Shannahan Clinic

Well, the Shannahan Clinic was a blast! I learned a ton, and can't wait to put it all to good use! On Saturday, it was Colleen, Ajo, Jaenne and myself, and on Sunday, Janie joined us. It was awesome watching a person go into the arena with their dog, and come out with a completely different dog, and a whole slew of stuff to work on, myself and Echo included. I couldn't have asked for more!

Ok ... some photos ...

Pat:



And, of course, Jen:



Here's a few of Echo (I was the one actually working Echo, but have cropped myself out of the photos). I am working one making my bubble bigger and convincing Echo that she needs to respect it. I'm used to the "loaded with eye" dogs, however, Echo is fast and pushy ... so she's a bit out of my comfort zone, however, I am learning how to work her, and I am addicted! Tight and fast is now turning into pacing nicely and thinking. Woo hoo!







Taking a break from working Kip, Jaenne opted to bring Mo (Skar's sister) in ... yee haw! Once she got rid of the puppy zoomies, she settled in very nicely.









The sheeps:



Pat W. was there with Daisy. I love this little girl!







The weather was about 95 degrees ... a little hot for us Idahoans who just got out of winter. However, to keep us all cool, the host let us move into the horse arena to do the afternoon sessions in there. The quality of the photos took a steep dive once inside, but I have a few I'd like to share.

Here's the crowd on Sunday.



There was one sheep who, at one point, decided she didn't want to go with the program. So she went and hung out with Jen.



After a few minutes, I think she found her brain and decided that what she was doing wasn't very smart, so she stood up ...



... and finally went and rejoined her buddies. Jen was quite a trooper through the whole thing! LOL



Well, I am beat and must jump in bed. Needless to say, I'm overloaded with good information and need to process it all, and then start using it here at home. I am going to start taking lessons with Patrick, hopefully on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Hopefully Echo's journey won't be as bumpy as Zip's.

A huge thank you to Patrick and Diane for a wonderful clinic! I look forward to the next one!

Happy tails!

More chat, no photos ...

Ok, this blog is getting really boring with no photos. I'll get some photos this weekend and post them. Sounds good ... now let's see if that really happens.

Worked the girls last night. Echo was up first. I fully expected the rodeo before settling in ... but of course she proved me wrong. Went right to work and was awesome! I decided before I went out there that what I was going to work on was getting her to stay behind her sheep, lie down on balance, and then nice starts to her flanks. She gave me everything I was looking for. Nice, calm, effective movement of livestock. I found myself saying, quite often, "Very pretty, little girl." Even when we had an escapee, Echo was hot on its tail, but didn't lose her head and brought it right back to the flock. She stayed behind her sheep longer than she did the other night, and the tension build-up didn't happen nearly as quickly, nor explode with nearly the excitement, as it did earlier in the week. I could tell when she was starting to get would up, so I'd flank her all the way around and keep going. She was nothing short of lovely. Nice call-off. Listening well. Thank you, Echo Monster.

Next up was Skar. I love working this dog. She's very trustworthy and I am able to relax as little more (the beer was helping, too!). I am still working on the start to her "away" flank and making a little bit of progress. The second time I worked her, I had her in the round pen. She was freezing up a little, but was giving me a nice "away" flank when she would go. She, too, is getting pretty comfortable fetching, and just staying behind her sheep.

Colleen came over and worked Reena. They are looking quite lovely. It looks like Colleen is getting Reena to stop on a dime, and is working on small flanks with her. Looks great!

The weather was perfect. Sat around and drank a few beers (yes ... ME ... I drank beer!) and came in when it got dark and threw a pizza in the oven. Life doesn't get much better than this.

Very happy tails,
Jodi

A little more specified

Worked Skar and Echo last night.

Echo - before going out there, I decided that lesson was going to be getting her to stay behind her sheep and fetch them to me.

Started out a little rodeo-ish as usual. What didn't help was that I have the sets broken into ewes/lambs so I can dog break the lambs. Anyway, Echo handled it very nicely. When I first started cutting her off from flanking and asking her to stay behind the sheep, I could see the tension building in every step. So I would only ask for a few steps and then let her flank all the way around, and start again. Then I realized it was better if I walked backwards a bit faster. This is no easy feat with the irrigation ruts. LOL. Got kinda dicey a few times, but I managed to stay on my feet. All in all, she did very well, and only got better the second time around when she didn't have as much vim and vigor! :-D

