It's A Tradition

Way back, at the CWCCA National Specialty in 2012, Porter trialed on ducks for the first time. We had only even practiced on ducks a handful of times.

But yet he did the impossible - he took Reserve High in Trial out of the Started A Duck class!

Well, flash forward to the CWCCA National Specialty in 2015...

It is Stout's 1st trial on ducks. He has a little more duck practice than Porter, but not much. And what happens?

Stout also goes Reserve High in Trial out of the Started A Duck class!

Yes, I tried to recreate the photo  :)

I just hope Stout can finish his title a little more quickly... We are still working on getting that last leg for Porter!

More details coming soon!

Time To Start Getting Nervous...

 

 

Yep, it's herding trial time again!

 

And this time it's Stout!

 

I'm really surprised I'm nervous. It didn't hit me until today. Normally, with Porter, I would have been freaking out for days. But I wasn't nervous when Stout did his PT or JHD...

 

Unfortunately I had to scratch Porter. He was going to make his Intermediate Sheep debut, until his iliopsoas injury  :(

 

So I was told I should enter Stout. I had no intention of doing so until we ran a practice course. I had no idea A course could be that easy!  :) And now here I am, feeling all barfy...



Herding Photos - Porter!

This weekend Porter, Stout, & I will be doing a little AHBA herding trial.

 

This will be Stout's second herding trial EVER! And this will be Porter's first trial working at above a beginner level. Yes, we will have to DRIVE :) 

 

Ok, now I'm nervous.

 

Anyway, in honor of that, I am finally going to post the herding photos from the Cardigan Specialty!

 

Can anyone spot the theme in the sheep photos?  :)

 

 

Herding With The Big Dogs!

Watch for Stout & me at a border collie trial soon!  :)

Yes, Stout had a big adventure at our herding lesson last week! And I about had a heart attack!

We were working in the regular field at Fairwether, doing some out runs, fetching, etc. Just normal stuff. We had 5 sheep in with us and the rest of the flock was out in the BIG field.

Anyway, one of our sheep broke away from Stout. He went to bring it back. Normal Stout stuff  :)

But this sheep chose to run straight into the fence near the gate. It hit so hard that it bounced the gate open. It then ran through. Stout followed.

Now Stout & the sheep were in the HT field. The sheep runs for the gate to the big field, with Stout in hot pursuit. The gate to the big field was open!!

Oh no! The sheep is busting ass down the hill to his friends. Stout is bounding after it, having to bounce occasionally to see over the tall grass.

I'm still in the original field, just watching. The remaining 4 sheep & I are just staring in awe, watching Stout fly across the BIG field.

Wendy yells something about going over the fence. I reply "Stout didn't go over the fence, the gate was open!"  Duh. She yells back "No, you climb over the fence and help him!" Oh yeah, that makes more sense...

So I climbed over the fence, having flashbacks to 2nd grade when I ripped my pants open doing the same thing at softball practice...

About this time, the rogue sheep has joined his 500 other friends (ok, maybe there weren't quite 500, but it sure seemed like it!). Stout hits the bubble of the big flock and seems shocked to suddenly see all of them!

He then does the most amazing thing. He proceeded to push them across the field ever so nicely until they reached the fence at the very far end. It was at least a mile (probably not really, but it was a freaking really long way!). I held my breath, waiting for them to bust through that fence as well.

Nope. Stout holds back, they all turn and he falls in behind them. Wendy is yelling "Tell him he's a good boy!"  :)

So now I have a herd of sheep coming up a fence line straight at me. Unlike another corgi I know, Stout does not run them over top of me  :)  I was waving my stick in the air, jumping up & down, so he could see me & know where to bring them. It was kind of cute to see him hopping up to see over the grass & sheep butts!

About the time I'm trying to figure out what I should do with the whole situation, a sheep breaks loose from the herd. I swear it was that same damn sheep! Stout takes off after it, again. Thankfully, he only got about 100 yards away when he got distracted by the 4 sheep that were still in the original field. I called him back and he proceeded to fetch the ~50 sheep back through the open gate into the HT field.

I got his "lie down" and called him off. And I finally breathed. Good dog, Stout. That'll do  :)

Here is a photo representation of the whole ordeal:

(You may have to click on the photo to get a bigger view)

See? It was a really big field!

