Ryder Bootcamp: Continuation

I've continued working with Ryder on his little skills.  It's interesting, for herding work he often has to be on one side or the other by my leg.  I've discovered he does not transfer this skill to being on the lawn.  I've started doing some circle work.  Asking him to stay by my leg as we walk a circle.  This is HARD!  He wants to cross behind me or circle around my legs.  I've also noticed he resists sitting by my leg.  He prefers to sit in front of me.  These are things we've been focusing on.

He also seems to have figured out the go around the tree thing, or dig exercise.  I'm afraid he may link it with his name because I'm always patting my leg trying to get him to line up nicely, when he perks up and bolts around the tree.  I've been rewarding him for going around the tree even though he didn't do exactly what I want.

I've also noticed that as we play these agility games his energy increases where as with the herding it decreases.  I'm not sure if either is a good or bad thing.  I suppose time will tell.

Ryder Bootcamp: Day Two

Today I switched stuff up by playing fetch and toileting the dogs first.  We are under a severe thunderstorm warning right now and the sky is rumbling away.  Ryder hates storms.  He gets anxious and does things like chew on himself, bark, whine and hides.  I've been working with him by having exciting play during storms.  It seems to have decreased the severity of his reactions.

Our first activity was the dig foundation.  I don't have a pole so have been using a tree.  This is our hardest activity.  I have a really hard time just standing there waiting for him to offer me stuff.  He has a really hard time figuring out what to do without my intervention.  I've been resisting helping him.  Today I used treats as his reward.  He was definitely slower to go around the tree.  I did have to call him back because he'd bugger off, wanting to hide by a tree (thunder).

Moving inside I did more target training.  He is pretty good with the plastic lid so I moved further away from it to see if he'd continue to be as consistent.  After a little bit of thinking time he began nosing the lid and moving between the two of us. Next I did hand targets.  He's far quicker with the right hand when compared to the left hand.  All the time the thunder rumbled.  He was definitely less focused today.  As I type this he's hiding under my bed....

Ryder Bootcamp: Day One

Yesterday was the puppy three year birthday.  I met up with Luke's owner and we went for a lovely walk along the river.  The dogs always have a great time with her pack.  It's peaceful and enjoyable.  After she had Luke show off some of his agility skills.  She took the time to do some agility games with Ryder.  He had lots of fun and has decided she's his new favorite person!

There are no agility classes starting until November so I'll be relying on her expertise to teach him new skills until then.  Based on his behaviour I've been giving him minimal herding work and today started him on agility Bootcamp.

We worked on targets.  I used a plastic lid and every time he nosed it I gave him a treat.  It was great seeing his tail wag.  Next we did hand targets.  I held out my hand and waited for him to nose it.  When he touched it I gave him a treat.  I made sure to use both sides.

After working on targets I switched to toys to figure out his favorite toys.  In order his favourites are: flying squirrel, boomerang, tug rope, holey ball.

We next went outside where I had him work on the foundation for dig.  We lined up at a tree and if he went around it he got the flying squirrel.  He prefers being on my right side so I need to work on getting him comfortable on the left side.  He is starting to catch on.  I had to bump him onto his feet a few times as he was convinced he could stare the toy into his mouth.

We finished with a fun game of fetch.  He took his waiting turn so Diva could also get in on the action.  Overall, it was a good start.  I was pleased with how eager he was.  My goal is to maintain this enthusiasm.

Inner Diva

Ryder has been developing his inner Diva.  When we go out to the farm I've been working on having both dogs off leash.  I don't want to rely on a leash for manners with the dogs.  Ryder has been working and listening off leash for months now.  Twice now.  Two days in a row he's bolted towards the sheep and helped himself. He handily ignored my request to lie down or recall.  After a second or two of stunned, I raced towards the sheep.  My goal was to cut him off at the pass.  I have a buggy whip with a plastic bag on the end.  Both dogs hate it.

Running flat out I raise and rattle the flag, shouting get out, I drive into his path.  The flag slaps on the ground and Ryder stops his runaway.  I won't lie.  It was rather challenging to regain my zen...   Chasing him out of the field I go back to our normal entrance and call him to me.  He does it again!!!! So there I am repeating the process.  And Diva? Diva is waiting patiently at the gate where I left her.  Seriously.

Ryder has just been straight naughty lately.  He's stolen toys off the table (supervised play only).  He's been jumping up on me.  He's been demonstrating poor leash manners.  He's clearly sending me a message.  I'll take him for his yearly and rule out physical problem. Thinking back his bad behaviour didn't begin until he was getting worked regularly.  Is it too much for him?  Too much pressure causing a delayed teenage reaction?

