Busy Saturday! Sheep, Horses, Dogs, Tracking!

What a busy, fun day yesterday. First I went to the Highland Games at the Westerner in Red Deer. Ted's full sister Neve, owned by Larry Bell, put on a fantastic herding demo for the crowd. Here she is in action.

Larry had a mic and whiteboard, and gave a very good description to people so they would understand what they were about to see. Larry and Neve gave three demos yesterday. You can see my Jet tied under the speaker's box. She was NOT impressed.

Here is a shot of Neve waiting for Larry. She is seven years old and a very nice dog.

Here is Penny Caster with Brock, holding the sheep while Larry was chatting with the crowd.

And here is Jet, being a PR dog with kids (she didn't notice them, she was just staring at the sheep)...

Neve did such a nice job of showing elements of trial work, plus a figure 8 around the cones that was a real crowd pleaser. I am sure Larry and Neve did a lot to educate people and hopefully inspire some young people to take up this activity.

One of the best results of the day (for me) was to possibly make some new training arrangements, as I have been just sick with missing sheep and training Jet and Ted. Being around this and seeing Larry and Neve work was great to re-ignite that desire to get going again.

Jet could not comprehend that this was not all about HER. She watches the penned sheep through the fence. I have to admit, I felt very sad for her. She loves to track and it keeps her active, but she is born to herd sheep and it is in her blood. It made me very determined to get her out, Ted too. I can't tell you how hard I have looked for some land or a small farm. Alberta is a very expensive place to live. While I was in Thunder Bay I saw 106 acres with a barn and home for $199,000. That would cost at least a million dollars here in Alberta. So, I need to find more places to train and somehow fit that in with tracking and SchH. Oh, that should be easy, haha.

Next, I visited my friends Pam and Jerry Prescott and saw Pam's beautiful new foal. He is a fiesty little guy, and very beautiful with top notch breeding behind him. I can't get over how fast these foals grow and get strong. Did you know you halter break these little guys when they are barely a few weeks old, otherwise they are just too strong to handle? Amazing. They progress so much faster than puppies. Pam explained that they are prey animals, so need to be up and running day one, unlike pups that are practically born premature - closed eyes, no hearing, can't walk. Very interesting to learn more about horses. I love them, always have.

Is this one handsome little guy or what?

Then, Pam and I tracked with our boys. I did a track down her driveway for Caden. It crossed the driveway at one point. He was very intense and nose down. I was super happy. Caden just loves to track which is good, since (as you may have guessed) that is important for me!

Caden's tail is like a banner when he tracks.

Well was I thrilled with this road cross! He nailed a 90 degree turn and hit the other side dead-on. Of course, she should be there after all the work I have done with him, but SchH style is new to me, and to see him take a corner on rails without lifting his head is quite exhilarating. I honestly don't know why people would not aim for this for field work and a foundation for their dogs. I am taking longer to train him, as I am trying to incorporate all positives and very light negatives (a line pop or a 'no') to keep that drive. I can really see his confidence just blossoming as he understands his job more and more.

There was another turn to take him to the end. At that turn, he did lift his head and turn in a circle. That's OK. It was a great first turn, and a short leg to the next turn. I simply encouraged him to find it, and he did, and took off again. I think that was a positive for him, rather than saying 'no' and I really didn't want to take away from the great job he did on his first turn. Sometimes, we have to look for RECOVERY and not focus on perfection. He also needs to learn that he can sort things out, and he did within seconds.

Pam has been working with Sting consistently for the past few weeks. Below is a photo from June 5 where Dan Waters met with us in the morning to work with Caden and Sting. Dan is so generous with his time and expertise.

Since then, Pam reports that she has been out at least 15 times with Sting and does it show! Pam is an experienced cutting horse trainer and competitor and you can tell she has the concept of working out a training program. Sting knew that 'such' (prounounced sook, German for seek or search) meant for him to search the scent pad. He proceeded beautifully down his track from footstep to footstep!

He was very thorough and calm, and Pam's handling was also very calm.

Sting has a lot of tracking drive. Pam put a small curve in the end. Now she can start to mix up shapes, more age, and less treats - one variable at a time. Also, she can work her way back on a longer line.

Dixie the Schnauzer is also learning to track. But that evening over tea, she demonstrated another variety of tracking as she left Pam's lap to finish my peppermint tea, LOL. Schnauzers are excellent tracking dogs - very food motivated!