Day 6 (?), an Evaluation of Keiko's Ability

I'd just like to discuss the way I believe Keiko works. This will give me a point of reference for where she's at right now, which I can reflect on as we move forward. It also gives me a place to explain some of the stockdog terms and try to build my ability to communicate using proper stockdog jargon. :) Disclaimer: I am a novice and may misuse terms, please correct me if I do! Also, I may leave some things out but that's OK because I will build on this later.

Keiko seems to have a natural sense of balance and rate. This means that she can find the proper place she needs to be in to move the stock, and controls her speed well - she doesn't move the stock too fast or too slow and can adjust her speed to keep them in line.

Keiko is a strong fetch dog. This means she has a strong desire to go get the stock, bring them to me, and balance them to me. She likes to stop movement and hold the stock to me. I think this is part of her natural working style and I think it was reinforced by working on fetching sheep to me in the round pen.

I'm not certain if this is related to Keiko's fetching strength or not, but she seems to be very willing to hit the heads. She is much more confident and willing to hit the heads than she is the heels on cattle. I think she's a little more hesitant to heel a calf because of getting kicked but her confidence builds as she learns to pay attention, get out of the way, and heel low on the foot of the calf. Hitting a heel or a head simply means giving the calf a nip only when necessary to get the animal back in line or to turn it around. (Note: Excessive gripping is undesirable and shouldn't be allowed.)

Keiko needs work on driving. Of course, this is something you teach to the dog but some dogs' natural working instinct is to drive. Driving is where the dog is pushing the stock from behind to a point where you want them to go.

While biddable, Keiko also needs some work obeying on stock. Two of the times she got kicked, it was because she broke a sit or down or wouldn't call off of the stock when I told her too. While you don't want to holler and crank on the dog for wanting to get back to work, you also have to teach them to mind you. So, we'll just continue working slowly but surely on listening while working on stock.

If interested, click here for a link to a list of stockdog terms as defined by the Working Aussie course.

Also, some photos of Keiko's first day working cattle.

Stockdogs and Road Trips

We've worked calves a couple of times since the last time I posted. Russ helped me out a lot the time after last. He basically provided some more pushing power from behind so that I could focus on keeping Keiko from circling around to stop the calves, which is what she REALLY wants to do. I think it's safe to say that Keiko is a very strong fetch dog, so I'm glad we're starting some driving work now. We ended up moving out of the round pen and instead worked around the arena. We basically worked ASCA's Course A. That wasn't the real goal though - the goal was to take the stock around the fenceline and back, working on building Keiko's ability to drive the stock.
What we ended up doing was something like a cross-drive, where I was on one side of the stock and Keiko was on the other and we were moving them together. The last time I worked before I left for Kansas on Friday morning, I ended up working Keiko by myself. Things went very smoothly. I took Keiko in to take the calves from the pen, then worked them clockwise around the pen, then re-penned. Then after a water break and a few minutes of rest, we worked them again - the take pen, then moving the calves counterclockwise around the arena, and then re-penning. On the way back to the take pen one of those times, we were working off of the fence...I was really pleased with how this went. I am going to remember, especially in these times of peace & harmony, to thank God for sending me this dog.
On Friday, I drove to Kansas to pick my brother up from school. I got in pretty late. Saturday morning we loaded up the car, visited with his bible study leaders for a bit (they both graduated ~ congratulations!), and then drove back to TX. So as you can imagine...I'm exhausted! I'm going to get some sleep...I've gotta drive back to school tomorrow and Keiko and I have agility in the evening.

Working stock, day 4

Keiko and I worked cattle for the first time last Wednesday. Yesterday was our fourth time working cattle and was probably the hardest day (for me), by far. The first day on cattle went extremely well. The second day working stock, Keiko got roughed up a bit which made a ding in her confidence. The third time we just worked on building up her confidence again and showing her that working stock was still fun.

We took a break over the weekend and went back to work yesterday. Keiko showed much more confidence but we still decided to let her run once with another dog to try and help her get some of her grip back. This worked wonders! I would talk more on Keiko's performacne but I want to reflect on my handling skills since that's what made yesterday particularly frustrating and I want to be sure I remember the lessons I learned from it.

I have been around stock a bit and have worked cattle some but not extensively and especially not for long periods of time or on horseback or anything like that. So I need to improve my stockmanship. One training tip that is always given to me by one of the guys I'm training with is "work the stock, not the dog!" I have to keep this in mind because it's easy to pay attention to what my dog is doing and try to move her into position instead of just moving the stock and letting her figure out how to help me do it. So when the calves have stopped or when they're moving slowly, I need to work on finding the proper position to be in more quickly and moving my arms/making more noise to get them going. When the stock are stopped and balanced to me, technically Keiko's job is done. I need to keep that in mind - she's not going to lift them off of me so I've gotta get them moving so that she has something to do.

I wasn't really frustrated until our third go-round yesterday. We brought the calves out of the pen and down the fence-line. Keiko has a very intense desire to fetch stock. I think this is naturally her working style and has been reinforced by her training on sheep - all we've done up til this point is have her round the sheep up and bring them to me. I think in that sense, she has figured out how she can help me. Now we need to teach her how she can help me drive the stock to any given destination. This causes problems for me because if I am pushing the calves forward and Keiko sees one starting to break off in front she'll start going around to the heads to push it back in - this is counterproductive for me because I'm trying to drive them forward and running around to their heads will turn the stock completely around. What is frustrating about this is that we get stuck in one spot. When we're stuck in one spot and Keiko can't figure out what I want her to do, she gets to a point where she's like "screw it!" This is where my handler error comes in. The calf in front is breaking off from the group because of where I'm standing. So I need to learn to position myself where I will keep the calves moving forward without splitting them and I need to do that before one starts to go off.

What I've also found frustrating is that I'm having a hard time adjusting to work through the situation. Of course the people I train with help me work through this but some of this I have to figure out for myself. I need to remember to relax, breathe, and to "work the stock, not the dog!" The frustration is only going to make my dog say "forget it!" That being said, I need to remember to praise when my dog she's right to let her know that she's doing what I want her to do.

We'll be back out today. I am going to see if we can stay out of the round pen...I know the round pen is helpful for teaching directions and such, but I'm a little concerned about Keiko getting rolled/kicked or anything else anymore. I think we're at a delicate point with her confidence and I really don't want to ruin both her confidence in herself and her trust in me by letting her get roughed up too much as a young dog, here in the beginning.

Empty Promises

...I'm sad to say that I've been full of them on this blog. I'm seriously going to try and pick this thing back up.

Keiko and I worked cattle again today for the fourth time. There are a few things I want to write about, both to share with whatever followers I may have left (I doubt any) as well as to keep a record of how I felt about the session, what I learned, and what I wanted to improve on for next time. It's late but I want to hit these points when I do come back to write again:
1. I need to learn where to be to keep movement forward
2. Relax. The dog is interested, she has the instinct, now show her what to do with it. Frustration will only turn her off, not on and make you lose sight of your goal.
3. WORK THE CALVES, NOT THE DOG! The dog will figure out what you're doing and how she can help you!
4. Start teaching a "that'll do" for calling off the stock
5. Praise her when she's right!!
6. WORK THE CALVES, NOT THE DOG!!!