Pre trial stuff

Well not much work for Abby since the trial.  I had to run through my ducks and try to figure trial groups for them since they'll be used next weekend.  Sally and Patsy got to work them.
Sally was PUSHY!  Geez, who knew:-)))  Anyway, she worked them ok once we were on the same page.  Nice gathers and drives, my ducks don't really like to fetch cuz of the human pressure so they need to be handled softly on the fetch.  She was good at breaking them from the corners; grabs their little butt feathers one duck at a time.  Out they come!  The ducks need some training, since Sally is the only one working ducks right now she's it.
Patsy did some work on them too.  Go figure, she was also pushy:-))  Second group of ducks was a little less likely to stay together so it didn't help that she was pushy on them.  Work after that was good though.  She does a nice job usually on ducks just needs some miles to settle on them.
So I think I have two decent groups of trial ducks.  They aren't great ducks but they are surely workable if the dog handles them right.  I'll be selling them after this trial anyway, I just don't use them often enough...

Polish...

I got to work Abby, Sally and Patsy today; though only Abby is trialling this weekend. Sally did the set up work, Patsy did lesson work and Abby was polishing...
Sally put the lambs out, split the pregger ewes off and took the working sheep out. The school ewes don't usually go out to the neighbors but I wanted more draw in a different direction. I also needed to take out a couple of ram lambs who are getting too big for their britches. So two lambs and the ram and one ewe were our working group. Sally was kind enough the take them out and put the goats in the paddock so Abby could work.
I set some sheep out with grain at the bottom of the goat pasture and sent Abby from the roundpen field with the gates opened up. She did a beautiful "come" outrun, the lift could have been more slow, fetch was nice, drive was pretty good and she did a nice split on the 4 we had. I drove those 2 around the triangle and then shed them too. All pretty good work. Then I sent her on a "way" outrun was bad... So we did quite a few more after allowing her to rest for a couple minutes. We finally quit on a good one or two. I hope the "come" outrun holds out for her B course runs in a couple weeks.
Patsy got to put the sheep up for our lesson and then help our student figure some things out. She did a nice job in the roundpen, taking pressure off and coming in when asked. I even got a tiny drive from her. All in all she did a nice job; we even got a great lesson in patience for her.
Abby got to do the evening chores so got some more opportunities for training. First I had her drive the ram/ewe back down the goat pasture and out the gate towards their pasture up front. She did an ok job since she had to drive them past/through the goats. Got them settled somewhere outside the gate and I brought her back up to take the ram lambs down through the goat pasture which set up a great fenceline drive to emulate the pen to 4 drive. She wanted to be pushy and squeezed them a couple times but managed to bring them back nice. Then we had a chat and she went off nicely and drove them really well. We made a turn across and then I came in and set up a shed. The first one was nicely set up except that one ram was standing her off and she had enough. She blew up on him and had to put them back together... Next one was a beautiful set up and then I got a phone call I couldn't ignore...

So really some good polishing work for Abby; regardless of what happens at the trial this weekend her work here at home has been pretty nice overall.

Trial weekend

Finally I am getting to report on our trial weekend.


First up is Sally, she ran on Adv A ducks. She did a great job, very dependable:-)) First day she laid down a nice run and was first in her class of 11. Second day she was a bit more pushy, as were the ducks; still she was second place and the only other qualifier. Not too bad for the Sally monster:-)) She managed not to lay a single tooth on any duck!


Second Abby, first day same old problem. My nerves unnerve my dog. . . Bad run though had some good things too. Came home and worked no problem... Got to be me. So back the second day and the trial was moved to the maximum field. Yikes:-)) Abby did a bang up job! Outrun could have been better but still acceptable. Everything else was nice, one small snag at the pen, they came out so quiet that they went right back in; otherwise a VERY respectable run. Of 9 dogs in the class Abby was 2nd, only 2 dogs Q'd in A sheep of 9 entry. The winner was a very nice open BC already finished with his HC; problematic part is that we were running against A, B and C course sheep as well as A and B ducks. So I will just be happy wtih the run Sunday and Sally monsters duck legs!

