On Sunday (11/9), Bryna and I drove up to Pennsylvania to the Raspberry Ridge Sheep Farm. Bryna had known for days that something was up: stuff was coming down from the attic, her bag of stuff was being packed with extra leashes, her traveling bowl was out, the stock stick was in the pile and (best of all), the boots that are used for running around in sheep pens were out. She followed me around like a shadow, and if I got near the front door, she rushed to fling herself between me and the door. She sat there in her normal demure fashion, except for some partial front-feet-only bounces, but her eyes danced, and they said "Mom, don't forget meeee! I want to go too!"
The morning arrived, and she waited in the back yard while I loaded the car with all the impedimenta of 2 species traveling together. At each trip out, she rushed to the gate to watch my progress and give little yips of encouragement--to be sure that I would notice her keen interest. "Would I forget you?," I said as I opened the gate, and she raced to jump in the back of my Saturn wagon.
We were meeting Karen Norteman and her beardie Duncan at the farm of Carolyn and Mitch Holmgren. Due to my being sick the previous day (let's just say there are some conditions that are not the best for sitting in a car and driving for 5 hours), I had missed the live lobsters that Karen brought down from Maine: they had eaten them all, every one! I was sick all over again, this time with jealousy.
We had enough time before dark for some limited work. Karen and Duncan took a lesson with Carolyn, while Bryna and I went into the big pasture (10 acres?) to work a flock of about 120 sheep by ourselves. I wanted Bryna to focus on some basics that are really important if a dog is not to exhaust itself on a big flock: not over-flanking and not splitting the flock even inadvertently. The big pasture was set up for a C course (a very big course in which the dog has to take a flock through a series of marked roads, over a bridge, through the woods, to grandmother's house, etc. All of this is marked out in the field in rocks and furrows and panels, ready and waiting. Since I had to walk some sort of path anyhow, I decided to walk the roads that were marked in the field. Bryna kept the flock very well bunched, but she was pushing them too hard, and I was often ending up with a big wad of sheep around my knees, and nearly unable to move. I worked on trying to get her back, but didn't have much luck at it. She was already 5-10 yards from me as a result of the sheer size of the flock, and it was hard to figure out how to tell her that I wanted her even farther back, and then see to it that she did it. But she was really good about keeping the flock bunched and excellent at always (as I recall) going around to the outside of the errant sheep that split off, rather than exacerbating the situation by running between the flock and the stray sheep. We stopped on many occasions for timed 5+ minute intervals to give us and the sheep a chance to rest. I watched several dozen killdeer feeding in the field. At one point a Cooper's hawk sailed past, sending all the killdeer crying and skittering away. We worked until it got too dark, about an hour and a half.
Karen cooked shrimp scampi that evening, while I had brought fresh pureed butternut squash with garlic and a dab of maple syrup, and a salad of spinach, macademia nuts, and apricots with a homemade dressing. A Clos du Bois chardonnay went well not only with the meal but with the crackers and smoked tuna pate that we had for appetizers. Some cookies for dessert and we were happily stuffed.
The next morning, while Karen and Duncan had a lesson, Bryna and I worked the big flock again. Early on, I let the sheep plaster themselves against the gate leading to the barn. Then I set Bryna up for an outrun. She would have to go between all 120 of those sheep and a closed gate they very much wanted to pass. The little Sweet Pea went smack against the gate and took those sheep off of it like an experienced cook peeling spuds! She muscled her way in and just took them off. I was afraid it was a fluke so we did it 2 more times. Same result!
Then I decided to try to pen them in a square pen used in C course. I don't know the dimensions, but I would guess it was about 30 ft x 30 ft, with a gate about 10 ft wide on one side. We rounded up all the sheep, and took them over to the pen. I opened the gate, and sent Bryna around the sheep, as I went into the pen myself. She got about 90 of the sheep in right off the bat, but there were so many of them that about 30 spilled over and went to one side, like coffee poured too fast into a cup. I sent her on a come-by, and gosh if she didn't do it, walk up the edge of the pen and slip those sheep in with their buddies as slick as I could ever ask for. I almost lost my new retainer on the ground when my mouth flew open! Then I asked her to stop in the open gate and sit there to hold the sheep in. She did it! And one of the sheep had her head down looking at her--then thought better of it and turned away. So there was my wussy little dog being a living gate to hold in 120 sheep. If she hadn't been so intent on her job I would have hugged her right then.
