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Update...two year old pup


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Hi Bob,

Well, spring is here and Yoko whom I discussed with you in past posts has won a few 2nd places in nursery. Most of our problems just needed time and consistency and allowing her to grow up. She is immature in my eyes when compared to the other 2 yr. olds trialing. Plus, we only get to work sheep a few times a week. No more dessert work due to rattlers until the winter.

She has won several ranch trials, because this is where we do most of our work. She is loose eyed and doesn't need the square flank that her stronger eyed mother needs. We are still working on her confidence. She wants to dive in when she is up close as in sorting. Most of her heeling (she is a natural low heeler) isn't needed. I haven't discouraged her (much), and have worked with her saying, "steady, steady."

She did get stood off by the notorious Deer Creek range ewes. With encouragement by me she got them lifted, but I believe she bit a front leg and got clocked a good one in the head. She got them to the fetch panels and then I had to go help her. I am putting her in a small pen with a few nice sheep and allowing her to go to head with me in the pen to assist her. If she goes for a front foot, I say Ahhh.."here" and hold a nose for her to go for. I praise her for a nose nip. I'm hoping she will understand with time, consistency and maturity. Am I on the right track?

Just an update and thanks for your support in previous posts. Suzanne

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Hi Bob,

Well, spring is here and Yoko whom I discussed with you in past posts has won a few 2nd places in nursery. Most of our problems just needed time and consistency and allowing her to grow up. She is immature in my eyes when compared to the other 2 yr. olds trialing. Plus, we only get to work sheep a few times a week. No more dessert work due to rattlers until the winter.

She has won several ranch trials, because this is where we do most of our work. She is loose eyed and doesn't need the square flank that her stronger eyed mother needs. We are still working on her confidence. She wants to dive in when she is up close as in sorting. Most of her heeling (she is a natural low heeler) isn't needed. I haven't discouraged her (much), and have worked with her saying, "steady, steady."

She did get stood off by the notorious Deer Creek range ewes. With encouragement by me she got them lifted, but I believe she bit a front leg and got clocked a good one in the head. She got them to the fetch panels and then I had to go help her. I am putting her in a small pen with a few nice sheep and allowing her to go to head with me in the pen to assist her. If she goes for a front foot, I say Ahhh.."here" and hold a nose for her to go for. I praise her for a nose nip. I'm hoping she will understand with time, consistency and maturity. Am I on the right track?

Just an update and thanks for your support in previous posts. Suzanne

 

 

Hi Suzanne. Yes, it looks to me like you are approaching the problem in the right manner. I certainly wouldn't discourage any heeling with her but do try and control where she is on her sheep so that she doesn't get close enough to heel unless she needs to. (hopefully not) The thing you need to do to get her used to approaching tough ewes is start out like you are doing on nice ewes but then you have to gradually increase the toughness of the ewes until you reach the point that she can't handle them. Depending on her genetic confidence level that will come either sooner or later but don't push it. The dog must win all the time for the confidence level to rise. Take it slowly and gently and bring her along at a speed that she can handle getting her to work tougher ewes as she progresses and handles what you are working at the time. The diving in when she is close to sheep is definitely a confidence issue so try and keep everything quiet and settled when working on sorting or shedding. Make sure you have a good big hole when you start shedding with her so that you don't create an opportunity for her to dive in. The hole needs to be at least 10 feet wide and use as many sheep as possible, 20 or 25 if you can. Call her into you to start with. Just get her to come through to start so you don't create a conflict in the beginning. When she knows how to come through, then you want to lie her down just as she comes to a point beside you. Then you want to walk her in on the sheep that you want to shed off. Do this all as quietly as possible so you keep her from getting rattled. Just get her to push the sheep back a few feet and then get her to gather them back together. As she gets better at it you cna make her drive them further away and even do some penning or some other type of work so she knows everything is not over when the shedding is done. You can have her look back and get the others every now and then but don't make a habit of it. She will start doing this automatically if you do it too much and it could create and big problem for you in trials. I think you are doing a great job with your dogs the last time I saw you run so keep up the good work. Good luck......Bob

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  • 1 month later...

Thank-you Bob for the encouragement. My thinking is "the dog is what he is" and the handler can only hope to enhance the good qualities that particular dog has. I try hard to sort a good set of sheep for Yoko with her mother. But, lots of the ranches here in So. Cal. have sour, dogged sheep that once in awhile will run a dog down. She has taken a few hits in the confidence arena. We will continue on with your instruction.

Hope to see you at Whidbey this year. I am making the trek again! Suzanne

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Thank-you Bob for the encouragement. My thinking is "the dog is what he is" and the handler can only hope to enhance the good qualities that particular dog has. I try hard to sort a good set of sheep for Yoko with her mother. But, lots of the ranches here in So. Cal. have sour, dogged sheep that once in awhile will run a dog down. She has taken a few hits in the confidence arena. We will continue on with your instruction.

Hope to see you at Whidbey this year. I am making the trek again! Suzanne

 

 

Hi Suzanne. Yes, we'll see you at Whidbey. Nancy and I are both quite healthy now and getting back into training our dogs again. Went to our first trial a couple of weeks ago since the finals which we shouldn't have gone to but couldn't stop ourselves from going. So we'll see you at Whidbey next week end.......Bob

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