Junior Herding Dog

Way back at the end of October, Kodiak entered his first sheep herding trial. Turns out he's pretty darn awesome! He ran the Junior Herding Dog course each day, qualified both times, and earned his JHD title. So proud of my little pup!

Renee took the video for me, but those darn trees were in the way of so much of the action. They had a photographer out there, and thankfully she had a good vantage point.

Kodiak had been having trouble focusing during our practices runs - too many distractions - uness we were moving quickly, so thats what I did Saturday. I didn't actually run, but I was moving at nearly a jog, which turned out to be not such a great idea on really wet ground. You can't see it well in the video, but I do a lovely fly-and-slide near the far panels. Kodiak was great - he didn't panic at all like I was afraid he would. He just waited til I got up and then kept on moving the sheep (he did have to stop and check the tree that had been watered by a dog a couple of runs before him). Kodiak even had a nice stop at the pen.



You can actually tell that I was moving fast in the photos.

Right before I launch...

Thanks goodness the ground was soft. I even managed to slide a bit. In my defense, I was not the only person to hit the ground that day.

And then we calmly strolled off to the pen.

Sunday went better in that I stayed upright, but the sheep were a little more reactive to Kodiak. I didn't set him up quite close enough to the fence, so one sheep decided to bolt. Kodiak did a pretty decent job of getting the sheep back to the flock, but he did take a bit to have fun chasing it first. Our repen wasn't quite as nice as Saturday's but that was due to the sheep being spazzy and the fact that I hadn't worked Kodiak very much on holding sheep calmly. But thats okay - he qualified!



I love this shot of his take-off.

No sheep, but a gorgeous photo.

Once we had the flock together, Kodiak did a great job of staying back so they wouldn't bolt. I was still moving briskly, but certainly not jogging.

The photographer also got some great candid shots of Kodiak over the weekend.

Overall, I was really pleased with the weekend. Kodiak even handled the environment pretty well. He had a bit of a fright when the wind blew a chair over at one point, and he certainly wasn't keen on people coming up to pet him, but thats okay. His tail was up most of the weekend and he was very rarely truly stressed. And he did a great job with the sheep! I can't wait til I have time and money again and can get him back to practicing. It'll be fun to see how he handles a regular course.

Yeah, I Know...

I'm way behind. Its been mentioned more than once. The last several weeks have had a lot going on, some good, some not so good, and even though I've intended to update the blog several times, the motivation just hasn't kicked in. I've got a few individual posts in mind for some things that happened over the last month (not to mention a ton of photos to share), but this one will just be a (relatively) brief sum-up.

The vets still don't know what's causing the masses on Reyna's belly. Another one appeared in early November and we managed to get her to the vet school before it ruptured so they could take samples for biopsies and cultures. They admitted that they didn't give her enough pain meds to keep it from hurting when they took the samples, and it was obvious to me that she wasn't sufficiently drugged. The soreness unfortunately got her fixated on her belly and I had a lot of trouble keeping her from licking this time around. For whatever reason, she still has an open sore from the biopsy, when she should be completely healed by now.

The Derm vet is apparently still running things, so he and I have talked a few times since the biopsies. They didn't get any definitive answers from the biopsies or the cultures. They requested the slides of the samples taken during the surgery so they could do a comparison - nothing useful came from that. The last time I talked to the Derm vet, they were running a special stain on the samples to try and determine if she has a microbacterial infection. They can't find anything else, so that's their current guess. To add to the fun, if the stain comes back negative, it doesn't actually mean there aren't any microbacteria - it could just mean they took the sample from the wrong place. The vet put Reyna on two new antibiotics (microbacteria are apparently resistant to the various antibiotics she's already taken) to see if that clears up her belly. I picked up the new meds yesterday and gave her the first dose last night. I woke up this morning to discover that Reyna's face, head, and forelegs were swollen - one of the less-likely but still possible side effects of these particular antibiotics. I've been dosing her with Benadryl, but her head is still a bit puffy. At least she can open her eyes all the way now.

Kodiak earned his Junior Herding Dog title at the end of October. I have videos of both runs, and someday the woman who took pictures of his runs will get around to letting me have copies. I was really pleased with Kodiak - even though other things at the trial freaked him out, he was able to focus on the sheep and do his job.

Reyna had a nose work seminar this past weekend, and I took all of the pups. The last time I left Duncan home alone for two days, he was a basket case for several days after we returned. I think he was much happier traveling with us, despite the cramped truck and hanging in a crate all day.

The pups had their Santa Paws photos taken recently. Still debating going back for a re-try, since I only really liked one of the photos.

I started feeding all three pups a totally raw diet several weeks ago. They love it, and I'm thrilled to report that Reyna has gained back all the weight she lost this summer. Their coats feel wonderful and their teeth are gorgeous. I met a fellow who processes deer and he's hooked me up a few times with meat, bones and organs. In fact, I got an entire deer from him yesterday. He's also talking to other hunters for me to see if anyone would be willing to shoot a few deer for me. So far, I've gotten about 80lbs of meat from him. There's still about five weeks left in the season, so hopefully I'll get a lot more before its all over.

