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.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
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.
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!!!
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!!!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
New post in the making
I'm officially working on a post on vaccinosis/overvaccination in dogs. I hope to have it up on the blog within the next week. Stay tuned! :)
edit: I've amended the topic to be on minimal vaccination itself. I'll expand the topic from there in future posts!
edit: I've amended the topic to be on minimal vaccination itself. I'll expand the topic from there in future posts!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, to anyone who actually still checks in from time to time...
I need to get back into the habit of updating this. There are so many topics I research but without an outlet to discuss them the facts and details get all jumbled in my mind. I'll work on updating this blog more regularly.
Hope everyone had a wonderful time over the holidays!
As an aside, I may change the URL to truly start afresh with the blog. We'll see.
I need to get back into the habit of updating this. There are so many topics I research but without an outlet to discuss them the facts and details get all jumbled in my mind. I'll work on updating this blog more regularly.
Hope everyone had a wonderful time over the holidays!
As an aside, I may change the URL to truly start afresh with the blog. We'll see.
Monday, August 31, 2009
With me
Well, I'm finally back at school which means I'll be getting back into something of a rhythm as far as training schedules go. While at home, I worked pretty exclusively on the "with me" command, which I've defined as a loose leash walk which requires that the dog stay beside or behind me and not pull on the lead. I don't mind if the dog sniffs around or wanders a little further away from me at times but I want no tension on the lead and no forging ahead. This training has been going well so I'm beginning to ask for the "with me" under increasing distractions and in different environments. So far Keiko can hold the command up and down the street. If she sees a person, she will break the command but yesterday I was able to get her attention back by simply heading in a different direction. She's not quite ready to maintain a "with me" while going head on towards another person but we're working on it. She did very well yesterday coming down the hall to see the officers after our club meeting. I had to stop a couple of times when she pulled on the lead in an attempt to forge ahead but after the second stop, she understood. That didn't stop her body from wriggling with excitement, though.
It took a while for this pup to wear on me...I was constantly worrying about whether or not she would be what I wanted. But every week, every day even I realize how much she is what I wanted and may be even more than I wanted. It seems that during our training sessions or even when just lounging about she does something small that makes me excited to have her. She is also beginning to show me more attention (with age, of course) and has surprised me more than once when I've tried to call her off of a distraction. Yesterday for instance, my roommate was holding her dogs by the collar while I brought Keiko in from the backyard. I expected her to pull and pull towards them. She did go towards them but a simple "eh-eh" followed by the slight direction turn towards my room and a "with me" had her immediately focused on me! She did a similar thing when one of the officers arrived in our driveway for the meeting while we were working the "with me" outside yesterday. It seems that if I communicate to her that I would rather she didn't pay attention to something I know she considers high value (i.e. another person or dog) she is becoming more and more willing to say "okay, whatever you want!" I suppose I am beginning to see the "willingness to please" in the breed which is what I was seeking when I decided I wanted a herding breed dog in the first place. If you can't tell, I'm happy with her! I'll try to get some new photos within the next few weeks or so once things have settled down and I'm completely moved into my house.
It took a while for this pup to wear on me...I was constantly worrying about whether or not she would be what I wanted. But every week, every day even I realize how much she is what I wanted and may be even more than I wanted. It seems that during our training sessions or even when just lounging about she does something small that makes me excited to have her. She is also beginning to show me more attention (with age, of course) and has surprised me more than once when I've tried to call her off of a distraction. Yesterday for instance, my roommate was holding her dogs by the collar while I brought Keiko in from the backyard. I expected her to pull and pull towards them. She did go towards them but a simple "eh-eh" followed by the slight direction turn towards my room and a "with me" had her immediately focused on me! She did a similar thing when one of the officers arrived in our driveway for the meeting while we were working the "with me" outside yesterday. It seems that if I communicate to her that I would rather she didn't pay attention to something I know she considers high value (i.e. another person or dog) she is becoming more and more willing to say "okay, whatever you want!" I suppose I am beginning to see the "willingness to please" in the breed which is what I was seeking when I decided I wanted a herding breed dog in the first place. If you can't tell, I'm happy with her! I'll try to get some new photos within the next few weeks or so once things have settled down and I'm completely moved into my house.
Monday, August 24, 2009
A Sample Dinner
While I don't have any video of Keiko eating dinner, I decided to share a picture of what her meal for tonight looked like.
Pictured is a 1/2 lb chicken leg quarter which has been cut into two. The glob on the right hand side is a teaspoon of veggies. I just bought vitamin C so once her stomach gets used to digesting veggies which are separate from the meat (not mixed in like they are in the premix) I will begin adding it to her food. Vitamin C addition has to be meticulous and slow, as it can very quickly cause a dog to have a loose stool. Within the next month, I plan to have also obtained salmon oil (or some other form of omega 3's) and vitamin E to supplement with.
On another note, the family dog, Rhasta, has been having some digestive issues. A few weeks ago he got into a rotting rabbit carcass. (Note: Rhasta is not raw fed - not to say that even a raw fed dog wouldn't have had a problem with a rotting carcass) His stomach went haywire. It took him a couple of weeks to get right but I really don't think his digestive system has been right since. Amongst the medications he was on was an antibiotic. The Vet prescribed a probiotic that was supposed to replenish the good bacteria in the stomach that is depleted by antibiotics but I just don't think it was enough. Tomorrow I am going to get a different probiotic and get him started on it, and I'm also going to search for a formula for sensitive stomachs to try out with him. I am going to chat with my parents about trying him on The Honest Kitchen's Thrive formula and go from there. I wish I had him with me at school because then I could just start him on a raw diet and be in complete control of everything he was eating. Then I would know precisely what was causing his digestive upsets. In the meantime, I'll skip his morning meal (aside from giving him the probiotic) and then begin working up to his full ration again in painstakingly slow fashion. Poor little dude.
Pictured is a 1/2 lb chicken leg quarter which has been cut into two. The glob on the right hand side is a teaspoon of veggies. I just bought vitamin C so once her stomach gets used to digesting veggies which are separate from the meat (not mixed in like they are in the premix) I will begin adding it to her food. Vitamin C addition has to be meticulous and slow, as it can very quickly cause a dog to have a loose stool. Within the next month, I plan to have also obtained salmon oil (or some other form of omega 3's) and vitamin E to supplement with.
On another note, the family dog, Rhasta, has been having some digestive issues. A few weeks ago he got into a rotting rabbit carcass. (Note: Rhasta is not raw fed - not to say that even a raw fed dog wouldn't have had a problem with a rotting carcass) His stomach went haywire. It took him a couple of weeks to get right but I really don't think his digestive system has been right since. Amongst the medications he was on was an antibiotic. The Vet prescribed a probiotic that was supposed to replenish the good bacteria in the stomach that is depleted by antibiotics but I just don't think it was enough. Tomorrow I am going to get a different probiotic and get him started on it, and I'm also going to search for a formula for sensitive stomachs to try out with him. I am going to chat with my parents about trying him on The Honest Kitchen's Thrive formula and go from there. I wish I had him with me at school because then I could just start him on a raw diet and be in complete control of everything he was eating. Then I would know precisely what was causing his digestive upsets. In the meantime, I'll skip his morning meal (aside from giving him the probiotic) and then begin working up to his full ration again in painstakingly slow fashion. Poor little dude.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)