Travelling work

While I haven't posted here in a while, I've been diligent about training the dogs. I've gone to a couple of sites to try and proof Abby a bit, since we've had such outrun woes. Seems to be paying off, outruns have been improved even at other venues. We'll see if trial day it sticks now. Her other work is also indicative of the hard work we've put in. Drive has been better and more direct, drive to the 4 still needs work but there is always something to work on!
Sally was introduced to Call ducks, that was interesting:-)) For all the lack of work on ducks, she did really pretty well. It still may be the shortest run ever on ducks but I was pretty proud of her pre-trial work... If I hadn't been feeling ballsy the day I sent in Adv. entries; I would feel a bit more confident about it... Oh well, jump in with both feet and see what happens:-)))
Patsy tagged along and got some work at different spots too. First she was good, then she was bad... More miles, it will get better! Worked on ducks and that wasn't bad, just some reminding and then all was well!
Rosy got to meet ducks for the first time as well, she isn't completely disgusted... A couple more times and she'll be a pro, I'm sure:-)))
So a trial this weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing some old friends and visiting as well as running dogs!

Lots more work!

I've been getting the dogs worked about 4 days a week, sometimes a bit more! Wow what a difference:-))
We helped set sheep for a trial over the weekend and then got to work at my friends house on Sunday. Great work for the dogs. Sally, Bubbles and Patsy all got great work there; Abby set sheep Sat and was a bit tired. Abby was worked Tues-Thursday last week; I really have been pushing her now. She is experienced enough and needs to be held to a higher standard. Her outruns have been dismal at trials in particular but not great any where so those were the first thing to work on. They have been improving, I'm seeing her making some good decisions on her own without correction on my part. Today were the best outruns I've ever seen her do.
I rarely set me sheep for outruns, I usually just pick them up where they lie... Today I set them with grain and they are HUNGRY. Abby had nice outruns, lifts were still a bit rushed on the first one but the second I stopped her and it was beautiful!!! Drives were nice too. Now I'll be working on her flanks with running sheep again. She doesn't like to continue the flank when they want to run... So much better work overall though!!
Sally was great on Sunday and did pretty well with the grunt work today at home. She is so easy to do chores with her here at home. I think my friend Debby got some video of her work at her place.
Bubbles was much better this week too. She is starting to take stick pressure and not be as grippy on heels. Patsy had her hands full with some VERY light sheep that did not want any part of me or her! It was interesting to watch her think it through and figure it out!

Training videos

Ok first is Abby, the first minute or so there is nothing to see. It is a true blind outrun, I didn't know where the sheep were either! She did ok, the sheep got to my feet in a pretty straight line from what I could tell:-)) The lambs are just being broke to drive so the drive is pretty squiggly but its ok.





Second is Sally taking the school sheep up for lessons yesterday. Not her best work, she was being a bit of a pill actually! We got through it though.




Lastly is Bubbles, pretty shoddy to start. This is probably her 5th time on sheep or so, we are working on her not shutting down from the stick. You can see the sheep leave on her, takes a couple seconds to figure it out. She also did not like the line that was left on, it fell off as she finally decided to take after the sheep.

I have another video of Abbys work today but forgot to include it in the download so that will be posted later...

Wet and soggy work

Well we got work this weekend too but boy was it miserable! Rain, rain and more rain. Rain jackets didn't keep us dry or stop us working but icky!
Abby did some really nice work. Good outruns, driving was pretty good; though she was rolling off a little( I think cuz the sheep did not really want to go anywhere). Did a couple nice sheds and regather(lookbacks). Stops are better but still have to really get in her head to start, she just wants to rush through work! Really pretty happy though; mostly about her outrun improvement here. I am strongly thinking about entering her in the AHBA trial this weekend, it would be a good thing to see where we are for the upcoming Fall trials!
Sally did some work though not as much and she was PUSHY! Good work ethic as usual but boy she is like trying to slow down a Mack truck! Outruns were pretty good, still could have a better lift, fetch is really good though. Drives are better, though the flanks still need to be more square. Glad to be making the time to work dogs and now being able to see the results!

More work

Wow I got even more work on the girls this week.
Abby got some really good work on Monday and Tuesday. Below is a dogs eye pic of the tree field next door. So the dog has to be in the trees though the sheep are next to the fence where the pic was taken. It is a blind outrun once the dog leaves my feet. The trees are easy to get lost in too, but outruns even in here have been better this week.


