Piper is a fan of Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan is famous for being the first explorer to circumnavigate the world (actually he was killed on the voyage and did not make it all the way). The voyage was from 1519 - 1522.

Apparently Piper was reading up on her Spanish explorers and is a fan. Or maybe she just read on Facebook that Geri Byrne is famous for setting long outruns and was threatening an 800 yard outrun for Dry Lake. Either way Piper was ready for a long outrun yesterday at Jennifer's. Only problem - the sheep were not that far away.

First run of the day I sent Piper away. The sheep were actually a little forward of where they are usually set - but not by much and we were sending from further back. Piper went out and looked good and then she just disappeared. I waited, blew a come in whistle, waited some more, blew another come in, waited, blew a recall, waited, blew another recall and finally Piper was sited completing a circumnavigation of the entire field without ever finding sheep.

It took Magellan 3 years to circumnavigate the globe. It took Piper a lot less time. If she runs that wide next week at Dry Lake we may be looking for her in Oregon.

It was the start of a rough day for Piper. To be fair she did some things well and it was a level of work that I would have been happy with a year ago, but it was below her capabilities and not what I was hoping for a final tuneup for Dry Lake. Oh well, bad rehearsal, good show. And we may get a slight tuneup in as we travel North - either right before leaving or when we arrive.

Rylee was a different story. SHe had a better day yesterday and was starting to show some pace at least on her fetch. She did have a little trouble on one or two outruns but she took the redirects (an encouraging thing) and generally came up well. She is still extremely cautious but she was showing a little more pace yesterday. This was particularly true in the afternoon when we were working on drive aways and straight fetches in the lower field. She still needs encouragement to come near my feet to get the drive started but she is doing better on that and once she gets past my feet we were able to jazz her up a bit. Just need patience.

Fast Sheep, Failure to Shed and Torn Pads

We had a training session yesterday and Jennifer brought out some runners to help us get ready for the Crazy Coops at Dry Lake. Just the type of sheep that give Piper trouble - but just what she needed to work on.

Well, Piper's fetches were generally fairly well paced without wild run aways. And the first leg of her drives was not too bad but when we turned to make a cross drive in the direction the sheep wanted to run it was outrun size overflank to the heads. I could not see Piper because of the trees and I thought the sheep were headed in the right direction. By the time I could see Piper it was too late. In her defense the sheep were doing this to most of the dogs so it was a tough exercise -- but it is one we need to get down if we have any hope of doing well. Yesterday we did not pass the test. With these type of sheep the difference between a just right flank and overflank is a fine line. We are not walking the line tight enough yet but I think her pace is getting better even if it is through a lot of tapping on the brakes.

Later we attempted to do some shedding on some flighty Cheviots. We worked at it for quite a while and never could get them settled enough. Piper was dragging her tongue and eventually tore a paw pad. I noticed her start favoring one front paw and thought she had stepped on a sticker. When I checked she had a torn paw pad. At least we have a while for it to heal before the trial.

Rylee OTOH worked the same sheep as Piper and managed to keep them relatively slow. When she switched to the heavier sheep she managed to keep them barely ahead of glacial pace. My favorite moment from Rylee yesterday came from a rare outrun mistake. She started to cut in narrow on the away side and she took a lie down and then a redirect. I actually should have given her a "get out" instead of another "away" but the important thing was she stopped and took a redirect from me on the outrun. I was happy to see this as I have not had to redirect her on an outrun like this before. She is still very cautious and I need to keep her jazzed up but there are moments when she hits a nice flow. The sheep seem to like her and I think it is a matter of her confidence continuing to grow. She will never be a hard charger though which is OK as long as she keeps coming forward.

Rectangles in the Pasture

We went to Anna Guthrie's on Saturday to get in some sheep time at a different location since Canines n Ewe was spending the day at the Campo Rodeo. Unfortunately we could not make it down to the rodeo but I heard it was fun.

Anyway the plan was to work on flanks and flank drills. And so we did.

Working in a relatively small field with a group of runners that wanted to stay way off Piper we spent almost our entire first period with the sheep doing flanks. Half flanks, full flanks, quarter flanks - just trying to randomly place Piper in different spots in relation to the sheep without moving the sheep or getting into the comfort zone. Generally Piper did pretty well at this although she was slightly better going to the come bye side and tightened the circle a bit on the away side. So she got some corrections there and seemed to be doing better.

Our second (fairly lengthy) work session I worked on driving a specific pattern. We did at least ten minutes of me standing in the center of the field and driving rectangles around the perimeter of the field. We alternate drawing our rectangles clockwise and counter-clockwise. The point was to get straight lines and controlled flow. She did very well at this but as is her pattern she did better as she got tired. Piper still wants to get up to fast but an immediate sharp whistle slowed her to appropriate pace and I could keep her back with there whistles. After doing rectangles for some time we did what would essentially be a search pattern going up and down the field one lane at a time.

With Rylee I also did some flank drills - which she seemed to do well at for the most part. She still sometimes gets up to head in the wrong direction but she definitely takes her there and lie down better than Piper. I also put her in a fairly small "catch pen" - maybe 12 feet square with the sheep - where she definitely had enough room to flank around - and made her do flanks in the confined area to hopefully help with confidence a bit. Also had her lie down and just watch the sheep to hold them in place for short stretches.

Finally we did some open field driving and I tried to keep her moving to get a flow going for her confidence level. She is coming along nicely. Her natural tendency is to be very cautious and she does not like a mess. We also need to work on steering. I can put her on a line and she will drive that line but if the sheep pull hard to one side it can be difficult to get her to put them back on line. This is true both fetching and driving and we need to work on it.

I also started her with lie down and walk up whistles. They need to be much calmer than with Piper but she seems to be getting them both.

In many ways Piper and Rylee are opposites. I will spend my entire partnership with Piper trying to apply the brakes and slow her down. With Rylee it is just the opposite - the biggest thing is trying to just push on the accelerator just a bit. Sometimes she needs a firm "Get Up" after a lied own to get moving again. I don't think it is lack of power because once she gets up she will move most anything. It may be lack of confidence because she is very cautious about it. From talking to Elizabeth Baker it seems to be something that runs in the line a bit and they tend to grow into their confidence. So I hope she is right.

Anyway it is always good to get to different fields and different sheep and I enjoyed visiting with Anna.