Monday (2/16) was a holiday for me, so I did what a sensible owner of a herding beardie would obviously choose to do: I spent the whole weekend herding. I drove up to my usual too-far-away-except-for-special-occasions training site, Raspberry Ridge Sheep Farm near Bangor, PA. And to frost the cake with double layers of frosting, I took Dropshot, my friend Marsha's beardie. (Marsha was booked, but she checked Dropshot's social calendar and he was free.) And, pièce de resistance, Karen Norteman drove down from Maine with her beardie Duncan.
I arrived in time to work Bryna in the A pen, and Dropshot in a small rectangular pen about 1/3 the size of an A course. Marsha had diligently taken some weight off of Dropshot, and it showed in his endurance. But he had had no practice on sheep for several months. We worked on wearing and on call-offs for starters. He lacks focus, but has a great joy when he is working. In contrast to Bryna, who essentially never barks, he barks fairly readily and that is hard for me to get used to.
I worked Bryna in the A course first. She did some things very well. For example, I am much more likely to be able to get her to "walk-down-walk-down-walk to sheep". I have finally been able to get this technique solidly enough to use it to let sheep drift into position at a gate, which avoids letting Bryna push them through it so that they all come shooting through it like watermelon seeds at a spitting contest.
STOP! Following paragraph contains hard core descriptions of food. Suggested for SELF-CONTROLLED AUDIENCES only. Otherwise, skip ahead to the "****", below.
Well after dark on Saturday night, Karen arrived. As we waited for her I began dinner preparations, which we always cook at the farm kitchen on the first night by the simple expedient of taking over our hosts' kitchen in return for letting them share the result. I brought fennel, wine, potatoes, onions, Italian tomatoes, parsley, and spices and began the work of chopping to make a bouillabaisse as we waited for her.
Karen arrived, and I hugged her I waited a decorous whole minute before snatching the insulated box she bore. It had a several dozen live clams and mussels, 2 bottles of clam juice, a pound of shrimp, a live lobster, and a gorgeous piece of cod fillet. Karen, with her Maine expertise, stepped in and cooked the lobster, as one of my hosts and I prepared a salad of baby greens, slices of grapefruit, and slices of Hass avocados. Karen and I finished assembling the bouillabaisse (including my special last second ingredient--1/4 cup of cognac), and served all of this with fresh French bread, and 2 different chardonnays. We ate every tasty morsel. Our farmer hosts say we can visit there anytime!
********* The next morning, Bryna and I worked alone on B course in a big field with 5 sheep. I am really starting to love B course, and Bryna clearly loves the big spaces. We worked on trying to keep her farther off the stock. I worked on getting her not to push the sheep past me, especially when their required direction of travel pointed them toward the barn anyway. I was fairly pleased, but know that I need to work on a really key ingredient -- a "get back out" command -- if we are to do this course properly. In the course of all of this, I realized that the pleasure of returning to a site only rarely is that it makes it easier to see for yourself that you have come a long way since the last time. You can't really see this if you go to the same site every week.
This time I *knew* we could put the sheep in the tiny free-standing pen. It might not be pretty, but I was certain we could. (OK, don't faint--these are indeed pretty dog-broke sheep who are accustomed to the B course and to being penned, but they weren't cream puffs, either.) Furthermore, last time, I could rarely down Bryna opposite me on the outside of that little pen to get her to ease the sheep. For those who have never seen this, I mean that Bryna's mere presence, against the side of the pen, even though she is outside the fence, makes the sheep want to move to the other side--which may be an open gate. This time, I was not only able to do that, but was able with high likelihood, if not certainty, to be able to send her 1/4 of the way around the pen and down her there to push away sheep velcroed against that wall. The pleasure of the contrast was intense.
We stopped frequently to give ourselves and the sheep some short breaks. But I also noticed that when the dog isn't running amok (very often), you don't need so many breaks since most things are moving at a brisk trot rather than a hell-bent zoom. That includes the handler, I might add.
The intensity was doubled by the nearly cloudless sky we enjoyed all weekend. The mud stayed frozen most of each day, which was great; the killdeer seemed to be thinking about their courting behaviors; deer passed through the fields; and geese seemed at a loss in the early spring weather to decide whether to fly north or south. During some of our work in this picturesque setting,
Karen was taking pictures of us, and I think she got one of me ready to take off like an airplane. I can, um, hardly wait. I missed Karen's and Duncan's first lessons. Dropshot and I continued with Carolyn to work on wearing and on being able to get out from the sheep and to be called off. It was such a pleasure that his increased stamina permitted us to work in more than 5 min bursts. Even so, his lack of focus meant that we would work about 5 min, stop for a minute or so, perhaps to discuss our next moves, and then return. This pattern seemed to suit him, and we got in some good work.
