Sharpening up on Cattle
This morning was a bit depressing when I got out of bed to discover we had received three inches of snow last night. I’m so sick of snow, sleet, hail and mud is running real close in there now. I’m in serious need of some sunshine and warm toasty breezes. Oh well once its 103 outside this summer I’ll want something totally different I’m sure. Maybe these three inches of snow means an extra week of green grasses. I still went out and checked on the ewe in the trailer-guess I was wrong about her. Hehehe. I thought for sure she was going to drop those lambs right away.
Tigr is always right there ready to go to work. I like to invent little chores for her. I’m sure the sheep need to walk around the hen house and trailer this morning. By the time I feed everyone we had walked those poor sheep around the hen house, around the boat, around the stock trailer around the flatbed hay trailer around the perimeter of the property. I bet they are so happy to hear “that’ll do”. Gosh, I wonder if the sheep knows what that means?
Hope wasn’t home when I got there this evening. Hmmm is she getting tired of me? I know its okay to climb into the top of her hay barn because no one is there to tell me no. (big grin) As we go into the pasture all three dogs are running loose and I call Tigr. She comes right to me and I place her on a chain then I notice both Tait and Kane are like loaded pistols, cocked ready to fire. Tait”that’ll do boy” I swear I can see a big smirk grin on Kane’s face because he knew he gets to work first.Kane works the regular course like a dream. I’m so happy with his work ethics and his progress. He’ll take single steps or maybe even half steps when asked. He is getting his wide and narrow flanks down solid. The daily work is keeping him fine tuned. We make the course look just too easy.
I walk to Tigr’s spot and Tait started whining and giving me the paw. He thinks this just isn’t fair and he isn’t being treated properly. By the time I let Tigr loose and placed Kane on that chain the sheep had disappeared over the levee into the far pasture. She didn’t seem too concerned. I set her up on the bye side and gave her a “Spppppp”. The water must be deeper in the canal tonight because when she went through there was a spray as she zipped through. In the matter of seconds he sheep were coming over the levee. Tigr has been having a little trouble loosing contact here so I’ve been slowly but surely working on it. Tonight as soon as I saw the sheep’s heads coming over the levee I gave her a “Lie Down” whistle. I can’t see her so I have to trust that she is doing as I have ask of her. “Walk up” I whistle and the sheep start moving towards the obstacle. I blow a fast “Walk up” and she pops up on the levee I see the sheep are going to miss the obstacle to their left so I blow a short “come bye” bang dead center every single one of them. Little things excited me I’m sorry. WOO hooooo good girl!!!!! Then we do our drives and cross drives keeping our inside flanks clean. I had her drive them across the levee way out into the far pasture.
Okay buddy it’s your turn, Tait was standing on his hind legs waving for me. I tease him a little waving back at him but he knows it’s his turn. I set him up to outrun on the bye side then tell him “lie down” and walk to the gate. Once outside of the pasture I climb into the top of the hay and I figure I’m a good 15-20 feet off the ground. Now I can see across that levee and I’m planning on some listening skills. “Come bye” I whistle and he was off running wide and deep. His lift was fairly nice not as pushy as normal for Tait. Do you think he knows I can see him from here? “Come bye” I whistle and Tait started the flank but then didn’t finish and flipped like he was going to finish the fetch to me. I blow a crisp “LIE DOWN” “Come bye” come, come, come and he finished the flank and went into drive mode at over 200 yards. I did this drill several more times and by the time we quit he was responding just the way I expected. While I’m up on top of the hay I notice the steers and horses are pretty far apart so I decide I’m going to catch the steers with Tigr. I climbed down and had Tait pen the sheep for me and traded places with Tigr.
Tigr can’t read minds. Hehehe, I found something she can’t do. She was loaded up thinking we were getting the sheep but I walked to the wrong gate. “Here Tigr”. I walk through and now she is focused on this new what ever task. I walked the short alley way in the mud with her and gave her a sppppp. She is so much fun to watch and I can tell the exact moment when she saw the steers. I turned and walked for the gate. They are out of sight the moment I get pass the well house. I’ve not gave a single command since sending her. Pretty soon here they come into the mud and through the gate into the pasture where we are training tonight. I had her take them in a drive to the far panels I’m guessing a little over 100 yards. For the first time tonight she was a little sticky and would lie down without me asking. Now I’m wondering if this is because of cattle being a little slower than the sheep. I’ll be glad when we get some new cattle to give Tigr some different colored different acting cattle.
Kane is really working nice tonight, the cattle are absolutely no challenge to him. He paces them perfectly and walks them around the course with ease. From on top the hay it’s easy to see what the dog is doing over the levee and I’m telling you right now. If we get a draw like this and Kane is reading and listening like he is now we’ll be getting a perfect score. He has just been a joy to work and be around tonight.
Tait gets his turn now. His outrun is very nice, his lift a little too powerful. He hit a few heels when they didn’t need it. I blew a long Steady and he took it right away and slowed giving the steers some breathing room. Across the levee they came right through the fetch panels. I did several drives and cross drives with Tait then took the steers back to their pasture. Other than his trying to crab a little on his flanks he did real well. I hope tomorrow to start doing some longer distance work.
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