Skar - She's an easy dog to work, for the most part. She's got all that eye, so balance comes very naturally. Typical of a dog with a lot of eye, she is not a gripper, so she's very trustworthy, and I feel ok sending her distances that she's not quite ready for -- knowing no one will get hurt. She may cause a bit of a mess, but quickly figures out how to fix it and brings them all to me. So with her, before I walked out to the pasture, I decided that we are going to start working on her arc on the away side. This is the thing that was giving us the problem initially. She goes straight in on the away side ... or will freeze completely. So I used my riding crop, lied her down, and then asked her for an away flank. She still wants to run straight to them, and then bend off when she gets there. I don't like it. So I am working on getting her to turn her head before she flanks. You can flick a stock wand at her, put all kinds of body pressure on her, nudge her with your foot, and she won't bend off. I have figured out, however, that if I annoy her with the little whip part on my crop, she will sort of turn her head a bit. So I've been rewarding just the slightest give. Then I took her into the round pen and expanded on that a bit. Made a big deal when she gave me even just a little bit of what I was looking for. When we were done, had her help me release the sheep and bring them to the big pature and added them back to the other set.

All in all, I'm very pleased with my girls and am having the time of my life working with them. I can't wait for the PS clinic this weekend, and getting new ideas of stuff to try ... new tricks to add to my bag. :-)

Happy tails!

Moving Right Along ...

Geesh. I never thought updating a little blog would be so difficult. I keep forgetting to do it!

On Saturday, the girls all got together for a meeting of the minds, and we got a lot of stuff decided, and things accomplished, so now we can keep moving forward with Gem State Herding. Woo hoo!

We worked Mo ... starting to kick her out a little bit. And Rio has turned on in a big way. I am excited to see how those two turn out. I worked Skar in the big field. She's doing great, staying on her feet, and really thinking.

Janie brought over some adult sheep, so on Sunday, Zip and I sorted sheep into three groups all with a couple of ewes and a few lambs in hopes of getting the lambs to settle in. I told Colleen we need to work all three sets, so we used pretty much all the dogs we had. Colleen worked Reena in the field, and then added a set to that one and worked Skar. She had to work to keep all the lambs together, so she stayed on her feet and worked very nicely.

Next up was Rio. Wowie! She was twice as much dog as the day before and it was a big of a rodeo! Once she got rid of the initial zoomies, things settled down a bit and her brain started to engage. She's gonna be a fun one!

Then I decided to work Skar in the round pen and see if she would lock up in the small spaces again. Not this time. She was very comfortable on her feet and would balance everything to me. I was even able to lie her down and ask her back up without her locking up. Woo hoo! Big improvement!

Monday evening I spent cleaning house.

Tuesday evening was Echo's night. I took Zip out and split the flock into two groups. This little dog humbles me ... and she's a pleasure to work with. I often forget how young she is. Yes, she's fast, and she's tight, she grips and she splits stuff to holy hell, but she also has a maturity about her that I've never seen in a pup so young, can handle all the pressure I lay on her, and learns very quickly. After she got rid of her zoomies, everything kicked in to the proper gear. She stopped slicing and dicing, and kept off her stock better. She gathered and fetched, and gathered and fetched. I spent some time kicking her out further off her stock and attempted to get her flanks to arc out the way they need to. I didn't push too much, as I have the Shannahan clinic this weekend and would really like his advice on which direction to go with her next.

That's all for now. I am horseback riding tomorrow night, then hopefully working dogs Thursday night here, and then off to Janie's Friday night for the remainder of the weekend. Woo hoo!

Happy tails!

Gem State Herding AHBA Trial

Well, our trial was this past weekend. The weather was nice (a bit too warm for some of us), the people were great, the food was a hit, and a very nice weekend overall. The sheep were kinda nutty on Saturday, but settled in nicely on Sunday. Zip had a very nice duck run on Saturday, although a little pushy, but handled it well. His ranch course run ... left plenty to be desired. Part of that was due to the fact that the sheep had never been through the footbath ... with water in it. So, after several attempts at that obstacle, we moved on ... but it set the tone for the whole run. We got the job done, but it wasn't as pretty as it could have been.

On to the HTAD course. Zip's run was pretty nice. Again, pushy, but nice. Got all of our obstacles, had a nice drive, nice pen. I also ran Echo and Skar on this course in level I. Skar's a little easier to run, as she just has a lot of eye and balances naturally. Echo is a little more ... umm ... interested. ;-) Good stuff, though. The upcoming Shannahan clinic will do us a world of good, I'm sure.

For Saturday, overall, Zip took 1st place on HTAD III ducks, HRD III sheep (qualifying run, but not high enough for a point), and HTAD III sheep. Skar took 1st place HTAD I, and Echo took 2nd place HTAD I. Zip took High in Trial and came home with some nice ribbons. :-)

Sunday was a bit different of a set up. Janie was judging, so I was not running competitively in anything. We did the trial first, did awards, and then Janie and I went back and did our own runs. There were a few people that stayed till the bitter end and helped us setting stock and cleaning up, etc. Saw a lot of nice nice runs today, as the sheep settled down a bit. Zip worked very nicely for the most part, had three runs, all qualifying for championship points. So Zip now has his AHBA Herding Trial Championship (HTCh.). I didn't run Echo or Skar Sunday. It was too hot, and the day too long.

