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| NOVICE HANDLER ROAD TRIP TRAINING TALE (or VACATION TAIL)
This is my story and I’m sticking to it.
Joy, Lurena and I combined much needed vacations with our herding addiction and so the three of us, 5 border collies, and a stuffed sheep named Ramsey headed to Idaho in a mini-van to train with Patrick Shannahan. Most of our non-herding friends tend to cringe at the thought, but we had a blast, both on the trip there and back, and during our training adventures. Joy was our tour guide, photographer, and driver; Lurena was navigator, relief driver, photographer, and GPS operator; I was in charge of car munchies, water, and dog behavior. Mostly that meant that I got kissed by the dogs a lot, especially when I wasn’t expecting it.
Sight seeing punctuated our trip there and back, breaking up the long car ride. Just a few of the locations we managed to visit - Cadillac Ranch, Palo Duro Canyon, Four Corners, Salt Lake, Yellowstone Park (Old Faithful), the Grand Tetons and loads of mountains, plains, and rolling hills. Not to mention all the different X-file locales (ask Lurena). We got lots of great photos. The scenery was spectacular and the weather was marvelous. Loads and loads of fun.
We worked out an arrangement with a friend of Patrick’s to stay at her house, as a sort of B&B without the breakfast. In addition to taking in people, she also boarded pets, so we got to meet an unusual assortment of borders, including a vocal Amazon grey parrot and a loudly snorting pug, the source of great laughter on our trip. Another plus of our boarding lodge was that it was next door (literally) to a mint field, almost ready for harvest. Spearmint to be exact. The air was continually filled with that wonderful odor! The dogs loved romping through the mint, poking up their heads just enough to find out where they were before bounding back to the road.
Ah, but the lessons we learned! For one – Even if it’s only 65 degrees, you should not leave 5 dogs in the car while you eat breakfast, especially when you can’t see the goings on in the car, and especially with one of those lovely U-shaped, travel pillows sitting right there on your seat. A pillow that looks to some dogs like a terrific dog toy. And which is full of tiny white styrofoam micro-beads. Very, very small micro-beads. Billions of them. Trillions maybe. Beads that stick to everything. And that we will be finding in Lurena’s car until the end of time… And in everything that we had with us. Even after spending hours vacuuming out the car.
I was eagerly anticipating training with Patrick, as I have a new dog, Brock, which I recently got from Rodney Long (and I am thrilled with him!). Before leaving on the trip, I worked Brock a few times on my own and then with Joy, who helped us tremendously. Both Lurena and Joy brought 2 dogs each, but I took only Brock with me, so we’d have time to get to know each other and to bond.
Those of you who know me, know how I’ve struggled, (not quite successfully), to get Needa to competition level. I’d about given up, thinking that I just wasn’t ever going to get it (that herding thing). Well, I think with Brock, we’ll get there. He’s a pretty amazing dog. But I get ahead of myself. The training days all kind of blend together in my mind now, but to the best of my recollection:
Day one – Sunday - Patrick’s farm. Once again, I am the greenest, most novice person around… found out that Patrick uses light sheep, fairly young lambs (4 months), for us to train on. Lurena and Joy’s dogs are awesome, doing terrific outruns, drives, and controlling the sheep. Mosquitoes here are almost as big as the sheep.
Brock starts out being a little wild, but then settles in, gathering up the sheep and bringing them to me. Although he generally stays off the sheep, he’s being a little pushy and the sheep try to run me over. Being such a novice, I am never sure when I am supposed to let things go (“you have to pick your battles”) - or - if and when to correct my dog. Usually, I pick the wrong one for the situation. Patrick helps me to figure out that if the sheep are pushing me, then the dog is pushing the sheep and he needs to know that I don’t like it.
The difference is that after Brock learns that I don’t like something, he usually doesn’t do it again. Amazing! Wow! This is what herding feels like. Teamwork, not a power struggle. Why didn’t you all tell me? J I kept the long line on Brock, as I still wasn’t confident that he’d come when called or stop when I needed him to. It stayed on him, but we didn’t need it - Brock is a champ. He earned my trust quickly.
Patrick has me just walking about, just getting comfortable with Brock, while Brock fetches the sheep to me, learning to use his eye to control the sheep without wearing too much. He tended to try to start circling when he wasn’t sure of himself, but since Joy had really helped curb that behavior, it didn’t take much to let him know that we didn’t want him circling or wearing. Once he’s settled in, we do a few outruns. Patrick keeps having us get further away from the sheep. And practicing – he says we just need lots of practice, just walking about and doing outruns.
I’m pretty darn impressed with this little dog. I think everyone else who saw him is too. By the end of our lesson, I’m actually really comfortable with what we’re doing and really thrilled with Brock. Really for the first time EVER, I have the feeling that I may actually be able to do this herding thing. That I won’t always be on the herding ‘short bus’. I think that I’m probably doing all right, because for the first time, Patrick doesn’t come with me, but sits on the sidelines to watch during the second work, evidently not too worried that he’ll have to jump in and save me (or the sheep). I feel like I’ve graduated or something.