Stout was so pumped up after that  :) He thought he could conquer the world! But not until after he cooled off in the pool. And then rolled around in the grass like a doofus...

So maybe I wasn't that far off when I said I wanted him to do B Course Sheep  :)

Herding Ducks

3 for 4. Not too shabby for a pushy little jackass...

Porter & I entered the CKHGC club's inaugural duck trial over the weekend. It was a 3 day trial, with AKC in the morning and AHBA in the afternoon, so dogs had the opportunity to actually run 4 times each day.

Although Porter rarely practices on ducks, I couldn't pass this up  :) I thought it would be a good training opportunity for both of us to work on our trial stress & issues.

And we did pretty darn good. Not just with being able to qualify, but I never did feel like puking  :)  I didn't cry. I kept my nerves well under control, even when I realized that an HTD duck course sure looks an awful lot like B course! There were no fences & just wide expanses of tall grass around the perimeter... I was well aware of the possibility of Porter pushing those ducks straight out into the wild green yonder & having his own little slaughter...

But we conquered it. Twice! Which earned him his HTDd I title!

We also did one run of AKC A course, looking for that last leg... Didn't happen. But he really did a nice job once we got the ducks out of the corner on the outrun & chose to forego the fetch to the cone. He just drove those duckies right around the course! I got a "nice recovery - good choice to go on" in my comment section. I always get a lot of compliments on knowing when to quit  :)

Here is a video of Porter running HTDd on Friday. I also filmed on Saturday, but ended up with almost 2 hours of the inside of my jacket pocket & then the back of the lens cap...

Sorry about the terrible YouTube music... I had to cover up the wind noise.

I also had the usual great comment son my score sheets. I love that! 

If only I had a nickel for every time they commented on how pushy he was... Or maybe a Q instead of a nickel  :)

And when I first looked at this sheet, I was a little taken aback. I mean, I thought our Z chute was pretty darn good! LOL?

But it's actually "1 OL"  (1 point for off-line)

Herding Clinic

Porter & I attended a herding clinic at the end of February. I've been to quite a few of Tenley Dexter's clinics before, but this one was the BEST!  :)

 

 

She has Porter's undivided attention.

Um, not really, he's staring at the sheep in the arena  :)

Why was it the best yet?

Number one: I didn't cry! Again! That's 2 herding seminars in a row!  :)

Number two: Porter & I rocked it! Yes, our hard, hard, never-ending, hard work is starting to pay off!

If you remember our last clinic, we did well. And I was so pleased! But there were a lot of factors that made us seem like we may have been doing better than we really were...

But this time, we returned to the very location of our crash, and we nailed it. The dog who wouldn't even lie down at this arena a year ago, passed every little test & trick I threw at him to get him to break. Not only that, he downed every time I asked him too! Not always quickly, but by the end he was hitting the ground.

He listened. He tried. He looked like a trained dog! He still looked like a novice had trained him... but whatever  :)

He was driving / chasing sheep from one end to the next (we were trying to get him excited & pushing straight, plus actually taking down's). Then I would give him a flank at the end to do it again back down to the beginning. HE ACTUALLY TOOK THOSE FLANKS! After all that pushing, he turned & went around!

Ok, that almost made me cry. But in a good way :)

I was complimented. Even by Tenley  :)  She congratulated me on my hard work, my perseverance. She said the difference was amazing.

Ok, I definitely had tears in my eyes then  :)

So the next day I decided to really work hard - and switched Porter over to work ducks.

A couple years ago, Porter actually won Reserve High in Trial on ducks at our National Specialty. It was a fluke. Seriously, it was the first time we had ever trialed on ducks. We had only practiced on them a couple times before that.

Porter REALLY likes ducks. Really wants to eat them  :)  My handling of Porter on ducks consists of constantly trying to keep him away from tasting them.

So I thought this would be a good test & Tenley could offer me a lot of help.

And Porter surprised me again  :)

Don't get me wrong, he had drool hanging out of his mouth. And he went in for a nibble or two. But with her help, I saw where to push, when to push, when to change direction, where I needed to be... It was great. And Porter looked good.

And it was a good chance to work on "naughty Porter." I knew he hadn't went completely away  :)

From the 2012 Specialty

Wordless Wednesday: Weiners!

