to practice this when I got home last weekend, before I hit the road for the week, so it would be fresh, but it was just impossible. My failure to execute this, I think, has to do with the difference between the lovely sheep at Robin's, and my knuckleheads (actually they are fine sheep, they just aren't hip to the whole "dog broke" thing).
What I'm supposed to do is create distance by, well, it's hard to describe but I need to keep him moving while at the same time make him think twice about "claiming" the space I've designated as "mine." Problem is, I am in this video, at no time, very clear about that message, and Ted finally breaks the tension with some tomfoolery. That's actually fine too as he needs to learn that he gets nowhere doing that, and also how to recover when things go badly (reducing his tension more - he gets scared that things "might" happen).
Enough yammering (nothing worse than novice yammering, probably - I'm sure there's much wince worthy in this but it will be helpful to me later to see how I perceived Ted's progress).
2 comments:
Hey - You just were behind him a bit, need to set up more between him and the sheep, with him just a little ahead on you on the flank. In the video, you guys were almost at 6 and 12 to each other.
Ya know, we ought to do a lesson day at your place sometime. It would be fun to get the dogs on a different type of sheep to generalize some of their lessons.
That would be great! I just sent you a whiny e-mail - I knew something was wrong but not what. Definitely need to get together soon! I'll try that tomorrow, and see whether the hole in my understanding of what's going on gets a bit smaller. :-/
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