After lunch, Carolyn helped me work on the B course. Unfortunately, Bryna didn't look quite as good as she had in the morning, but even so, Carolyn could easily see the difference between our accomplishments back in November and our current status. We worked on a command to "get back out." Carolyn trains this by asking the handler to lead the dog out away from the sheep, preferably by calling and offering food (not a prayer with Bryna), or else leading her away by the collar as calmly as possible. Then, and this seems to be a key ingredient for Bryna, letting her -- immediately, instantaneously, right NOW -- do a short outrun to go back to them. In fact, I think that once Bryna began to get the idea that we weren't quitting, she started to get the idea much better. Carolyn also helped me use obstacles, like the pen, or panels, or poles as obstacles to help Bryna at least start her outruns properly. It was one of those sessions where you may not look very good, but you feel you have learned quite a bit.
Then I watched Karen and Duncan. This was a wonderful surprise! They have really moved along since I saw them last. Karen had me taking pictures of her, and I really enjoyed what I saw. Duncan could have gotten his HT right then. His most difficult problem is the same as Bryna's: he doesn't want to quit. Calling him off at the end will be hard, but he would ace all of the other parts. He was balancing the sheep and wearing, and I definitely thought he was ready enough for Karen to enter him for a test. It was fun to watch Karen, whose moves are getting better fast.
Highlights of Sunday included going out with Bryna to work a few sheep in the big field. Carolyn and Karen watched from a distance. For some reason the sheep seemed spooky that day, and it was clear that Bryna and I would not get very near them to pick them up. I moved us to a good angle, walking around them at a distance of 20-40 yards. I set Bryna up as close as I could, but it was probably at least 40 yd, the longest outrun we had ever done (on purpose, anyway). I put her on a stay, and walked toward the sheep, but they seemed to get nerves even from that.
So I sent Bryna on a waytome when I had gone barely 1/4 of the distance. My jaw dropped--she stayed on her waytome side, cut in too close, but better than she usually does even from up close, gathered a stray, and started them to me. I was even able to drop her before she had taken them far at all, and definitely before they got to me. Did you ever drop money in a slot machine, or buy a lottery ticket, and then win something? Not the grand prize, but definitely enough -- definitely enough? That was how I felt. And the fact that I had two people looking at us, gave the whole thing as good a taste as a fine wine with a good meal.
Carolyn, Bryna, and I continued over to the B course, with the sheep, and repeated some work on getting her back, but it seemed anticlimactic. Even so, I was satisfied. Before lunch, Karen went to the squooshy small pen (about 50ft x 100ft) to work Duncan some more. Carolyn was exhausted from being up half the night with a lambing, so while she rested, I watched Karen. Duncan was doing well, and his balance was again terrific. In addition, his drive was wonderful, given his age of 8yrs. As the sun warmed the mud, poor Karen turned too fast and took what I thought was a perfect, 4 point landing (2 hands, 2 knees). I laughed a been-there-done-that laugh, and kidded her. I found out a minute or two later that the landing had a 5th point--her face, but the angle had prevented me from seeing it. I certainly would not have wanted to do a face-plant in that gunk, so I felt fairly awful about laughing. Karen, kindest of souls, forgave me, and I then reminded her of the story that the more time you spend falling in mud early in your herding career, the more likely it is that later you will get some HITs. I hope it is true, because I certainly take comfort in it.
I had another session with Dropshot and Bryna to get them nice and mellow before I put them in the car. It sure worked, because I think that at the one point in Maryland where I stopped, anyone looking into my car would have thought I was hauling two dog corpses. I didn't even bother to get them out. It was a good weekend. Lynne and Bryna (and Dropshot, too)
Epilogue:
Bryna and I went to our regular training site on Sunday morning. We worked in the big field. At one point, we did about 10-15 sessions of get back out (my hand on her collar) followed by very, very rapid return to short outruns. I then decided that the time had come not to grab her collar, but just see if she would move out with me encouraging her. She did, a bunch of times! Yippeeeee!