I am so excited to have such an awesome dog. We may never make the nationals (however, don’t count us out!), but already Brock has helped me feel much more confident herding than I have ever felt. I still love my other dogs, but because of Brock, I really get the teamwork part of herding. It just feels right.
Day two – Monday - BLM Land – Oregon Desert location #1. We head to the desert, unload sheep from the trailer, and get to work. The scenery is strikingly beautiful. Patrick gets out of his truck and immediately finds a white quartz geode just sitting there. I spend the rest of the time we’re on the BLM land (when I’m not herding) looking for rocks, but never find a geode.
I couldn’t get the long line untangled, so I don’t use it today. It’s put away for good. Brock stays with me, comes when called, understands “that’ll do” – no long line needed. He is definitely different from my previous dogs, who just loved to give me ‘talk to the paw’ attitude. We practice more outruns, long fetches and walk abouts. I am ecstatic with how well Brock is doing and how much fun this is. This is just amazing. Patrick helps bunches, but in subtle ways. He’s very positive and encouraging, suggesting ways that we might improve, but he does it in such a way that I learn and I feel good about it. There are no fences, no draws. The sheep are light and Brock has to stay back or they won’t behave like they should. However, the good news is that since we are the “green team”, I don’t have to climb up and down to the top of the foot hills like Lurena and Joy; I get to use the flat road! Sometimes it’s good to be green. J
Day three – Tuesday - BLM Land – Desert location #2. We head to a different location, but in the same general area. This spot is great – herding up the foothills allows you to see how your dog is flanking/lifting with an almost “bird’s eye view”. Brock was doing great outruns, lifts, and fetches. Well, maybe he came in a little fast on the first fetches, but when I told him to steady, he slowed his pace. When I came back from working Brock, the others were all impressed with the long outrun I’d had him do (and he did it really well). I hadn’t even realized how far it was, but they said it was about 250 yards. Impressive. There aren’t enough different ways to say ‘WOW!’ Next year, we’ll be able to work up the side of the hill, doing enormous outruns and drives like Joy and Lurena, whose dogs continued to be phenomenal. But, I did find out that I have a bubble! I have to remember not to keep facing Brock and not to walk backwards, as Brock feels my bubble too much. I need to stand sideways or away from him. Wicked. I’ve never had a dog who felt my bubble before…
Day four – Wednesday – Patrick’s (morning) and Diane Deal’s (pm)
Worked sheep at Patrick’s farm, but first Patrick did his whistles for us. Joy recorded him so that we could listen later too. I cannot remember a single whistle right now. I’m so sound challenged. Everything sounds the same to me. I’m going to have to work on that, but I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to whistle competently. Again, terrific day of herding. Brock is consistently doing well. We did a little problem solving when the sheep decided that they didn’t want to play any more. Up to this point, it was just getting to know each other and getting on the same page. Now I actually had to figure out how to help him do his job and in order to do that, I had to stay calm and not panic. We got through the tough spot and felt really good about figuring things out.
Wednesday evening, we went over to Patrick’s friend, Diane’s house. Diane has a herding class on Wednesday evening that Patrick helps teach, and we went to work her sheep. I got to work Brock in an arena while Joy and Lurena worked in an open field. I had it way easier than they did (shaded arena for starters). And I was not the most novice herder around and didn’t have the greenest dog!!
What was really interesting is that Jody, one of Diane’s students, came up and asked about Brock. When I told her that Rodney Long was his breeder, she immediately asked if he was Stella’s litter-mate! She knew Rodney and Betty. How cool was that? To go 2000 miles to Idaho and have someone know your dog and his breeder! I worked Brock once in the arena and it went so well that I didn’t want to do another run! Patrick then worked with some novice herding people and some new dogs. Then he asked me if I’d go again. He needed my dog to help CALM THE SHEEP… couldn’t hardly believe it. That’s a first. MY dog being the one that steadies the sheep.
Day five – Thursday - BLM Land Desert location #2. Well, we did a couple nice outruns today and did a couple of little walk abouts, but Brock had pretty much had it by this last day. My brain was a little fried too. If we hadn’t had a work today, I would probably have been pretty cocky about how easy this was getting to be. But, I didn’t take things too hard. We figured out what the problem was and how to fix it, so we called it a day. Joy and Lurena did some tremendous outruns and drives with their dogs, all of whom were pretty darn fantastic to start with, but have gotten even better throughout the week.
Returning home was as much fun as going out there. Looking back, I find it amazing that Brock and I have come so far in such a short time. I have no doubts that there will be bumps along our road, but we are enjoying the process of discovering them and will forever be grateful to Catherine, Rodney, Brien, Joy, Patrick and Lurena for getting us this far.
Terri
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