Laurie Batson Clinic, Aug. 29-30, Fieldbrook, CA

We went to San Mateo on Thursday in a total rush. The plan was to get my JD visit done with Katerina (!!!) and then proceed north to pick up Eric. Before proceeding even further north. Odin waited in the car and then got to meet Cathi Zammit from the City and Katerina and Ian from the USACE. We went up top on the landfill and played for awhile at the City dogpark afterwards, me being careful not to let him strip his pads on the crushed gravel.

After picking up Eric and heading north (fun drive), we stayed in a hotel and Odin rode in an elevator for the first time. He was terrified. I also had to keep him from alarm barking when people started getting up in the morning and moving around in the hall. He definitely wants to protect us. Odin and Sadie and Frank Woo ----->

We stayed at Sheri Woo's house, camping out in their field where Sadie, her daughter often camps. Odin had so much fun with the kids, their teo dogs Henry and Wes, and an old soccer ball. He also climbed redwood stumps with us and fetched 9-ft long branches out of the forest for ... throwing?

On Sat morning, we arrived at Sharon's. Odin behaved terribly, as soon as he realized there were going to be sheep happening. I mean, he really lost his mind. He almost pulled me off my feet several times. We probably waited there for about an hour, and even though Eric and I both tried over and over to correct him with increasing harshness, the only way to keep him even halfway under control was to continually ask for his attention. He was incapable of calming himself down, and of course Laurie noticed and commented. I felt terrible and hung my head. But he was beyond reaching.

She had him come up first for the clinic. I thought this was merciful. But after Wednesday, it shocked me immensely that his immediate reaction was to run at the sheep (we had 4 at first) and slam them into the fence at the back of the field. I groaned inwardly, oh jeeze. But Laurie stayed cool as a cucumber, and we brought about 10 ewes out and got rid of a troublesome mother who didn't feel like flocking. She didn't fault Odin at all. When we started the next time, she decided to turn him off a bit by reclaiming the sheep. She pulled out in front and let him know that stupid actions would get the stick-bag. Also, she let him decide when to come to rest, which he finally did, at balance.
Odin turns the sheep, at a good distance...

He kept running them into the corner at first, and after Laurie turned him off he was hesitant to take them out again. But we worked on it, and she had me run him for the second run on Sat. He kind of blunderingly pushed the sheep into a V-corner, and Laurie was back with the spectators, because Eric had said, "Oh yeah, let her do it on her own!"

"Easy for you to say!" Laurie shot back. But she did, and then came to help me and said to everyone, "Oh, you guys, this is a V!! You need a trained dog for this," but then she had me take Odin's collar and guide him through. He did, and we came through wonderfully, then it was a pretty nice fetch across the field. HE lost the sheep at one point and I sort of organically turned it into a drive. I figure, try and let him be right as much as possible right now; although I don't know if that's a good idea or not. He was gentle, helped start two kelpie pups (Tillie and Bloke), and above all, after the first part of the day, tried hard to be a team player with me. Now... to stop the flailing...

And I think we're really off and running...literally

Odin, Bayfront Levees, Aug 2009

Last week I panicked about the clinic and decided I had to get out to Joyce's before I left for Arcata. But when I called, she had no times on Sunday. CRAP!!

"I have time on Wednesday," she said.

"I'll ask my boss if I can get the afternoon off," I replied, desperately. Then, when Monday rolled around, I didn't just ask Pat, I told him I would be going to Santa Rosa. He he. Poor guy - Odin barks at him every time he sees him now yet he's still nice about it.

At Joyce's things went pretty well, considering she left me in the field for about half an hour on my own with him. We had those same little dorpers and the black-bellied barbados, and they were very kind sheep. He kept pushing them past me, but I kept running backwards trying to absorb the push. There were still some things I didn't understand about why he cannot go around me. At one point I fell down flat on my back, hard enough to tweak a few back muscles. But I got right back up and Odin had those sheep on the fence, we picked 'em up and took off again!

In the Wed Aug. 26th session, we tried Joyce's method for putting names on flanks - it's a bit weird and I'm not sure I want to do it anymore. I'm supposed to chase him around the sheep, I think pushing him out, in the direction of the flank, while sing-songing the command. Then again, he did seem to have a clue about floank names at the clinic, so maybe this isn't the worst method. It seems weird to me because it's not really like anything you would want to do with the sheep in normal everyday work.

