I was planning to put a video of Riva's first time on stock here but technology failed me. I borrowed a digital video camera from work, but it turned out that the camera didn't have a cable for downloading video to a computer. I could copy the footage to a regular video tape but not download it to my computer :-(.
29.10.04
11.10.04
Riva's first time on sheep
We went to visit Katja Jyrinki ja Riva had his first real exposure to stock. I have some video of it but I haven't downloaded it yet from the camera.
I SUCK at this. I found myself constantly in the wrong place, at the wrong time, doing the wrong thing. If he ever does achieve anything in herding its despite of me.
First round:
Riva pushed the sheep against the round pen fence and insisted that they stay there. No moving sheep allowed. If the sheep tried to slip away from the fence he would circle to the heads barking and stop them. The sheep turned and tried the other way, he would circle to the heads again and stop them. I was totally clueless, the little I had learned earlier with Jambi and Karma escaped my head as soon as we entered the round pen. We were in the pen just a couple of minutes and then I took Riva to the car while some other dogs did their thing.
Second round:
A lot less barking and a lot less pushing the sheep to the fence. Riva started to circle around the sheep. Even I started to get a clue and when a sheep split from the group and Riva would go after it, I was able to push him out a bit and then the sheep would turn back to the group and Riva would circle around quite nicely. He would also respond to my body movements so that he changed the direction around the group. We were able to stop after a few minutes to a very nice moment, calm sheep bunched together at my feet and Riva still eager to go.
In the end Katja told me "you are going to have a very easy time with him, he responds so nicely to you". Yeah, right, if I ever figure out what I'm supposed to do and haven't ruined him before that. I didn't have a stock stick, it really wasn't necessary at this point. If I did have to intervene on what he was doing it was enought to take a step towards him and he would move out. Unfortunately I would frequently take two steps where one would have been enough and would push him completely off stock :-(.
I SUCK at this. I found myself constantly in the wrong place, at the wrong time, doing the wrong thing. If he ever does achieve anything in herding its despite of me.
First round:
Riva pushed the sheep against the round pen fence and insisted that they stay there. No moving sheep allowed. If the sheep tried to slip away from the fence he would circle to the heads barking and stop them. The sheep turned and tried the other way, he would circle to the heads again and stop them. I was totally clueless, the little I had learned earlier with Jambi and Karma escaped my head as soon as we entered the round pen. We were in the pen just a couple of minutes and then I took Riva to the car while some other dogs did their thing.
Second round:
A lot less barking and a lot less pushing the sheep to the fence. Riva started to circle around the sheep. Even I started to get a clue and when a sheep split from the group and Riva would go after it, I was able to push him out a bit and then the sheep would turn back to the group and Riva would circle around quite nicely. He would also respond to my body movements so that he changed the direction around the group. We were able to stop after a few minutes to a very nice moment, calm sheep bunched together at my feet and Riva still eager to go.
In the end Katja told me "you are going to have a very easy time with him, he responds so nicely to you". Yeah, right, if I ever figure out what I'm supposed to do and haven't ruined him before that. I didn't have a stock stick, it really wasn't necessary at this point. If I did have to intervene on what he was doing it was enought to take a step towards him and he would move out. Unfortunately I would frequently take two steps where one would have been enough and would push him completely off stock :-(.
5.10.04
Final puppyhood vaccination
Riva got his final puppy vaccination yesterday and behaved as well as during all the previous times. He was also microchipped and weighed. He's now 17.2 kg (37.9 pounds). He has lost all his puppy teeth and all permanent teeth are in but the canines are still growing. He's starting to look more like an adolescent than a puppy. How fast they grow...
We didn't do anything special last weekend. My uncle had his 60th birthday and we visited there and everybody wanted to see the puppy that I got all the way from United States. Guess how many times I had to answer the question "Couldn't you have gotten one from Finland?". Still, he charmed the pants off of everyone :-D.
We have something quite exciting planned for next weekend but I'll keep you in suspense until then ;-P.
We didn't do anything special last weekend. My uncle had his 60th birthday and we visited there and everybody wanted to see the puppy that I got all the way from United States. Guess how many times I had to answer the question "Couldn't you have gotten one from Finland?". Still, he charmed the pants off of everyone :-D.
We have something quite exciting planned for next weekend but I'll keep you in suspense until then ;-P.
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