Here is a human view of the same field you can see the grass strip on the fence where the sheep would be set. It is impossible to get pics of the dogs working in here though, I've got a hard enough time keeping track of where they are without looking through a lens:-))

I got a set of 5 ducks out for Sally this afternoon too. She did really well since we had a couple that didn't really want to play. I don't have any courses set up but I made a makeshift course with pipe sheep feeders. She did a nice job fetching, non-fetching ducks. Flanks were pretty good and the drive was nice. Funny enough she is much softer on the ducks then on sheep or goats. Even when they sull up she is soft about putting her mouth on them, I'm happy for that:-))

Life feels so much better when I can work my dogs!

Wow long time no post

Yes it really has been a long time; though the dogs have been getting worked thankfully. Lots of good work really. I entered a trial this Fall so figured I'd better make sure and fix some things that have gone astray...
Abby, Sally and Patsy have been getting a fair amount of work now. Bubbles has been on sheep 4x now and is really a nice working little dog. Lots of heel to her, good low bite mostly too:-) I'm hoping to get her PT this December.
Abby and Sally have been getting more outrun work than we've been doing. Outruns are the only thing really holding Sally back on Adv work and Abby and I need to work some things out on them too. At home the outruns are better than elsewhere. I got to work her two different places this weekend and the improvement was noticeable. Just need to get those results in trials too! Sally did well this weekend too, driving was strong, outruns were acceptable.
Patsy is working really nicely. Walk ups are improving, steadiness too. She is fun, just different from the cardis.

More catching up

Well our great 4 day weekend has allowed me extra dog work time, its been great. Too bad we can't just quit work and work dogs all day everyday! My dogs are probably glad that is not the case:-)))
Patsy- got worked 2x this week on sheep. She is getting more push and drive now and is taking more push back so we really need to start getting to work now. Outruns were ok, though are starting to lose the top so will need to go back for that now. Walk ups were better and we are doing some chores with her now so that should help too.
Sally- Lots of work for her this week too. The sheep are being rotten so I have to keep going next door and pulling them out of the neighbors plants. Sally, Abby and Patsy have been getting that job. Sally's outruns have been ok, though not Adv quality they are more correct lately. Flanks still need work too, just not crisp enough; they are getting better still. Driving is nice, I just need to control it.
Abby- Had a little melt down on the outruns this week... I have got to get this fixed!!! There is a breakdown somewhere, just not sure where. We are going to fix it:-)) Been doing a lot of outrun work and just very little driving. Some outruns are OMG BAD and other are OMG AWESOME! so I just don't know what is different to make awesome... She is a handle dog, must be handled to stay and on the straight and narrow BUT she has got to do the outrun without assistance. So back to the drawing board...

Bubbles is the new arrival and she wants nothing more than to get to stock all the time. So I still need to start her in the roundpen maybe tomorrow....
Rosy is now on maternity leave.

Delayed updates

Well now that I'm on vacation I have time to post about our dog work over the last couple weeks. We have been a bit slow on work. Abby was spayed 10 days ago so is on surgery leave. Sally has been doing the chores since then, and is doing a wonderful job. She seems to be settling a little bit. Nice outruns, driving is smoothing out; flanks still need work they are tight and sloppy. Worked Sally on ducks last weekend. What a nice job she did! Great small outruns, nice corners, good flanks on them; guess I better try her on ducks this Fall too!
Patsy I worked last weekend on ducks and sheep. She is doing well still gaining a bit more confidence and push BUT still nice work for the most part. Starting to steady her up behind sheep a bit now and she is still very heady. I'll try and upload her duck video this week to share.

Weekend work again...

Went to a friends house this weekend, well Sat anyway and got a little work on everyone. I worked Sally and Abby here at home this week too.
Abby worked pretty well though the sheep were very difficult to shed. Her driving was nice and flanks were ok. Didn't do much on outruns since the sheep wanted to run but we are working on those here at home.
Sally got the most work this week doing chores. She brought the sheep home every night and got to do some nice outrun work. I've been really pushing her on the drive and flanking. The drive is improving quickly, outruns need miles...
Rosy worked on Sat with driving and did quite well. Her balance and cover on the drive is very good, walk ups are improving though I expect will need time.
Patsy hasn't been worked this week but did get to work Sat too. She did ok though had some things to think about... Bigger field and lighter sheep still did well for her experience level.

Cowgirls!

Abby, Sally and I went to work cows for the first time today. The girls did really well too:-)) I'm proud of them today. I'm not real comfy with cattle but have had some time around them in my life. Of course my biggest fear is that the dogs get squashed! Well no one got squashed but Sally was cruisin' for a bruisin' as usual I guess. I am only posting 1 video of each girl, the second runs were improvements for both. Both were worked in the small pen first and I moved Abby out to the big field since she took right to them!:-))



So Abby's is first. I'm really suprized by her, very proud too:-))



Sally second, I think I am Sally's biggest problem. Next time will be better!

Got work??

Yes I did get the dogs worked last weekend and some through this week. There have been good and bad days for all of them...
I did get some videos which I will try to post once I edit them on youtube.
Abby, really up and down. Some wonderful work and some really horrible stuff. Don't know what is up with her. Been taking sheep next door to the neighbors to graze, his grass is lovely and the sheep need it. Its about 3 acres, half of which is ligustrum trees about 50 gal size(5x5). Abby does not like th eoutruns through the trees she is not understanding the whole out of sight thing with the sheep. Doesn't help that the grass is 2-3' too so she gets really lost in there. We are going to work on it a bit more today so we can get her through this, maybe it will help the outruns in the future since those are not her strong point...
Sally really is doing pretty nice stuff. GOOD driving work, Outruns remind me of her dad (tight but good contact with sheep). The heat doesn't bother her as much as the others right now. She has been taking the sheep over and driving them down to the bottom so that they graze that area right now. Overall good, hopefully we can get her Adv sheep this Fall, then we can do some duck work and maybe cattle.
Rosy, Just bad... She has been the longest off of sheep so that is not suprizing. Pretty poor work fast, not good stops, outruns are ok. She won't be trialing this Fall so we've got time for her on the drive and Int. work.
Patsy, doing really well. She is starting to get a little stronger on the sheep so I've kinda taken a break with her until she'll take more pressure. Outruns are pretty good so far, just starting on those. Very heady little girl.
So finally there is the update. I'll get videos posted hopefully this pm!

Great weekend work!

I loaded up 4 girls, 3 Cardis and Patsy and we took a girls night:-)) The 5 of us went to our friend Debby's house (well Debby and Craigs house). Patsy got to play with her bro and we all got to work sheep. I have a couple videos to share once they get loaded, some great work and some things to work on.
Abby did some really great stuff on pretty light spoiled sheep. Unfortunatly we did not get her best work on video but she did really well. Maybe she's camera shy... Nice driving, flanks need some work, not good sheep to work outruns on either way, nice sheds too...



Sally, first work out was just trying to stop the sheep from running hell bent for their pen or their friends. She did well considering there was lots of stick action on the sheep. Sunday morning she did fabulous and we got video of that. Sure there were some things to work on but overall she is coming along well. I forget really Sally has gotten a lot more miles than Abby overall. Rosy, really nice work from her overall lost her head a time or two but thats expected at 2. Held pressure pretty well and was steady most of the time. It was really good for her to work sheep that didn't want to come to ME at all! She had to use lots of brain cells on this work, I've not pushed her a lot yet so it was good to see her take some heat.



Finally Patsy, such a nice working pup. Not quite 5 months yet and already doing some really nice natural work. What I see in her already makes me excited for her future too.:-)) This video is the very first time she has seen sheep off my property much less worked them. It was lots of fun and so good for the dogs and I to get out and get some really good work. I was proud of everyone! Very hot today and everyone got their job done without complaint, only a quick trip to the water.

Sally and Rosy

Well I got the two girls worked Tuesday. Abby did a couple hours worth of chores earlier in the day and I "worked" her in the process. I've got to get this outrun licked with her so I set it up to do big long outruns every time we brought stock up for eye checks. They were better for the most part...
Sally well, she is on auto-pilot. She is used so often for chores and not worked in training that she is well versed in using her brain to get a job done. It is difficult to get her out of that and make her listen to what I want. I almost feel bad fighting with her about it... not bad enough to quit though! She did better but again its the balance of power like we had in Jan/Feb. Lots of work to do.
Rosy, was great! She is catching on to driving really well and seems to like it lots:-)) Her outruns are suffering, as expected but they'll come back soon enough. Good pace and nice straight walk ups to start the drive around the "handler's post". I'm really happy with where she is right now.

Some work...

Well some of the dogs got some work this week. Monday and Tuesday I got four dogs worked.
Abby and Sally got work on Monday. Both need some more but Abby did pretty well. Need a little more than she is getting. Sally was better than the last time but still not where she needs to be. A few outruns for both some driving and a few sheds.
Rosy and Patsy got a little work on Tuesday. Rosy was ok, still pushy and she is acting like she is a bit hormonal. Patsy was great! Nice work in the larger area. Rosy I am starting driving with and she did well on that. Pushy is better for driving anyway.
Sally got lesson work on Friday. She got to do some more difficult driving and did ok though needed a bit more walk up a couple times, which is strange for her. Overall it was good work for her though. Abby also got lesson work today. Just a few outruns and dividing the boys for lessons today. Good work though, her outruns have definitly improved since our come to Jesus meeting.
Hopefully next weekend I can get some video of a couple dogs.

Yup its really been this long!

I'm embarassed to say this is the first day since before the Nationals that I have gotten any work done on the dogs. I got 4 dogs worked today though two of them got VERY little work.
Patsy and Rosy were first this am. Patsy did some really nice work. I worked her in the 140x150 pen and she did a nice job of grouping, moving off pressure and stopping at the end. She'll be a fun little girl!
Rosy started real driving lessons today. She did well for her first real lesson:-)) She isn't real sure what I'm asking her to do but she naturally has a good walk up so she'll catch on fast. Only worked her for 15min or so but it was good work while we had it. She also got to move the mamas and babies out of the barn.
Abby and Sally got just a few minutes each since it was soooo hot. Abby tried to cut the outrun immediately so she got read the riot act! Once she put her big girl brain on she worked well and did a couple nice sheds and look backs too. Sally well she showed her LONG layoff. Outruns were pretty good but her steady was non existent... need to work everyone more often!

Got Work?

As bad as the day was I did have one bright spot while I worked dogs today! Abby was first, she brought down the three boys (2whethers1ram) to the front field. The boys haven't been up front in a couple months so they were lighter than normal but more like lambs. We drove down to the top of the field in a serpentine we left them there and did an outrun to start over again... We did that a couple times in both directions, did a nice job on her flanks, squaring her off. Nice inside flanks too. Great job Abby! Sally did almost the same thing as Abby, great job driving. Her outruns were from my side and pretty nice really. We did a couple of really nice sheds with the ram as the single, holds could have been less pushy but really nice for the little Sally. I'm a little sad that I pulled her from the Nationals, she is running advanced here at home... oh well another time... Rosy was a little pushy to start off with but a quick correction fixed that! She did some nice outruns trying to stretch those out just a little now but overall her outruns have been pretty nice. Fetches were really nice, did a few short drives and worked on her off balance walk ups and stops. I think she understood better by the end. Lastly I worked her coming in on the fence to the sheep. Rosy has been blasting around them such that is scares new sheep and so she did those in both directions and was better. I can't say enough that she is very talented but will take time and miles to get to where we need her.

Chores...

Dogs haven't been trained on lately, however we have had lots of chores to do! Worm season is kicking off and several nannies are succumbing early as well as one of the ewes with lambs. Also I have been neglecting my sheep feet for a while now... So today the dogs Abby, Rosy and Sally all got some work. Abby brought the ewes from the front down to the back pasture, held for feet trimming and moved ewes around for lessons. Working the goats really hurts her square flanks, they just draw her in. Taking the ewes in she had to do several sheds to get only the sheep. She did a nice job working the babies and keeping them with the group and also a look back to the momma. Then she brought the mommas all in the barn and shed off the close girls to eat; and put them back out when some of them were done. Had to doctor one of the twin mommas, kept her in since she is looking pretty bad. Rosy did some stall work as an example for a student which was really great for her. Then students grandson wanted to hold a lamb so she held a single mom and her twins in the large open field so I could catch one. Very nice, difficult work for her. Sally well she is the blue collar worker around here. I use her on goats almost always since she has a lot more bite than most of my dogs and the billy goat is really getting aggressive lately. She did a nice job bringing them to the doctor spot. She does lock on to a few members of the herd and must be reminded that they all must stay put. When the billy goat comes after me though she is all business and makes sure that he pays for the thought. She worked her tail off holding those 30+ goats mommas, babies and the billy in that corner. Sally is a dog with a purpose, I can not say that enough, she is with my for a reason! I love her work, talent, heart and she loves what she does! So she probably worked for 45min straight no rest and came out and went after the orange rooster! Silly Sally....