Also, I saw what happens when you push him, endurance-wise. I thought we were just supposed to go until she came and got us. This was his third time on sheep that afternoon, by the way, by thye time he and I tried to work it out out there for 30 minutes or more. He got sort of starey and drooly, almost the way he does when he's starting to overheat. But there was 1) NO eating sheep poop, and 2) NO quitting. I won't push him like that again any time soon, but in retrospect I'm glad I know he's got some dedication, and will keep working for me past when it's sheer fun and into the realm of "I gotta do this because she wants me to keep going."

So proud of the fancy lad, my heart, Odin. :)

First Time Handling

I am HOOKED. Seriously seriously. I handled Odin for the first time today and after I got even 1/10 of 1% of the hang of one small part of it, it was literally like driving a Corvette.

Today we had 3 nice little helpful sheep in a small round pen. We have not put names on flanks yet but using body language and the pole I had both flanks happening reliably. Actually, he already had them, so there was a bit of adjustment at first where I just confused the heck out of him. But by the end he was anticipating my movements. I have a good down (most of the times on the 1st command, bringing the pole horizontal really gets his attention), and at the end of the 3rd run we started putting a walk up on him. But it turns out he already KNOWS that command. What the heck???? I just had to say, Odin, walk up, and he got up and came walking up, nice and in control. Of course I am a dolt and let him walk the sheep past me every time - note to self, stop doing that. But how does that instacommand happen?? I guess body language?

When I finally figured out what to do with my clumsy self enough to ask for a flank in any sort of a situation where it made sense, we discovered that he does not like to go counter-clockwise as much as he does clockwise. Maybe this has something to do with the OCD in his right shoulder (the flanks he likes puts the "bad" shoulder on the inside)? In any case, I know for a fact he can run any which way he wants so I had my first training challenge, how to force him to take that flank. If I got "tough" and banged on the ground emphatically, I could sometimes get him to switch and take that flank (I guess that would be away side?), but then he would come in close and split the one black-bellied barbados away from the other two dorset sheep. Then, it would devolve into some fast action until I could get my head back enough to lie him down.

So the trainer was yelling at me to "come at him" when he came around too close on that flank. I tried a few times and she yelled "Too LA-ate!!" each time. Then, I got it in my head to lunge at him sort of pre-emptively, and after that he went around just great! I was still conscious he liked the clockwise side better, but no problems getting him to take either side anymore and the splitting off stopped. I would sometimes encourage him a bit like "be sure and get everyone, now" feeling totally ridiculous, but he would swing out a bit wide, and, well, be sure to get everyone.

How does the correction I gave have any bearing on him changing his behavior on both willingness to take that flank and taking it correctly? My trainer knew he would respond if I could get it right, and it obviously made sense to Odin. I'm the only one left wondering how the two actions even relate, because "coming at him" wasn't anything like him circling behind the sheep (his immediate reaction was to take off way back and circle again to a comfy clockwise flank), and it happened in my mind out-of-context from the moment that comes later, after the turn of the flank, where he would split one off. It is a mystery to me.

He has not had much eye yet (very upright and loose, looks like a little sphinx in his downs rather than the normal border collie "crouch"). But today, I swear I noticed that the way he looked at the sheep had great effect on them, even if he wasn't crouching. I noticed this on some sheep across a field from us while we were just out getting water. I had to take him away from the water dish, where he wanted to stare at those sheep and not drink, because it was making them stop and they weren't paying attention to the dog that was working them.

Wish I had pics or video but I was way way too busy trying to pull my thumb out of my nether regions and keep up with a keen 16 month old. Next time, next time. He was so tired tonight too - I think he is thinking so hard while it is happening. I just can't express how proud I was of the little guy. He has such heart - I could see that already and Joyce could too, I think. She warmed to him greatly, over the course of the morning. He is a cute lil mofo:
...which she noticed.

He wants to work with me. It is such a cool feeling.

Year 1 Timeline

October 2008, 7 months - Odin developed OCD in his right shoulder. Started getting really teenager-y. We had the botany beach bash and after he could barely walk I realized we had to do something about this.

November 2008, 8 months - Odin goes to work more. Gets even more teenagery, possibly exacerbated by pain, which other than the intermittant limp, he shows no other outward sing of. Goes on crate rest. Has surgery and stem cell treatment for his OCD (osteochondritis dessicans, a separation of cartilage from the bones of the shoulder that causes severe growth problems) in late November, after much help from my old friend Laura, now a vet in Colo.

