Tell Me Thursday #4

This week's TMT questions were really good!  I had to think a bit!

1) How do you search for and then choose a trainer?


You name it, I've done it.  From taking a giant leap of blind faith and taking my dog to a clinician that I'd never tried, to auditing a clinician first to decide if they were right for me, to looking at some of the top handler/trainers and attending their clinics to learn how they approach training.  Word of mouth helps too, and I've learned what word of mouth to take and what to toss out.


2) The dog world is small and... uh... talkative.  After choosing a trainer how do you handle those people in your life who don't believe in that trainer/trainers methods and criticize them to you?


Hey, the proof is in the pudding.  Most times the people that are trashing who I train with are getting their asses handed to them.  So why would I take merit in their opinion?  They can do what works for them, and I'm happy to do what works for me.  Thankyouverymuch.

3) Do you believe that a person's personal life should influence your choice of a trainer? (i.e. do you believe a person's choice to be a party animal outside of work would affect your choice?)


I'm a big believer in things all running together and crossing over.  I personally look for someone who handles themselves well on and off of the field.  Granted, I'm not saying that folks can't loosen up and have a good time... that was my minor in college.  But I've yet to see someone be consistently successful when they're drunk by noon, or if they are rude and treat others poorly.  Karma is a bitch.

4) When you have a break through moment with your dog, do you feel that moment makes your connection stronger with that dog and makes the next step in training easier?


Most definitely.  It helps to build the sense of team work.  I don't know if it really makes the next step in training easier, because there will always be cogs thrown in the wheels, but I know that it makes me more patient in working through tough spots because I have that point of success to refer back to.

5) Do you stick with just one trainer, or do you go to multiple sources for help?

I stick with one trainer the majority of the time, but I also go to other trainers at least once a year to gain additional perspective and experience.  It definitely helps me to have the congruency of the same trainer as much as possible, but I have other trainers that I go to that have a similar method of training and I can go to them and not get my brain too mixed up.  I think it's good to use more than one trainer, but you always have to keep that internal barometer of what you know works for you and what doesn't.

Tell Me Thursday #3 (Yet again, on Friday)

Yes, I'm doing TMT on Friday yet again.  As many of you might already know, my family and I have been knocked on our collective asses this past week by a nasty stomach virus.  I haven't been sick in over two years, so this was a doozy for me.  I'm finally feeling better today, just in time for the big AFC Championship game this Sunday.  Go Ravens!

1. What is one lesson you've learned this week?


That eating like crap will make you sick.  The reason that I've not been sick in over two years is because I have been eating well for two years.  Well, except lately.  And that is why I believe that I got sick.  Not only sick, but sick for FIVE days.  My body just couldn't keep up.

I also learned that the next time I am sick, I am announcing to my family that they need to act as if I AM OUT OF TOWN.  I can leave town for a week to go to Nationals and everyone pulls together and gets by.  My husband goes to the grocery, does laundry, the kids pitch in and clean.  When I was sick this week?  Nothing.  If anything did get done it was because I had to ask for it, and then it was met with large sighs, eye rolling, and grunting.  Now if that doesn't make a gal feel better, what would?  When I come home from a trial, I'm usually met with a clean house.  Now that I feel better, I'm met with a dirty house and a shitload of laundry.  Fun!

Maybe I should just find a trial to go to this weekend?

2. Who or what might you have been in another life? What might you be in a next life?


Heck, I dunno.  I don't do so well with this type of stuff.  A turtle?  I like turtles for some odd reason.  So  I guess my answer is a turtle.

Next life?  A tree?  Wait, a dog could piss on me then.

3. What unusual things do you like the smell of but don't usually admit?


Gasoline.  I remember my dad having a can of gas in the garage to clean parts off with and I would sniff it.  Not like huffing or anything, but I would smell the top of the can if I was nearby.  That's all.  I know, that explains a whole lot.


4. What are your thoughts on continuing on vs. retiring when a trial run is going badly? How do you decide? Where do you draw the line?


If my dog is struggling with something, I will cross the handler's line/leave the post to help them.  I get seriously annoyed when handlers won't do this.  I also think that it would be great to start applauding handlers that do go help their dogs when they do it.


As far as calling a run, I'm a big fan of that too.  If my dog is being an ass, not listening, sniffing for pooty (Yes, Nash, I'm referring to YOU.), I'm going to stop my run and yank their furry ass out of there. Each trial is a learning situation and if they learn that they can get away with shit, they will do it.  If they learn that I will stop a run and the fun ends, then they'll realize it doesn't pay.


