Today was our last chance to work cattle for a couple of weeks or so. The next time we work, there will be fresh, non dog-broke calves so that should be exciting! :) I think the day went wonderfully! Keiko and I worked three-ish times.
The first time, I tried something different. I like the flexibility that the folks I train with give me...if I want to try something new -- so long as it isn't absolutely crazy -- they let me give it a try. So I let the calves out of the round pen (as opposed to sending Keiko in to get them out of the pen) and waited for them to settle at random in the arena. They settled in the upper right hand side of the arena, furthest away from us. Here is a picture to give you an idea of the setup:
[rudimentary picture coming!]
I walked up the outside fence, then sent Keiko to fetch the stock to me. After she fetched them to me, we worked them up the fence and around, then made an attempt at one of the obstacles. The first time we just got two or three calves through but the second time we got all of the calves through. Yay! Then we drove the calves back up the center of the arena and penned them. This all went very smoothly!
The second time, I got a little bolder. One guy had taken his older dog who already has his WTCH (Working Trial Champion) title and penned the calves in a much smaller pen out in his pasture. I decided I wanted to try it, but wanted to take only three calves as opposed to all six. Well that was a fine and dandy idea but I quickly realized that Keiko and I have not quite developed the tools to take calves off of the fence and move them away from the other calves that are still in the pen -- which is of course where they wanted to stay. I won't say this idea was a failure, though, because it gave me an opportunity to see what my dog can and cannot do. I ended up having her re-pen the three calves (after trying to do this with all six calves. That didn't work because by then she was very hot) and then finished that session.
The third time, we moved the calves out of the pen and then took them down to the water troughs where we settled them. What I liked about this exercise is that it was a practical task and I got to work on calling Keiko off of the stock without having re-penned them. This gives me a chance to show my dog that there is a practical method to this madness. It also gave me a chance to practice the "that'll do" without having a pen separating Keiko from the calves. After a little trouble, Keiko called off nicely and walked back to the gate with me.
Today we struggled a little with obedience. Keiko was very stubborn and willful. While it was a bit of a pain, I can't complain too much.. I like her spirit. :) Lol. We'll keep working at it. And we'll go through some obedience boot camp to help freshen up her obedience over the next couple of weeks. I've also started asking her to mind while we go to work -- really asking her to give me a solid sit-stay before she gets to go in to work or before she gets to go back to work (i.e. while I close a gate).
So now for the most important part of the update - the lightbulb moment! I have been mulling over why Keiko doesn't want to fully grip the calves when necessary and why I can see her grip the air but she won't always actually close on the foot and it hit me! I started my dog on sheep where you don't want the dog to grip because (some) dogs could damage the sheep. So every time she went in to grip, she was told to "get out" which is a term telling her to go wide and/or she was corrected. This obviously discourages the dog from gripping. I'm sure this is the biggest reason why she will "grip air" so to speak and while I can see her wanting to grip a calf to speed it up, she will choose not to at the last moment. I need to think about how I can fix the mess I've made but for now I will continue to encourage her when it's necessary. My roommate suggested that (while clicker training is not practical for stockdog work) I could try marking for the gripping behavior and see what happens. I think I may actually try this and see if I can spark the lightbulb in Keiko's head. :)
Alright, I'm exhausted. Goodnight!
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