What the heck, let's push our luck, I thought. So I sent her on a come-by to get them out again. Now it is scary for a dog to go between 3 sheep and the fence, much less 120 sheep in a confined space, but she did it. I wanted to stop her on the other side of the sheep but failed at that, but I did succeed in stopping her before all of the sheep left the pen, so that she had to watch them go out slowly. Then zoom, I sent her out the gate to bring them back, and we worked the field some more. At one point, Carolyn and Karen were outside, probably 50 yards away, and I, with some fear and trembling, yelled "Watch this!" We then proceeded to do a very nice pen of all 120 sheep and Bryna held her stay at the entrance, keeping the sheep in. Then we took them all out, even better than we had half an hour ago. Now you know that "watch this!" yelled to your teacher or parent is almost a sure-fire way to ruin your best stunt, but this time Fortune smiled, and Carolyn and Karen got to see us at our best.
Bryna had a good rest, while I watched Karen and Duncan and took their pictures. Karen and Duncan are getting ready for an HT, working on going back and forth between the cones without circling. This looked so familiar to me--been there, done that. I wished that I had a video camera, since that would have been much more useful to Karen than my stills will be. Duncan is learning to stay outside the sheep. He already seems to be very comfortable circling the sheep either way. I think they could be ready before too very long. I'll let Karen tell you herself about her adventures.
Carolyn took us over to the A course after that. We worked 5 very cooperative sheep. Do you remember the MacLean and Company picture of 3 sheep and a beardie standing in driving rain, and the lead sheep says to the beardie "Just follow us around the course and look efficient. We can all be back in a dry barn in less than 3 minutes."? Well, our sheep were also very knowledgeable sheep. Our goal was to get Bryna to improve her down so that she could hold it and not push the sheep so hard, with the resulting running to their heads to bring them back as they shot past me.
She needed some aversive conditioning, but Carolyn's goal was to have Bryna think that the bad result of her mis-behaving came, not from Mom, but from Canis Major or something. In other words, she wanted to divorce it from me personally in Bryna's mind, so that even though I might not always be nearby, she would wonder if this diablo ex machina might fall out of the sky with no warning if she didn't do what she was told.
(Note: Imagine that you have problems with your dog jumping over a baby gate. You have yelled and yelled at the dog, but the moment you are out of sight, the dog jumps the gate. Now you rig some string and aluminum pie plates and some metal spoons on an overhanging shelf. The string is attached to the gate, and when the dog touches the gate the whole mess falls around the dog with a large clang and clatter, scaring the bejeebers out of the dog. Which of the two treatments is more likely to cause the dog to avoid the gate can while you are not around?)
The trick was to throw the stick, without yelling, near her (though not at her) if she got up from her down. The ground was soft, and until I began to throw in a more circular motion, I speared the ground with my stock stick several times. The idea was also not to yell so that she didn't think of the stick as coming from me but from canine divine retribution. Then, as trainers who use other methods do, when she was down, I was to repeat the command of lie down or sit. Whatever the philosophy, it did start to have a good effect. She held her downs better. With such small groups of sheep (5), a dog with Bryna's power needed to be back from them at least 20 feet, and 40 feet wasn't too far. (It is still hard, even now, to think of my Sweet Pea, who can be intimidated so easily, as being a powerful dog. But sheep-wise anyway, she is.) We had some fiascos, particularly on the mini-outrun, but we did the Z chute as slick as olive oil. I was getting her to stay back -- still not far enough, but farther.
We worked on stays with sheep in sight. I asked her to hold her downs as I walked away from her, circling farther and farther away from her. I would loop back in to give her treats every once in a while. Now bear in mind that this is a dog who impresses the beginner students in my OB class with her stays as other students and their dogs are milling around and I examine their dogs in the stand for exam. She only has a problem with stays around sheep (well, and around firecrackers and that sort of thing too), so we can only practice the missing skills near sheep. This effort began to have a very good effect when combined with the work during practice in the pens.
Karen and Duncan had to go home Monday afternoon, since Karen did not have Nov. 11 as holiday as I did. (I needed to take only Monday to get a nice long weekend.) Duncan had celebrated his 8th beardie birthday in fine style doing things many a younger beardie would envy. Bryna and I snuffled at their departure and soldiered on. (Though we debated the wisdom of asking Mitch Holmgren to help us do something injudicious to Karen's car. Something that would take about 1 day to fix, for example.)
