A Very Bad Ike

Sunday Ike stayed at my in-laws while I had a herding lesson and John was at a friend’s for a gathering. The reason, we had an electrician coming in to wire something for the new addition that the landlord is STILL having work done on. Even leaving Ike home crated would be a disaster – he would bark the whole time and work himself into a tizzy.

When I got home John said he had some bad news. Ike had nipped at my nephew (who is 16 yo). I am heartsick. He really tried to get him – he got his pant cuff. I am not sure John really referred to it like that (“bad news”). I am not sure how he referred to it. All I know is that it is never acceptable and I KNOW my nephew doesn’t do anything that warrants that kind of reaction. Ike has been increasingly reactive to T – barking at him when he enters a room, but this level of escalation is unexpected and horrifying.

So, what to do?

Step one: I have asked T if he would be willing to help me do some counter-conditioning with Ike. My nephew is staying at my in-law’s for the next few weeks while my SIL travels for work. Very convenient.

Step two: Ike is now on-leash at the in-law’s if my niece and nephew are there.

Step three: I am considering seeing if I can join Emma Parson’s Reactive Dog class at Masterpeace. The only reason I hesitate is because Ike is not overly dog-reactive (although he can be slightly) – it is people that get his goat. Also he frequently does not display reactivity in a class setting. In addition I have done privates with Emma years ago and attended her Click to Calm workshop, so I feel like I know the drill. I have also done a lot of the Control Unleashed stuff with him. However, a class might be a good refresher. Not sure.

I am really down about this.

Herding in the Snow

Well, not really! Saturday night the weather forecasters were claiming we would likely get 7 inches of snow. I think we ended up with about 2 inches of heavy, wet snow. Snowball snow.

Sunday we had a herding lesson scheduled and I wasn’t sure if we would have it with the snow. Diane checked out her control pen and said, yes. Hooray.

By the time we could there at 1 pm, between an earlier lesson and the feeble sun the control pen was clear. I did act proactively and put Musher’s Secret on Buggie’s paws just in case we ended up working in actual snow.

Kris, with Darwin (Ransom’s brother by another mother), also had a lesson at 1 pm and I was very excited to have a chance to watch them work. Blue and Iris had a 2 pm lesson scheduled so I planned on staying to watch some of their lesson, too.

Diane had Bug and I start with off-balance driving but asked me to move further into the pen so that between me and the fence were the sheep. I held my rake perpendicular over the sheep and Bug’s job was to stay behind the sheep and drive them. He was a little wild at first and actually was doing some “holding” ( I think that is the right term - grabbing the sheep and not releasing the bite) which is NOT allowed. Nipping ankles to get sheep that are not moving to move is allowed.

Once we got that out of his system he worked REALLY nicely. Diane commented that we were working her heaviest sheep and the fact that he had them moving pretty smoothly was excellent. We had a couple of moments where Bug tried to do his job and I prevented him and a couple of moments were I made the right decision in correcting his path of travel and I could TELL I made the right decision!

Bug took a break and it was Darwin’s turn to work. I ran off to walk Bug and do his active cool-down before crating him and then returned to watch Darwin and Kris. Darwin talks a lot while he is working and has a lot drive. I think they were working on flanking and ended with fetching.

Next Bug worked on outruns and he was diving into the sheep. Diane commented that I really need to exert more pressure on him before he begins. I was having trouble with the mental image and then I was having qualms because I still think of Bug as soft around sheep. Diane said it was likely Bug would sort of shut-down when I began exerting more pressure because I am making him do it my way, not the way he likes to but she didn’t feel there was ANY way I would turn him off sheep. She coached me to exert pressure and then verbally reward him for making the right decision. Once I started exerting more pressure Bug went much wider.

We also did some “That’ll do’s” and holy cow – they’re back. I was/am SO ridiculously happy that Bug came with me and didn’t try to dive back into the sheep. Yay, Bug!!

Another break and cool-down for Bug and Darwin worked again. He did some VERY nice fetching for Kris.

Kris, Frank, and Darwin left and I stayed to watch Blue’s lesson and put Bug in the pen once more. He still had a bit of work left in him.

Blue is working very hard at teaching Iris she can work sheep Blue’s way and still have fun. Diane says this is a very typical Aussie mentality – they want to do it their way or forget it.

Bug worked one more time. We worked on driving from corner to corner on line. Flank Bug around the sheep, stop him in the corner, there, walk up. I was stopping him while facing him and Diane asked me to stop him so we were both facing the sheep. That took a bit of finagling on my part – I just wasn’t sure how to do it. I did start to get it and we quit on a positive note for both of us.

Iris worked again and then we all quit for the day – frozen!! Diane lent me a couple of books on herding which I am looking forward to digging into. Next lesson is 12/20 – weather permitting.