I'm looking into some agility classes for him.  It's not my thing but he has an incredible play drive and maybe a change of pace is just what he needs.  I'll also focus on basic obedience at home.  I've got to admit, I never thought I'd see the day when Diva was the better behaved listener of the two...

Out of Character

Ryder who is normally a pretty steady guy has been acting out of character.  It worries me.  I've discovered that the daily sheep works are working wonders with Diva.  She's steadier and has begun appropriately greeting strange people and dogs with no prompting from me.  Ryder has gone the other way.

My house is located near the mailboxes for the subdivision.  Yesterday while I was working in the yard, Ryder left the yard madly barking at some poor lady who was collecting her mail.  He has never done anything like that before.  He has been really friendly with people so it's quite out of character.

Last night we were walking our subdivision loop.  Ryder reacted so violently at a passing dog that he tore a hunk of skin off my finger.  The leash ripped through my hand and he ran at the other walker and dog.  Thank goodness he just checked out the dog and didn't do anything worse.  I'm a bit puzzled about how he's been reacting to things.

I'm not sure how to deal with it.  I plan to take him to town alone and work with him on his leash manners and socialization.   I am worried about him.  He's normally such a gentle soul it bothers me when he acts poorly.

The Lure

Because I'm mildly obsessive compulsive I've been pondering the horsey future.  Here's the deal: Jason would love to see me on a nice high end cutter/cutter prospect. I'd also really enjoy that.  Love it in fact.  The truth is most cutters, even good ones have some quirks.

After riding Ken's Popeye who is broke, broke, broke.... I'm a bit tempted to change paths.  It had been so long since I got on a horse and didn't have to be "alert" that I almost didn't know what to do with myself.  It was peaceful and enjoyable.  It created a powerful lure.  I'm being lured into a steady eddy kind of horse.  An uncomplicated ride. Something I can get on and do a variety of events on.

I have a long time before I need to make decisions.  But that lure, that was some potent stuff...

It Is Not Like Riding a Bike

You know how they say once you know how to ride a bike you never forget?  You can take time off, then hop on and off you go.

Yeah.

Roping, not so much...

I spent yesterday at Ken's I was up before six and on the road by seven.  I pulled into his yard at nine.  By ten we had horses saddled and were out in the pasture.  By pasture I mean 160 acres.  He wanted some help doctoring a cow and he needed to tag and vaccinate some late calves.  I was stoked.  This sounded like a ridiculous amount of fun!  After all I used to team rope...  I could totally do this...

The reality:

I was riding a horse I'd rode twice before.  It was my first time on a horse in close to a year.  I haven't picked up a rope in over 8 years.  I haven't done any pasture work in over 13 years.  And my personal favorite, Ken does not put rubber on his horn (this stops the rope from sliding when you dally).

Yeah....

We started off with Ken roping some calves.  He was riding a jittery gorgeous grey gelding.  It was a footstep away from being a wreck of epic proportions with the first calf.  The horse went up, Ken went to the side, his foot looking like it wanted to hang up in the stirrup, calf jumping around on the end of the rope...  He managed to get clear, get his horse working, and get the calf safely treated.  There's something so special about watching the little gaffers trotting off with their new ear tags flapping.  We settled in to work.  Ken roping and I held the herd in one spot.

We worked our way to the section where a lame cow was.  My job was to rope the cow.  Ken said she was pretty spicy so I should wear her out (lope her around) before roping her.  Yeah.  She was more than a little spicy.  Ken finally stepped in with his horse and ran her to a stop.  I looked at him and told him I thought she was ok.  She was moving fine on her foot.  I couldn't see any swelling or ickies in her hoof.  We decided she was on the mend and didn't need any intervention.  At this point Ken decided I should start roping calves.

Throw.  Miss.  Throw.  Miss.  Trying to get the horse to work for me.  Sigh.  Finding a calf lying down I threw and caught.  Dallied.  And couldn't figure out why the calf kept getting further and further away.  The dally was sliding with no rubber.  I'd like to add the calf was no longer sleeping peacefully...   Looking down and realizing my finger was in a very dangerous spot I undallied, and tried to pull the rope.  Meanwhile, the horse was not cooperating.  When the dust finally settle I had no coils in my hand, and an angry momma cow following as I dragged her calf to higher ground.  (It was in a low spot - read wet.)   It was ridiculous.

It was also a ridiculous amount of fun.  If I'm going to be doing more of this I'm going to be borrowing a friend's rope saddle, complete with rubber on the horn.  I'll also spend some time dummy roping.

I had forgot how much work roping was.  My entire body hurts.  While I was roping my hands hurt (why I was at Neurologists last week), but I didn't get really bad tremors.  I don't know if physically I can do this as a hobby, but I think I'll work at it a bit and test the waters.

I'm still smiling.