December 2008, 9 months - Crate rest hell. The sedatives make him sort of crazy lurchy and clumsy, which is, you know, great for post-op recovery. We take short calm rehab walks, and I try to stop his energy (he does not agree that he needs to rest at all) by trying the cesar milan-thing where you repeatedly zzzzpt-strangle your dog to assert a calm dominant energy. This did not work for us. So we got a front clip harness, which worked much much better (3 weeks after surgery, so the gentle squeezing wouldn't be too much for the healing joint). Odin finally comes off crate rest, crazy with energy but much improved. He looks ridiculous half-shaved.

January 2009, 10 months - I don't know if he understood that we did our best to fix him, or if he just felt so much better that he became less obstinate, or if he just outgrew a phase that had nothing to do with the OCD and subsequent crate rest hell. But as we tried slowly to condition him up (he much preferred fastly conditioning himself up), he starts to really gel in a lot of behaviors to default good choices. How did this happen? Not jumoing up on people so much, way better on leash, insane desire to chew everything going away...


March 2009, 1 year - Odin starts getting really reliable off-leash. Start phasing out clickers, and working on long, solid stays and recalls. I go away for work for 2 weeks and worry that Odin won't be mine when I get back. He totally still is.



April 2009, 13 months - Odin's first time on sheep. Labeled hard by Laurie, he did not really perform best under her dominance-style training, but managed to stop trying to kill the sheep and instead come to balance on them. Tricks are now like, "find your blue ball, not that ball" and "bring me your leash!"

May 2009, 14 months - Odin is a fixture at work. He comes with me to the field, and does well. We experiment more and more with a raw meat-supplemented diet. We are starting to work better as a team. Also, I work on slowly conditioning him. We take a break from sheep for a couple months. He continues to be very exciteable but a true, sweet joy to be around. Loves children and meeting anyone.

June 2009 15 months - Odin comes to the railroad. He now firmly prefers balls to a frisbee, but still anything will do in a pinch. I'm starting to finally feel a bit more confident in my training instincts and timing as a handler - sometimes we achieve syncronicity and sometimes we crash and burn - I ask for a recall in a situation much less challenging than chasing a deer (which I can call him off from), - like when he is across the room from me or heading across an open field towards shade - and he clearly, with deliberate thought, weighs his options and flips me the bird - this about 5 - 10% of the time, and admittedly done with a bit of reluctance.

As for sheep, I enlist an online "mentor", an Open handler from the boards, who encourages me to try another trainer. I do and am amazed at 1) the difference in Odin's stamina, 2) the kind attitude Derek displayed towards him, 3) how wowed the other clinic-goers were with his talent! Laurie hadn't really indicated she thought he was any great talent, but Derek called him a "natural" and "responsive" - basically the opposite of hard. Maybe because he didn't approach my dog assuming he was a spoiled brat, which I suppose he could be - but I don't really think so. :) He's perfect, even when flipping me the finger (although that is going to STOP!)

....

So that brings us pretty much current. Now, I'm looking at this amazing dog I have, and thanking my luck daily Eric took us to his breeder. He is beautiful, thin, humorous, obsessive, drivey, keen as hell for sheep, and totally, completely devoted to me.

Love this dog. Let's see if we can learn how to work stock together.

First Blog

Hello, all.

This is my and Odin's first blog. Undertaken due to inexplicably long and heartfelt posts on Border Collie boards, this blog will be our attempt to document the unlikely combination of lazy couch potato Kelly + the perpetual motion machine Odin, a collie of the most impressive sort. Together we live with Kelly's husband (and Odin's father) icol, + brothers Dr. Benway and Lobo. This blog will serve to document our learning path.

So far, Odin knows how to:

sit (hand signal, voice, or both)
down
stand
wait (stay for most dogs)
spin around (needs hand signal for direction)
shake
paw (=lefty shake)
hi-5
give me some skiiin
roll over
peekaboo (between the legs)
come around (the tree, pole, or leg)
target (touch random object)
touch (nose to finger)
walk (up on hind legs)
head down
drop it
take it
get it
heel
hup (jump over)

We will keep updating our trick list. Odin is 7 months, and replaces my Mesto, best cat ever. Odin is nothing like Mesto, and yet I love him just as much! While I have always been a cat person I have to admit it is very cool, being able to take your pet with you different places. Odin goes with me to work, hiking, on errands, and anywhere else a dog can go. Already he is a wonderful companion.