I still only have lambs at my house. Janie will bring me by some adults on Sunday so I have a couple of working sets so I can practice. I am really looking forward to the clinic and for new ideas for what to do with Echo. She's a fun one to work ... if I only felt like I knew what I was doing! LOL

That's all for now. I don't know if anyone caught any photos of any of my runs over the weekend, but I am at their mercy. I didn't have time to take photo one. Oh well. A good time was had by all!

Happy Tails!

Trials, Clinics, and more Trials ...

Ok ... I've decided. I completely suck at trying to keep this blog updated.

First off, I'm divorced. It finally went through with no help from the ex. Literally none. Cost me a small fortune, but it's done now. I've gone back to my maiden name, and I think I have it changed in all the important places. Moving right along ...

Zip: I took him and Echo to a large flock AHBA trial with Janie in Western Washington the weekend of April 19 and 20th or something. I apprentice judged the trial, met a lot of really nice people, and was treated like royalty by the ABHCofWW. What a great group of people! I ran Zip in HRD III (non-compete) both days, and we did very nicely, adding two points to his AHBA championship. I think we only need five more points.

Echo: Like I mentioned, I took Echo to the AHBA trial ... and was doing it mainly for socialization purposes. Last minute, I decided to run her in JHD just to give her something to do, considering both dogs ended up spending a lot of time in their crates while I scribed/timed, etc. She did very well. I am going to run her in the started course this weekend. That should be quite a rodeo.

Oh, the trial this weekend ... yeah yeah ... that's the Gem State Herding AHBA trial. We're doing a ranch course, the HTAD course (2 & 4 - sheep and course #3 - ducks), JHD and HCT. We got quite a few entries and I am looking forward to a fun weekend. I'm running Zip in HRD III, and HTAD III on both sheep and ducks, Echo on HTAD I, and Skar on HTAD I. Went to Janie's this weekend to run the sheep through the obstacles (they would not go into them at all yesterday), and used Skar to practice with. She did great! In fact, Janie trained her for a while, and I wouldn't be surprised if she gives up on the Collies and comes to the "dark side." Hee hee hee ...

Two weeks from Saturday is the Shannahan Clinic. That should be great! I am laying some pressure on Echo now and really getting her kicked out. She's responding well, and I'm looking forward to what Patrick thinks about where I should go with her now. I would hate to ruin her. She's been an awesome pup. Rides in the truck well, has been going geocaching with me, hangs out, is nice and calm off stock and hot hot hot on. Such a fun dog!

Rio (a Jenn x Zip pup from 2007 -- Skar's full sister from the second litter) has been staying with me for a bit. Colleen has been raising her for Melissa, but Colleen has been out of town for work the last few weeks on and off, so I've been babysitting. Rio thinks she can get to China via my backyard, and she's quite an experienced excavator! I'll have to undo her landscaping after Colleen comes and picks her up this week. Anyway, she's looking more and more like Skar. So cute!

Janie's got all the adult ewes at her place now, and I have 21 lambs and a ram here at mine. They were quite noisy today (I just separated them from their moms this morning), but they seem to have settled down. I hope the night is quiet.

Speaking of which, I'm off to bed. No promises, but I'll try to continue to update this thing. LOL

Happy tails!
Jodi ... "Darling"

Starting Echo

Well, it didn't take but a couple of working sessions to get Echo kicked out. The first time I brought her over to Janie's, she was very tight, and was splitting sheep all over the place. I got on her, she bent off me, and respected my pressure. I make it sound very simple ... it was. I made myself as clear as possible in what I expected from her, made right easy, and wrong hard, and she picked it up very quicly. Once she kicked herself out, I think she felt more comfortable out there. I was deliberately using existing panels for her to go around to artificially kick her out and it worked perfectly. She's very responsive, afraid of nothing, but oh so willing to please. I don't think I've ever owned a more sensible dog ... and to think she's only 8 months old. She's blowing my socks off.

While I was shopping for sheep tags with Janie, I found a riding crop similar to the one Ted was using when he was here. I thought, "What the heck?" and I bought one. It didn't take long to get the nice "whoosh, snap" sound out of it, and I quickly started using it with Echo. She'd come in tight, and I could snap that in the air, and out she goes, and we continue on. It's also a great tool for "making the ground dangerous." You don't get the same sound by hitting the ground with a stock wand. The "snap" sound is very effective.

I've worked her a couple of times now, and she is really starting to understand that she is to get around all of her stock and bring them to me. She's lying down on balance readily, and is beginning some very nice fetch work. She is seeming to me to be the type of dog that holds a line on their own. She's starting to rate herself already, too. I have a hard time remembering how young she is. Woo hoo!

Happy tails,
JD