One More Thing From The Herding Seminar...

I am still cracking up about this...

 

A lady at the seminar, very new to herding, told me her thoughts on "heavy vs. light" sheep:

 

She said "I don't see the difference. They all look about the same size to me."

 

Ha!

 

Of course, she had figured out the difference, but when she told me her initial thoughts, I about died! She was a riot! We've actually shared lessons with her the past 2 weeks.

Herding Seminar - Porter Fetches!

After a couple days of driving, I was curious to see how badly Porter's fetching & outruns had eroded...

 

Aside from what I posted on Wordless Wednesday, he didn't do too badly there either! I mean, he was a little too tight, a little too straight, a little too pushy, but that's usual for Porter fetching  :)  I had to run him off a few times, but he settled down.

 

Before I forget, and so I have it on the blog for eternity, I'd like to make note of a few of the things I learned at this seminar...

"Only 'A-Type' personalities do herding." I guess because of the control & perfection required. All the little pieces fitting together. I wouldn't know anything about that...  :) 

"Dogs are stressed when they don't understand the rules." Give them rules to follow, teach them the rules, keep them consistent, and they are more than happy to oblige.

"At some point you have to trust the dog to do what you say." You have to quit pressuring them to be right, but show that there are consequences when they are wrong. You can't prevent every error or they will never learn. It has to be their responsibility in order for them to acquire thoughtfulness.

"Enforce what comes out of your mouth." If it didn't come out of your mouth, then it's your fault  :)

And the biggest take-away I had from the weekend: "You create an addict, then you make them a slave."

I thought about this constantly for the first week. Then on & off again for the last few weeks. Of course, she meant it in relation to turning your dog onto stock & having them work for you. But I related it to agility as well. Then I related it to myself doing herding. I'm still thinking about it...

Herding Clinic - Porter Drives!

Yes, Porter finally did well at a herding seminar! I just can't get over that!  :)

Like I said before, it was a 3 day seminar. Porter worked 5 times, all but 1 of them on driving. This is a vastly different than what we did at the last one... Last time we did remedial obedience drills :)

The dog that worked ahead of us on that first day (the best standard schnauzer ever) was working on a driving drill. When she finished, Tenley asked us what we wanted to work on. I mentioned that in our last lesson with Wendy we had done the same driving exercise that the schnauzer just did. But I told her that I was ok doing all the foundational stuff that we worked on in the last seminar.

She said no, that wasn't necessary. She wanted to see me do what we had been working on. I was a little shocked, and immediately nervous. I mean, this is Porter the Seminar Jackass. Will he still be a jackass if we aren't some place new? We do train at Fair Wether every week. But will he pick up on my nerves? And proceed to embarrass me yet again?

 

Fingers crossed that I did not just send the "jackass Porter" on a kamikaze outrun...

 

 

Well I'll be damned if he didn't just rock it!

 

I was in shock. Tenley had to be a little shocked. The gallery of auditors were shocked.

 

His outrun was great. He took all those little driving flanks beautifully. He dropped when I said. It was pure beauty!

 



Who replaced my Jackass Porter? Because I don't want them to take this Porter back!

We drove up & down the fence line. Was it perfect? No. Apparently all that time I've spent trying to keep off the sheep is now coming back to bite me. He's lost some of his push, but I'm pretty sure it will come back by the bucketful...

I mean, I actually had to encourage him to walk into the sheep. I had to grab sheep butt. Wow, we have come a looooong way  :)

We tried driving down the field...

 

Porter's next 2 runs were spent working on that same exercise, trying to clean up some of the smaller pieces.

 

We figured out he can take about 4 steps straight into the sheep before he drifts into a flank. So I would stop him on the 4th step, then walk him up again.

 

Porter worked ducks once that weekend. Well, I worked the ducks mostly  :)  I had Porter on a short line & we tried driving the ducks into a corner. It was really a lesson for me to see just how little these flanks have to be... We're talking just a head movement by Porter would turn them.

It was really frustrating for Porter. He loves to smash him some ducks...

"That'll do, Porter"

I had a lot of insight coming out of that weekend, just like I always do when it comes to herding. Tomorrow I'll share a little bit more of that.

However, Loretta summed it up pretty well on her blog, if you want a taste. And we weren't even at the same clinic!  :)