My good friend took some videos of us working this week. And yes indeed I am still saying stop and then accepting a no stop if everything is going right. I am better at it but still about 1/4 of the time Rave does not stop.
We worked the dairy steers this week. Took them out of the take pen, drove around the small arena, and put them back. Unfortunately there was no center pen set up so couldn't work on that. Did pull them off the fence a few times. Rave got to heel a few times which made her happy. She did a once and wait on her heeling which made me happy. These are kind little steers and I always feel sorry for the poor motherless boys but we work them anyway. Wish we had more access to beef cattle. I can take lessons now and then on some beef cattle but that will soon end as she will no longer have the cattle.
I took a lesson on the sheep. We worked in the indoor arena which was good. As everything was contained we could really concentrate on our maneuvers. I was to stand in one place in the middle of the long side near the wall. Cones where set up in a triangle on the other long side. I was to drive the length of the arena, turn, one time turning to the wall the other time turning to the open side, then turn and go through some cones on the other leg of the triangle, turn and repeat. I am very directionally challenged and kept forgetting which side (wall or open) I was suppose to turn to. And I once again asked for stops and did not make sure I got one. Sometimes I asked for stops that I discovered that I didn't need so I would let her continue on. Bad idea. She needs to stop even if I am wrong. A repeating theme! One time I got to fussing around to much with trying to make the cones. Moving Rave here and there, stopping, pressuring, etc. So once we finally made the panel there was to much tension built up and Rave took a bit of a run at a sheep. She hasn't done that in a really long time but we where really working on micro-managing and the tension just built up. It was a good opportunity for a correction as she should not do that regardless; however I set her up to fail. The better choice would have been to call her off and reset it up. Start fresh. Lesson learned by both of us. The other thing we worked on was hurrying her up as she made the flanking turn. I have gotten her a bit to cautious on her flanks and she is executing them to slow to make an effective tight turn. She enjoyed that and I was pleased that she didn't get over excited by being hurried up.
I also worked the ducks this week. Concentrating on penning. The ducks are getting more easy to pen. A couple will go in once put in the vicinity. Now this is good, and not good. It means we have been successful in penning but it also means that the usefulness of the ducks to teach Rave good penning is coming to an end. Of course with ducks it is easy to add something strange and it becomes hard again. If it gets bad I will but a strip of pine shavings in front of the pen and for awhile that will repel the ducks. Rave has developed a flanking style to her duck penning instead of a slow walking up style. It works so I don't know if I want to change it or not. It does put a lot of pressure on the ducks, but the ducks are really pulling to the draw which is directly opposite of the center pen on the open gate side, so I am not sure if it isn't needed. I need to move out to the bigger field away from their living pen.
So that is our training week.
Accomplishments, Goals, and Plans
• Successfully penning ducks, gaining confidence (is it a false confidence?)
• Stop, Stop, Stop, Stop, Stop, Stop-Mean it or don't say it!
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