I recently started selling Mary Kay to bring in a little extra income, and shortly after that I got my first real job in two years. Its a contract position that's currently scheduled to end in May or June, but we'll see what happens when we get closer. The wonderful thing is that it actually pays real money. The bad thing is I have to figure out when to squeeze in all my dog activities...

I think that just about covers the highlights of the last several weeks. Photos and videos to come later.

Sheepies!

I took Kodiak out to Claire's today to see if he could function around the ducks and chickens and goats and turkeys and sheeps and Albert the Ox. I'm very proud of my boy - he did really well around all those new sights, sounds and smells. I also wanted to see if he had any interest in the sheep - after all, he is part herding dog. We tried him at Meredith's back in April and he was a little interested in the sheep, but more interested in running off to the far end of the arena. Five months is a long time for a pup his age, though, so I was hopeful we might get a different response from him this time. Boy, did we ever!

Turns out, Kodiak has a LOT of natural herding instinct. Very likely even more than Duncan does. In fact, he made me realize how much effort it sometimes takes to herd with Duncan (poor Duncan, he's such a worrier and he prefers to herd from right behind me which usually pushes the sheep ahead of me). Kodiak was soooo easy and just seemed to know where he needed to be to keep the sheep behind me or at least not running away from me. He does get very worried when I stumble, though, and he deals with that by wandering around off contact (Duncan's usual response is to run up to me, scattering the sheep in the process). He's going to have to learn to deal with that, though, because I tend to trip a lot around sheep. For such a little fellow, Kodiak has a lot of sheep-moving power. They were definitely very aware of him. Claire commented that Kodiak seems to have a natural talent for rating himself - he knows when to work the side and front of the flock, and appears able to gauge just how close he needs to be to the sheep to get them moving. I was also thrilled to see that Kodiak could focus on the sheep enough to lose his concern about the environment. I'm really pleased with how today went. I definitely have to get Kodiak back out to Claire's sometime soon, preferably with my good camera rather than my little point-and-shoot.

Then The Duckies

Duncan seems to enjoy herding ducks, although he also finds it a bit frustrating (or maybe thats just me). Ducks don't herd like sheep at all, so we're both having to learn new techniques.

First The Sheepies...

Duncan and I had a nice long herding session on the 1st of the month. While we were there, I asked our trainer to get a few photos of Duncan working. Turns out that Claire not only does a wonderful job of training dogs and their people, she also takes some great photos.

Duncan is in every one of these pictures, although you might have to really look for him in a couple of them. Even when he appears to be relaxing, he's actually working pretty hard. He's either watching the sheep to make sure they don't wander off, patrolling the borders, moving the sheep back inside the graze, or herding them exactly where I need them to go. The last picture is of something very hard for him - he had to wait while I put the sheep back in the arena. The poor guy, its stressful for him when he thinks he's not doing his job, but he really was - he was making sure the sheep didn't bolt back into the yard. Still, I knew Duncan wanted to be right on the sheep, pushing them into the arena, but being the good boy he is, he waited...

Herding

Reyna’s definitely enjoying her herding lessons, and she’s picking it up really quickly. We’ve moved up to the front graze, which means Reyna has four sides to patrol and the sheep tend to move around a lot more. She’s very good about figuring out where the borders are, but she has to test them occasionally. She’s excellent about watching all of the sheep, even if they split into multiple groups, and she doesn’t pay much attention to me at all. Reyna is amazingly good about letting a sheep graze right up to the edge of the graze, but not over. A couple of Claire’s sheep like to push the limits with Reyna, and she’s been wonderful about controlling her responses. During our last two sessions, she’s only lunged once. And last time, she was able to walk right up to the sheep and do nothing more than stick out her tongue (I gotta start carrying Benadryl with me, just in case she ever gets a mouthful of wool). Its really fun to watch her stalk the sheep when they get too close to the border. When she can’t see them because the brush is too high, I can see her air scenting. Reyna’s learning that she doesn’t need to spin constantly or bark incessantly. She’s figured out that simply turning her back on the sheep and sitting down is an excellent way to take the pressure off (and when that’s not enough, a little spinning and snacking on some grass is okay).

Our sessions have been starting at 7pm, so a couple of the pictures I took Sunday are a bit dark…

Here's Reyna straining against the leash, desperate to get to the sheep that Claire was moving into the graze. The look on her face was pitiful...


Minding the border, watching her sheep.


Coming towards a sheep who is getting dangerously close to the border.


Watching her sheep from the far side of the graze.




Coming around the corner, ready to correct the problem.


Encouraging the sheep back into the graze.


Everyone's relaxed.


She may look like she's taking a break, but she knows exactly where her sheep are.


A nice finish to the evening.