After lunch, I photographed Carolyn working one of her German shepherds while Bryna rested. The GSD was learning the C course, and was working on holding the stock inside a grazing area. It was great fun to watch and I walked the course with them. As we worked, a red-tailed hawk sailed right over us, again sending those killdeer off in a panic.
Before it got too dark, Carolyn, Bryna and I went back to the A course to work the sheep some more. Bryna was getting much better and I was pleased.
I began to think that she was ready to assume that we were playing doubles at this game instead of singles. Maybe she thought that mom was finally catching up to her level. We quit when it was almost too dark to see my stock stick (it's white), and strolled back to the house. It became clear that in the darkness Mitch and someone else were trying to move the big group of sheep, though it wasn't clear whether they were trying to put them in the big pasture or take them out of it. Mitch yelled to Carolyn to go get Dave (their border collie) because they just could not complete the job without a dog. Carolyn said "How about a beardie? Bryna can do it." Well, I had been hanging way back with Bryna on lead since I didn't want her to interfere, especially since I didn't know what the situation was. Hearing this, I went over and asked Carolyn what they were trying to do--put the sheep in or out? She didn't know either, but we finally extracted the idea that the sheep were to go in the big pen.
I set Bryna up as best I could for an outrun. I thought I could see most of the white sheep, but there may have been dark ones out there that were invisible to me. I sent her, and by the time she had gone 20 yards I had no idea where she was so I couldn't command her if I wanted to. But I could see that the most distant heads (about 30 yd away?), out in some thick brush, were indeed moving and after a few seconds they were all headed toward me. I led them through the open gate, Bryna keeping them all pretty well grouped, though I couldn't see her and had to guess where she was by the movement of the white sheep. When they were all in (and that took only a couple of minutes) I turned to go back to the gate and called vaguely into the dark for Bryna. My turning shifted Bryna to the other side and the next thing I knew half the sheep were headed OUT the gate. No one had closed it behind us! So we went out to bring them back in again, and I asked the assembled bystanders if anyone would be so gracious as to shut the gate for us after the last sheep came in. Or words to that effect. They assured me that this time they would. We did as requested and so did they, and then I called Bryna off and told her that (a) she was the best beardie God ever made, and (b) did she want me to find out if the AKC had any Monday night herding events--right after I got a collar with lights on it for her?
The next morning, my big wish was to try B course, which we had never done before. I had wondered if a dog like Bryna who could easily work a group of 5 sheep at a considerable distance would be good at this, perhaps better than at A course with its more confined spaces. (FYI, by "easily," I mean that she has substantial power to move the sheep when she is far away from them, NOT that she always stays far away!) So we repaired and re-set a panel or two and then got to work. I had only seen B course run a few times, so Carolyn reviewed the rules for Started B. Among the differences was the fact that the sheep had to be fetched and therefore I needed to stay in front of the sheep all the time, or to put it another way, Bryna had to keep her powerful little nose out of the sheep's rears for once. Also, judges don't want to see the dog cross in front of the sheep in their line of travel--an even bigger no-no than on the A course.
We set it up so Bryna's outrun was less than half of what it would be even in a Started B course. She decided that this was the time to play sheep bowling and she wanted to go for a strike, or at least a 7-10 spare. Well, she finally got them rounded up, we went back to circle the handler's post, through the first gate and over to the second gate. At least half the time the sheep were around my knees and not behind me. When we got to the second gate, Bryna pushed them too hard and they bolted for the barn. She brought them back and we went to the pen where we had a round of centrifuge penning but eventually got them in. We took them out and then did the whole thing again. We improved as Bryna seemed to stay back somewhat better than before. When we finished, Carolyn said that since those were our first attempts ever, they were some very credible tries. We were very pleased.
After I packed and Bryna rested, we made a last attempt at the 5 sheep on the A course. I really worked on getting her to stay WAY back, and positioning her just right for getting the sheep through each chute. We have only worked a full A course with all of the obstacles all set up occasionally. I think we ran the course 8 or 9 times, with breaks for rest and water. With perhaps one exception, none of those runs would have been a disgrace at a trial, and as I said later with a grin to Carolyn (who was giving a lesson during all this to another student) "We qualified! Three times!" We left after lunch, and Bryna hardly raised her head during the 5 hour drive home. Later that night, not long after I turned out the light, I think I heard her whisper in my ear that I should sell the house and move to Pennsylvania.
Happy herding to all.
Lynne and Bryna