Guest PrairieFire Posted March 30, 2003 Report Share Posted March 30, 2003 But it's a good ouch. My legs hurt. My butt hurts. I am covered with mud. I have mud on my butt, I have mud on my knees, I have mud on my face, I have mud in my TEETH, for gawd's sake... I just took the pups out for thier first truly SERIOUS training session... It dried up enough, and the sun came out and I just couldn't resist, I figured, even with lambing coming up, a new job, and the chance of bad weather still definitely upon us - I just had to get started. After all, the pups are 8 1/2 months old, and not getting any younger...and neither, I found out, am I. So I used Flo to put about 30 head in the arena I built last fall - 250' long by 150' wide, ends rounded like a horse arena - this takes a fairly intricate drive across the front of the pasture, the pressure is NOT toward the pen - about 1/4 mile, and I was pleased that the pasture was drying up well enough - I'm pretty sure moistures about right, and some warm weather and spring rains on thawed groud would be wonderful - rather than the late winter rains on frozen ground that just wash off to the St. Croix river... First up is Moss - a Beth X Roy tri that has forced me to put him in a covered kennel, he likes to jump - so I open the back of the pickup, get the others to stay, and he leaps out...I had forgotten he had been watching Daddy move 'em around the arena and "break" 'em a bit...and heads the 50 yards or so to the arena at full tilt. Luckily I had closed the gate, and he just raced around the side. He and Molly (the Flo X Roy houndish little thing), have been "introduced" to stock once before - allowed to romp a bit in fun...with a few very broke sheep in a very small area...but they seemed to sense this was different. I got to the gate, decided to heck with a lead - and walked us in. Moss ate a couple of mouthfuls of sheep poop as we walked toward the grazing sheep. Suddenly he raised his head, looked at the sheep, looked at me as if to say, "Did you know THESE were in here?" and took off like a shot. I could see he was going around right off the bat, so I ran forward to make sure - and shoosed him, encouraging him to speed up...he flattened his ears and obliged me...going on a perfect comeby and starting the sheep toward me. The ewes pounded across the arena, headed for the gate. Moss continued around them, I saw he was covering, so just shoosed him again - "Got it, Boss" - and he covered like he was the dog that was truly born to this, which he is. Cutting him off and reversing direction was a challenge - I like using a fair amount of sheep, unbroken, for a young dog, I think it makes them read the flock and sense pressure better, but it makes going through them a bit tougher...but we did it, several times, and he finally got the drift of it...enough to send 4000 pounds or so of woolies over the top of me several times, knocking me rear over teakettle into the mud - over and over. Calling him off took a bit of work, but he finally called off when I pushed him far enough back to get ahold of his collar. 'Course, he broke loose once trying to get him back to the pickup...but eventually it was Molly's turn. Molly is a bit different - she is definitely not as "bold" to the world - taking on her brothers in any fight, but reluctant to do new things...so she stuck pretty close to me as we walked to the gate - in fact, I had her on my usual short chain until we got in the pen. I loosed her, she walked about, quite happy to be eating sheep poop as well, for a minute or so, until I moved the sheep - then the light went on and she began to go 'round... I only had to cut her off a couple of times before she actually started balancing on her own without a word or gesture - simply my moving from place to place...if I hadn't been so beat up, and her so fagged out, I might have tried wearing some more seriously - something I don't think I have ever done with a pup on it's first serious outing to stock... Getting her off took both Mary and I. When she went back to the truck, Moss looked me in the eye, and very clearly said - "Now I know". Don't get me wrong, there were slashes on a couple of the ewes, a quick brouhaha when one turned on Molly (not a good idea even though she is about the size of a Jack Russel), and they didn't alwasy keep them together... But it's been nearly two years since I started pups of my own - and it is such a joy... And as I took the sheep back to the winter pasture with Roy, I thought about what it would be like to KNOW - beyond a doubt, with assurance and truth - just EXACTLY what your purpose in life is when you are 8 months old... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heidijo Posted March 30, 2003 Report Share Posted March 30, 2003 Now that is the kind of stuff I like to read about!!!!Thank you Bill for the udate on those wonderful pups!!!Good luck with em and have fun!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawna Posted March 30, 2003 Report Share Posted March 30, 2003 That's the kind of pain that lets you go to sleep at night with a smile on your face even knowing your smile is the only part of your body that's gonna work in the morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank/Maggie Posted April 5, 2003 Report Share Posted April 5, 2003 Bill, I know the feeling of lying on the ground with 400 pounds of sheep on top of you. I started my Roy pup about a month ago at Jeanne's. We have had a few spills, and a lot of wool in the pup's mouth. The last time things were a little better, he was starting to hear me, so I can get him to widen out from the sheep(a bit). I hope we can get by your place sometime this summer to show off each others' pups. Four of the same litter are being trained at Jeanne's so we get to compare notes every week. Frank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dot me not Posted April 6, 2003 Report Share Posted April 6, 2003 Gosh Bill, your two sound just like my two, Hannah and Jae. I just posted some please help questions about Hannah in the training section. Any pointers welcomed.... Jae sounds just exactly like your Molly even down to size (Jae is 29 pounds and 16 months old). She's the one I ran over last fall and she's had two major leg surgeries since. One thing after another has come up but this week I decided for sure it's TIME to go to work. Yesterday, she was trying to stare the sheep into submission (lotta eye on this girl). Today the light bulb came on and she went out there and balanced them perfectly to me. I called her off several times and let her have a fresh go and she'd hit that balance point straight away every time. She was just wonderful! I didn't have to move arms, stick or anything! (And that's a real departure from Hannah!!LOL) Jae's also quite slinky and stylish. So much so that you don't even notice that one rear leg is quite a bit shorter than the other. When we were through for the day I even let her bring the sheep from the roundpen to their regular pasture which wasn't very far away, but still out in the wide open spaces. She just calmly kept them to me and waited patiently while I fiddled with the gate to let them in. Now, tomorrow all hell may break loose but today sure was nice! It leaves me looking forward to more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PrairieFire Posted April 6, 2003 Report Share Posted April 6, 2003 Aren't pups great? Frank - one of the Beth X Roy's may be getting trained at Jeannie's as well...the pup name was Paige, but the owner is calling her Arwen (yes, she's a young novice handler and a Lord of the Rings fan...). Hope you folks can get by - we see each other too seldom... Lydia - sounds like a girl with a lotta heart as well, keep us informed, huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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