Grrrr

Okay...I am struggling here. I don't know if it is Blogger and their new improved changes, Internet Explorer 8 being installed on accident, or the new security program....but I CAN'T post pictures to my blog! And well, blogging without pictures is like life without chocolate.....and I am experiencing that as well! So if I can't have chocolate...at least I want pictures...... the computer guy is coming today to see if he can help sort me out.

In the mean time, being forced to picture-less posting.......I am going to put a few more of my musings here from the Scott G clinic, LaCamas and Colliding River....iced with a much appreciated post-clinic wrap up counseling session.

The clinic and the two trials after...were all run on lambs. Different types of running lambs for sure.....but still lambs. And those lambs showed me a magnified view of some training I am lacking.....that plus experience lacking for both the dog and myself....but I think the experience would have been lacking less if my training were more accurate. The "push" in training is something I am wrapping my mind around.....all the nuances of this and how it affects the sheep. Where I let my dogs hang while working sheep seems to be something for me to look at....in addition to how they are hanging in that point. But training aside, there are some aspects that I have NOT put enough thought into...yes, me the over-thinker!

Here is the question this is paving my path for my fall training.....why is it that handler after handler, including myself at this point, puts down runs where it feels like it is crisis management....and then somebody like Alasdair, or Patrick, or Scott puts down a smoker!? I wondered if it were time of day at LaCamas....as team after team including top hands retired. And then Alasdair walked to the post and puts down magic. So "time of day", "group of poor sheep", "terrain" and the plethora of other one-liners are all just really top end excuses for not getting the job done at the end of the day. Thanks to Dave Imas at Lead Me On Training I have watched Alasdair's run at LaCamas so many times I might be banned from this site, but this run really is the perfect example of all the ideas that have been running through my head being applied during a run!

Having never been "there" before, here is what will be paving my path for fall training

1) KNOW the sheep. Study the sheep....learn what different sheep behave like. Hair sheep, wool sheep, different breeds of wool sheep, lambs, ewes, well, you get it. Instead of just training my dog at the different places I go, I really want to start disciplining myself to study sheep behavior.

2) ANTICIPATE Be able to take the sheep knowledge and apply it to anticipate what is going to happen next. I think Scott says "be proactive instead of reactive". Being reactive leaves one just a heartbeat late....and maybe that is one aspect to my runs that feel like crisis management. In regards to this....knowing what the terrain and draws will do to the sheep is another twist to anticipation and knowing the sheep. Then not over anticipating if it is not going to happen.....more like "what is, and was, and is to come".

3) KNOW what the dog will do and how the sheep will react to that.

4) TRAIN train train for bells and whistles. If I need them, I have them.

My second go at LaCamas needed a' bell and whistle' combined with knowing how the sheep would respond to what my dog did. ......at the top, one little lamb was giving Sally a hard time. She would go over to cover it and the lamb would go back to the group a few times but never took her serious. I needed her to cover and then walk into that lamb to make it a believer...before she counter-flanked to bring them on the fetch. I also needed to anticipate what was going to happen better....and read those lambs a little better. I, like Sally, thought we had it!

I'm cleaning all the sheep shelters this week.....that gives me lots of time for more thinking. Frightening....I know...so here's to hoping my computer guy gets my blogger picture loading fixed!

Seize the Day!!!!