I'm not going to beg a dog to work for me in a trial.  If you need help, that's awesome, we're a team and I'm here to help you succeed.  But if you just want to dick around, I don't have time for it.  Sorry.


5. This is a call for questions or subjects you'd like to talk about - I'd appreciate suggestions (and please come link up so that I'll be sure to see your post), so here's your chance!


Hmmmm, not sure of how creative I am right now after being zapped for a week...

• Have you ever just not "clicked" with a particular dog?
• What do you do to prepare mentally for a trial run?
• Pet peeves in the stockdog/herding world?

Tell Me Thursday #2

1. Stopping your dog - what do you prefer?  On their feet?  On their belly?  Some combination?


It depends, I do both.  I like a down most in the beginning and then a stand as the dog gains control.  Definitely a stand on cattle.


2. At what point do you start teaching this?


I teach my dogs their down first, as early as 6 weeks or so.  Savvy's last litter only had two and I taught them both to down before 8 weeks.  Stand is something that I start teaching when we're learning baby driving in the control pen.  I have them walk up and stop on their feet and use the line to reinforce it as I say "Stand".


3. Do you have a favorite dog?  I won't tell.


Anyone who has seen me with Savvy will tell you what I'm about to admit... it's all about Savvy.  I love working Hoss during chores because I don't have to say anything to him and he knows what to do.  But Savvy is me in a little blue dog coat.  We get each other.  She's my girl.

4. What is the #1 thing a dog can do to push your buttons?


Be obnoxious.  Whining, barking, not thinking... just being a boob.  See: Nash.


5. Brrrrr... it's winter.  What is your favorite soup recipe?

Baked Potato Soup


2/3 c. butter
2/3 c. flour
7 c. milk
4 large baked potatoes, peeled and mashed
4 green onions, chopped
1 1/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 c. sour cream
1 t. salt (or to taste)
1 t. pepper

Make roux with butter and flour over medium heat.  Gradually whisk in milk.  Stir in potatoes and onions.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.  Mix in cheese, sour cream, salt, and pepper.

Quick But Efficient

I have been covered up like cat shit all day, on the go, stuff to do, and my schedule is booked until literally 11pm tonight, but I carved out 30 minutes to run out and work Savvy, (and make my journal entry here), because it is 47 degrees on January 9th for Pete's sake.  It was nice out yesterday evening as well, but after spending 3 hours in the truck and sitting through two meetings for the HWASC, I just wasn't up for it mentally.  So I decided to make up for it today.

I sorted off a group of 2 heavies, 2 ewes, and 5 very light lambs.  It was a fun group.  The older sheep kept them anchored, but the lambs reacted faster and showed very quickly when Savvy was affecting them on the outrun work.

Today I focused on large outrun work in the arena and really was a stickler on her not affecting the sheep on the way around, as well as being very black or white on her outs and downs.  I paid close attention to how she left me, then focused on the sheep and when they alerted to Savvy and/or moved from her affecting them.

On her downs and outs, I made sure that I took the time to walk out and pet her when she did a good one and I also would look out ahead to where I wanted her to out to and I would walk after her if she tried to cut it short.  (Which she did, of course.)

After being corrected with the d/o several times, she finally kicked out nice and wide and got to balance without following their movement.  When I told her to down on balance, she took her down quickly, and when I asked her to walk up, she did it flat footed.  It was beautiful, but it just took being consistent and sticking to my criteria.

I could have quit there, but I had her try another one on the opposite direction to pull them out of the draw they had escaped to.  It took less d/o this time and once she downed on balance, I let her fetch them flat footed to the gate so that we could let them go back up to the barn.

It was a fun, quick little training session that took less than 15 minutes, but it was really worth making the time to do!

Super Saturday

We had another day with warm temps on Saturday... cooler than the day before, but 45 is better than 15!  I'll take it!  I had a Beachbody Super Saturday event to go to in the morning in Indianapolis, but I knew that when I got home I was going to get some stock work done.

I decided to work Savvy on ducks this time because I was just too tired and lazy to deal with mucking through all of the mud in the dry lot (funny, I know),  to get sheep out.  So we sorted of a group of Magpies and worked them in the duck arena.  Then I was reminded of why I don't like those damned Magpies and want to sell them all in the spring.  Ugh.

Since the tarps are all off of the back fence for the winter season, they were really tough to get out of the back corners or off the back fence to fetch.  So I decided that I would focus on some good basics with Savvy and work through the problem.

