Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Since slow and stop where unknown words for the most part at the last trial I attended, today I worked on both. I had Rave walk up on the sheep. As soon as they moved I stopped her. Waited to let the sheep find their new place and settle. Had Rave walk up until they started moving and then stopped her again. And so on. The idea is for her to learn when she hits the bubble and how much she needs to 'push' to get the sheep to move. We also worked on some half moons on the fenceline. I am going out of town for close to two weeks tomorrow so this was the only day I could work on 'fixing' the problems that developed at the trial.

Oh Where, or where can my little stop be?...or Best Sheep Run Ever!

I have been at a 6 trials, 3 day ASCA stockdog trial in Missoula, Montana. It was a great time. Rave worked her little heart out but seemed to have forgotten that she indeed had ears. And I found out I can scream like a Banshee to no avail. The stock was tough but mostly fair. Sheep very light but willing to go into the center obstacles. Willing to play ring around them too so the dog had to be right. Go gently and kick out. All of which Rave was not doing real well until the last sheep run on the last day. And then it was like she remembered that she was now a mature dog. She had pace, she stopped when asked, she leaned when necessary and I do believe it may be the best run we will ever lay down. Of course I have no video so in my mind's memory it will only get better and better with time. Not unlike a fine wine.

Raver Williams

Have you heard of Ester Williams, the swimming queen of old time Hollywood movies? Well today Rave learned to swim and loved it! She has never had much of a chance to swim and the few experiences she has had she would panic and high dog paddle splashing till her feet touched the ground again. Well today we drove to Missoula for a trial. It is an 8 hour mountain curving drive. Only one quick stop for a potty break and gas refill. After I checked into the motel I took my trusty Garmin and looked for a park. There was one not far from our motel. So off we went for a long walk. The park had a small river walk. Well the river wasn't small but the distance of the walk was smaller than I had hoped, maybe a quarter of a mile. But at the end was a deep little creek flowing into the river. It wasn't much of a down hill at this point so it was barely flowing. Much like an irrigation ditch. It was slightly to large to jump. So Rave goes in and does her pawing, splashing, biting the water bit when she takes one step to many and she is swimming. To strokes and she is on the other side (she is on a flexi lead). Wow her little expression says. She goes back in and swims back to my side. Turns around and repeats. She was so proud of herself. After awhile I tell her that is enough and we head back up the trial. She is so proud and happy she starts jumping on me. Well wet dog, dirt trail. You can imagine.

Once back at the main park there is a pond, with a big sign saying dogs must be on leash. Didn't say they couldn't go in ;-) So in she goes to the end of the flexi where she then starts parallelling the shore. She only goes about ten feet before coming back onto land, shaking, bouncing around and then wading back in for another swim. She loved it. Then she spotted some ducks on the water and wanted to swim out to them. Of course the flexi lead prevented it. What a good time she had. So no matter how we do tomorrow the trip was a success. Rave was just so happy and proud. She was bouncing around like a puppy.

I am not very confident that we will do well tomorrow. I don't think we will have any disasters in the sense of uncontrolled behavior, but I am not expecting Q's or high scores. We are kind of in a 'pause' in our progress in training as we try to go back and solidify some of our missed foundation work. So I plan to approach this trial as a training session. I am not going to even think about scores.