Tuesday Night Classes

Last night Bug had his second class with Kathleen. I felt like the course had more flow this week than last – it included the A-frame, chute, and tire. Bug has rarely seen the chute. First time through he kept backing out, so someone held it open for us. After that he was golden – he flew through it! No attempts to go around the tire, but to be honest he had little choice – it was against a wall! He powered up the A-frame repeatedly. GOOD BOY, Bug!!

Each time Bug ran we did the A-frame a couple of times and rewarded highly with tossed food.

I was talking to Kathleen about how last week I all of a sudden wondered if it was a rear end issue versus a generalization issue. She said if anything she thinks it would be a shoulder strength issue which brought me up short – I have never thought about it as a shoulder strength issue. However, in thinking about it and thinking about how low a Cardi’s post sternum is and those short legs I can see it. Especially since his bicipital tendon has been tender. She said she has had quite a few Cardis in her classes (Dina, I remembered you to Kathleen!) and that for a lot of them the a-frame was a challenge, more so than for Pems.

She suggested I might want to see if I can get Bug some swim time. So...I might call Sterling and see what their rate would be and how often he would need to go for it to be beneficial. I definitely think the ball will help with this too.

Then it was Ike’s turn to attend the drop-in class. I am pretty sure he had a great time. Kathleen really wants me to work on “Go” with both dogs. Last night we ended the drop-in class by working on sending Ike over a single jump. Kathleen asked if Ike would work for her. I said yes, but wasn’t really sure. It takes Ike a VERY long time to warm up to people. Like years – and even then he often won’t work for them. He worked for Kathleen no problem and was REALLY driving over the jump and ahead. Yay, Ike! I guess he really did want to go back to agility!!

Basically we were sending Ike over the jump with the inside arm and tossing the treat with the outside arm once he committed to the jump/was nearly landing, etc. Ike thought it was an awesome game. For Bug Kathleen recommended I get a finch feeding sock (for lack of a better word - no idea what it is really called - you put nyjer seed in it) and put something stinky in it like liverwurst. So when I toss it he and I could also play tug with it.

I am happy. Bug is making progress with his contact issue, Ike is having a grand time, and I am getting a different perspective and training techniques!

Off-balance, Outruns, and Penning

Bug and I had a herding lesson yesterday and it was a STUNNING day. I heard on the radio that it will likely be the last of our warm days. ::sniffle::

Our lesson went well. We started by working on driving and off-balance work. Both Bug and I are really starting to get this and it feels really good. Last week Diane worked her AS Dually a bit on this to give Bug a break. Dually had never done the off-balance work before either, so it was helpful for me to watch Diane work him through the same things we are working through.

Then we went into the big field to work on some outruns. Our goal was for Bug to move out more and have a nice arc. Go By was lovely. Away to me he tries to come in much too straight. We manipulated the situation so he would need to go around a panel. Go by no problem – Away to me he still tried to cut in.

We also stopped him on the opposite side of the sheep. The goal was for the distance to be equal-distant from where he started. This did not end up happening most of the time. He did a decent job stopping for me considering he doesn’t seem to have a stop on stock right now.

We interspersed this with fetching.

Then we worked on penning which is quite hard if your dog does not have a good stop or flank commands. I know I can practice flank commands dry – Jan taught us how this summer. However, no matter how great Bug is with a stop or down off the sheep he sucks on sheep. Diane suggested (tongue-in-cheek, I think) I buy ducks or chickens. John said maybe they could live in the attic. Hah. I guess we just schedule as many lessons as possible.

We moved three sheep into the control pen and then out. Then we moved an additional three sheep in to the control pen and out into the big field. Then we moved six sheep back into the control pen. It figures that I am getting comfortable with the off-balance work so we move on to something that makes me feel like I am all thumbs again!

Diane and I talked about where I want the sheep and where Bug needs to be in order to hold the sheep, but not push them past the gate. In truth it was MUCH more successful than the last time we worked on penning, but it still feels awful.

It was a good lesson, but we ended on a difficult task. Had we started with penning and ended with off-balance work I would be more elated. However, I tend to see a big improvement between lessons – almost as though Bug processes it during the week. I suspect if we work on penning next week it will feel better.

AND Bug was less stiff afterward! Hooray!

Cardi Claus Package....

....is ready to go!

Cardi Holiday Ornament Exchange!

A package arrived via FedEx for me today from Heidi!

Inside was a lovely Angel of Friendship ornament - very appropriate! :-)

Heidi, I do not know your blog address - or perhaps I do and just didn't know your name? Either way I hope you post a comment so I can add you to my blog roll.

Thank you so much for brightening my day with such a nice gift!

Puparazzi

My mum's dog Nellie stayed with us this week while my mum was in Richmond visiting my brother. Bug and Nellie LOVE each other and neither has any sense of space. I was desperately trying to get a picture of the two of them spooning, but every time Nellie saw the camera come out she acted like it might steal her soul. So, I snapped this single shot in the sly.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!