The first thing that I stuck her on was leaving to get around the ducks too quickly.  Any time that she was too fast, I would down her, then send her again.  After a few times she got the drift.  She really did NOT want to soften herself to bring the ducks out of the corner, so I stepped forward to help her out and give her some confidence and keep her from crossing over.

The ducks were just TURDS.  The hens would run back over Savvy if she downed and just generally weren't wanting to play, so I would step up and help Savvy get some confidence to figure out how to push on them to keep them moving.  It took a lot of cheering, but I did see her make some progress.

Once Savvy got them out of the corners, I would let her drive down the fence line for her "cookie", but I still made sure that she was on a flat footed walk and I would down her when she was too fast.  It was a tough mental workout for Savvy, but I'm starting to see some progress.  Those ducks might be tough nuts to crack, but it's good work for Savvy and I!

Last Minute Sheep Work

Friday we had an unseasonably warm day for January, I was stuck in the house all day watching my two youngest kids and two of my friend’s kids, so when 5:00 came I made the snap decision to skip the gym and head outside to work Savvy on some sheep before the sun went down.  Hoss was more than happy to sort out  a group of 8-9 sheep that ranged from light lambs to heavy wethers and put them down in the arena for me.

I started Savvy off with working on her outruns, focusing on her not affecting her stock until she gets behind them and d/o her when she does.  When she followed the movement of the sheep near the top of the outrun, I tried to be very quick to stop it and d/o out her again to finish the outrun correctly.

After several tries at it on both directions, she was able to get around them nicely at the top and brought them to me at the triangle that I have set up in the center of the sheep arena, so my next goal was to work on driving the triangle to work on my brain being able to keep up with my dog.  She did well enough, but needs more work on breaking off and moving out wide on her redirect to turn the sheep properly at the corners.

We worked the triangle in both directions, then when she did a really good job of getting them turned to me, I downed her at the top and had her fetch to me on a flat footed walk as we wrapped around the bottom of the triangle and headed to the gate to exhaust the sheep.  If she broke into a trot, I would down her and then ask her to walk again.  If she broke the down, I would d/o her.  She gave me some really nice pieces on the fetch and showed lots of restraint and was working hard to break off and cover as we turned at the bottom of the triangle.

All in all it was a good day of work and I’m glad I made the decision to get it worked in to my schedule.

New Years Day

On New Years Day I had the opportunity to head to Kentucky to Tenley’s place to work some really fun call ducks that she had brought with her from Connecticut.  She had a set of hens and a set of drakes, but the hens were the most challenging of the two groups because the dogs needed to push on them, but keep them grouped at the same time, because they were more than happy to just stand there, or go in their own direction!

The first time I worked Savvy on the hens, she struggled in the beginning because she wanted to cross over to bring the hens out of their nook, rather than softening herself and turning the corner to bring them out.  Every time that she crossed over, I simply downed her and called her off the stock, as if to say, “If you don’t go the right way, you don’t get to work.”  After a few times of that, she got the picture and did it right.  If she really struggled with it several times in a row, I would stand closer to the ducks to help keep her from crossing over.

Once she did get them out of the nook, she fetched them well enough, but tended to over-flank on the fetch.  It was just something that she needed to work out on her own and much of the work was just me letting her figure out the best way to get the job done, and only getting on her if her error was blatantly obvious.

Second time on call ducks – used the drakes this time, Savvy started out wanting to cross over and I had to stop her and call her off twice.  The third time she went around really fast, wasn’t thoughtful and skimmed past the ducks in the corner.  Tenley advised that when she is going that fast on stock that needs a slower approach (such as the call ducks), that I need to down her and let her think for a second, then tell her g/a again.

I called her back to me and sent her again, and she took off too fast, I downed her, then resent her.  She got up SO nice and thoughtful and got right around the ducks.  She was then able to fetch them to me twice.  She was still wanting to let one drop, but not as much as before, and I just had to step out to her to get her to pay more attention and drop back to cover it.

Tenley said that since Savvy’s default is to gogogogogogo without thinking as much, for the time being it will be my responsibility to make sure that she takes the time to THINK.  So I need to give her mental breaks, down her and let her collect herself, down her and ask her to try again, etc., until she gets into the habit of being more thoughtful on her own.

The final time we worked the hens again for just a short period of time and our goal was to get one or two good fetches and then find a good place to quit.  Savvy was wanting to push on the hens a bit too much, so when she was making them quack, I needed to put some pressure on her to correct her for pushing, and then immediately get her to come back on and keep bringing them by talking her up.  It was a lot of fun and I was able to get it on video: