Herding, HRD, and Healing

Whoa... it's been too long since I've updated. Got caught up in socializing, visiting family, and training! The last 5 weekends, I've either been out of town or had company visiting here. I've done a lot of herding and HRD training and just a wee bit of obedience. Xita tried to cut her toe off on New Year's Day so is wearing a lovely black and red booty to keep her bandage dry. Jubilee ended up not pregnant, much to my dismay.

So, we're hanging out, getting whiplash from Virginia's winter weather that goes from ice and sleet to sub-20 degree temps to flooding rains to sunny and 65 degrees all in the course of a work week.

I'll be breeding Jubilee back when she comes in heat (end of February), and I'm still expecting Xita and Hunter litters this year too.

In the meantime,Hunter's got a thick winter coat and layer of happy chub. Coal has been practicing his emo sighs. Nike's scheming to steal all the toys and bones too. And Ruffian and Flint are keeping up the quality of misbehavior.

Xita's working on heeling healing, Jubilee's working on herding, Macha's had her 2nd birthday and her herding has shown a leap of confidence--she was giving me some super fast downs at full speed and doing figure 8s in the round pen this weekend! Lynx has a bright new orange and reflective vest to help him know when we're doing search work instead of agility, and Oda's trying not to be too evil (she's also blown all her coat and I bet she comes in heat in a week or so!).

Q-pups at 8 weeks

They are rather relaxed and hot in this video, but it's a nice capture of the happy chaos that follows this lot. Little red-collar girl goes to her new home today, yellow girl will be here for another week, and the boy is here a little longer, too. And the sable girl is still looking for her person -- so I will get to enjoy three of them a bit longer. We have started meals in crates and will be working on name recognition (for them what have names!) and puppy recalls and sits and downs for hotdogs.

Little sable girl has turned into a unique individual. She is warm and affectionate with a strong sense of self that often has her marching to her own drumbeat. She doesn't feel any need to follow her bicolor siblings around and I will often find her off doing her own thing while the bicolors rough and tumble together. But this isn't to say that she's a loner--she will often follow at my heels while the bicolors are off romping somewhere and she is quick to seek and give gentle affection.

Red-collar girl's mission in life is to steal my shoes--the ones I am wearing, preferably, and she will bite my ankles until I yelp and give over. Meanwhile, little yellow is probably off conquering her image in the mirror or wrestling some far-larger toy into submission. Mr. Qi (chi), the boy's new name) is amazingly suave--relaxed and confident as he surveys the chaos around him.

So, here's the video of a hot (about 95!) summer afternoon with the Q puppies...


Q puppies at 8 weeks from ce kemper on Vimeo.

Spring pictures

Lynx, Jubilee, Oda and... mysterious guest

Last Monday was a really nice spring day, and I had a guestdoggy visiting...

Samantha (aka Olivia)--a littermate to Oda and Sid (Obsidian). She certainly looks like family...  She got a bit wet when she tried to walk on water and fell in the pool.

Lookat those curls.

 The forsythia are in full bloom--even starting to pass peak bloom. But they still make a lovely backdrop for a picture...

Macha with her forsythia-colored ball

Lynx is starting to look grown up

Oda makes a dorkface

Jubilee--looking mostly not crazy

Coal

Herding and HRD

Friday, I got up at 4:30 and drove to Isle of Wight, Virginia with 5 dogs in the truck.

I got in a herding lesson with Macha and Hunter before 10 am. Hunter was not where I would like her to be--she doesn't really trust me and watches for me to turn my back so she can dart in and grab a sheep while I'm not looking. She and I need to do some work on building a foundation for training. She had the misfortune to be born a few months after the deaths of Thorn and Frost--and I think I wasn't up to putting a lot of training into her first few years. Because one of the things I value most is that strong working relationship, accepting that Hunter doesn't really trust me feels like admitting to a failure. But, I suppose, it's really just that I have to think hard on how to fix that which is broken between us.

Macha... she was brilliant. She has lots of drive for working the sheep and she is very responsive to praise from me. She's showing a strong desire to work with me as well as a naturally gentle approach to her sheep. Not scared of them--pressing close against them in a tight spot--but not feeling the need to bite them to make them move. She was fantastic. Amazing. Awesome. Then we worked her again in the afternoon, and she was again fantastic. Amazing. Awesome. I can't wait to work her again on sheep. In the meantime, I will work on teaching her some mechanical commands--sit, down, stand there, get back--with obstacles like the picnic table and a ball as a reward.

At 10, we stopped herding and met with the SAR/HRD (human remains discovery) group. I walked along with several dogs as they did their 2 acre searches for cadaver sources that L. had planted earlier. It's good for me to learn how not to signal the dog and but how to keep an eye always on the dog, watching for that first moment when the scent is found, the change of behavior as the dog zones in on the strongest scent and then indicates the find.

Then a couple members of the group helped me introduce Lynx to some source scent. He was brilliant. :) I am going to make a series of posts about how I started him on indications and how we introduced the scent--so I won't go into detail here. But it was a thrill to watch him thinking through and testing the criteria for what would get him his reward. He is so much fun to train--he's like a thinky version of his grandfather Ash, with only half the squeaking!

After HRD training, I and T. ran out to lunch then up to pick up some sheep feed, then back to her farm for a few more herding lessons. We worked Jubilee. In her last herding lesson, she had made it clear that she far preferred chaos and havoc to calm and obedient. I had decided on a zero tolerance policy on disregarding the down/stop command and she had, quite literally, rolled her eyes at me and then shrugged off me placing her in the down. So, I brought her out on leash on the prong collar. I asked her to down outside the gate--she did. I entered the area with the sheep--down. I walked toward the sheep--down. I stepped away from her and she held the down. I called her to me and she came promptly. For all of this, I'd had a loose leash and had given no corrections or leash pressure or anything other than a calm, quiet command and calm praise. I asked for another down and I pretended to turn my back on her. Her ears popped forward and her eyes got intense. I pretended to keep looking away but I stepped so a small tree was between me and Jubilee. T. said something to me and I shifted to look at T., knowing that Jubilee was going to lunge -- and she did. The line between me and her tightened against the tree and she popped herself on the collar. I called her to me and asked for another down. And... she was good.

She was done fighting me. She was prompt in her responses to everything I asked, so I gave her a chance to work the sheep. She stayed responsive and respectful, stopping behind the sheep and walking slow when I told her easy. She even stopped on her own and walked the sheep forward toward me--not running me over with sheep flying like popcorn, not taking 5 steps after every down command, not causing havoc and reveling in it. It's amazing how good she is when she is good.

I left shortly after a second session with Hunter and Macha and got home after dark. My puppy sitter had been by twice to visit Xita and the puppies and all had gone well. Despite the speeding ticket I got on the way home, it was a *very good* day.

Too nice a day for this

Musket almost just killed Macha. I don't mean that as hyperbole, I mean it literally. When I got out there, she was lying still and had begun to lose consciousness.

Musket has no ears. These pictures took a lot of bribing.

They had been in the front yard for maybe 15 minutes. I was inside on my computer, working. I heard snarling and knew immediately it wasn't play growling.




I took a quick look out the window and saw Musket standing over Macha, she appeared to be submitting to him. She doesn't submit to him--she beats her brother up when he goes for her ball. There was no more fighting. But I took off running to the back door anyway, I knew what had happened. I should have stopped for the scissors in the kitchen, but I didn't.

It's only shocking they don't all look like this.

When I got to them, Macha had blood on her tongue and her muzzle was being held in Musket's mouth. She was limp but watching. He was bleeding from the mouth too, and her collar was wrapped around his lower jaw. Yes, I knew that could happen. I've heard stories. I knew he liked to grab collars when playing. He grabbed, she jumped and twisted, and suddenly they were in a lethal tangle. I knew this could happen.

Naked dogs, no collars.

But that didn't matter right then; right then, I had to get her free before she died from lack of blood to her brain and lack of oxygen to her lungs. How does one do that? Well, there would have been no way except that Musket was a good boy--he let me push his head closer to her neck and somehow I managed to get enough slack to get the slimed and bloody collar off his lower jaw, freeing  her to breathe, to live. 



He stood up and backed off, somewhat cowed by the incident; she got up and moved off, weaving, not trotting in a straight line. I went and sat on the steps and they both came to me for comfort. She was cautious of him, and he of her. The took a few laps of water and leaned on me a bit. She reached over and licked his muzzle a couple of times, checking in--all is well, all is forgiven.



Musket's jaw isn't broken, but his gums are bleeding a little. Macha seems to have bitten her tongue but no other wounds. He's got a little bit of blood on his ruff, his cheeks; she's got mud on her forehead and muzzle. I get mud and blood and slobber on my hands as I run my hands over them, checking for injuries

It's all very exciting to Musket.

I took their collars off, both of them.


They are living beings, things happen. But I knew of the hazard, except for that moment this morning when I opened the door and let them out together, collars on.  Did I forget, did I think it wouldn't happen? It doesn't matter. It doesn't take long for disaster and then there's no fixing things.

 
I am glad I heard that few seconds of serious snarling. I'm glad I recognized it. I'm glad I wasn't in the bathroom or out by the kennels. I'm glad the TV was off and no music was playing.


I need to remember this. As it is, I have blood on my hands this morning.

Musket's ready to get on with things. Macha's wondering how many cookies I have left.

Roughousing Around

I always recommend not trying to raise two pups from the same litter. They can so easily become utterly dependent on each other for support and confidence, and you have to work hard to make sure they have sufficient interest in interacting with the human members of their family. So, by and large, Macha and Musket don't hang out together much--usually walked separately and traveling separately and definitely socialized separately.

But every now and then, they get together for a play session or just for a daily walk. Monday they got together for a photo session after not having seen each other in more than a week. It was all hugs and kisses and widespread mayhem.

Mouth hug!

Chicken?

I think this is called an "oh shit" moment.

(with Oda? chasing along behind)

A Visit to the Manor of Mixed Blessings--and introducing Xita!

On Saturday, I took Macha (Musket's lesser-known sister) over to visit the Manor of Mixed Blessings, complete with Macha's big sister Zille (formerly known as Kari), doberfriends, and some excellent human company for myself. There are more pictures at the Manor blog, so click through to read more. Macha learned to play bitey face and how to empty a baby pool of water. She tasted cherry tomatoes (odd, she thought) and blueberries, which she liked, although she made faces at the tartness. She also got to play with a very small cat with a very big personality, and she walked UNDER a Doberman. It was an excellent adventure for Macha--and not too bad for me either. :)

At some point in the afternoon, I introduced Andrea to my new dog. My mom said, "ohhh, you didn't!" But yes, yes I did--I got a new girl, straight from Germany. She was too special to pass up. And so, V-Xita v Ludwigseck, KK1a, Sch1, has come to the United States. She flew in on Friday and has been adapting well, although she's not sure yet that I'm good for much more than butt scritches and nommy foods. Xita, and her bloodlines, is a bit of a change for me, a step forward, I think, introducing some excellent new lines to my current bloodlines. I hope to improve overall conformation in my dogs and introduce Xita's steadiness of temperament. She's 100% DDR lines, known for big heads and bones, medium size with strong builds, good overall conformation, and high intelligence and practical working ability. She's a beautiful girl and an incredible mover without being extreme. Even her Koer report comments on her good movement, "sehr gut Gangwerk."

Andrea was kind and patient enough to let me stack Xita in her front yard while she took an exorbitant amount of pictures (at my request! just a couple more, OK??). Xita was very good for the first 10 minutes then decided that this really sucked.

So far, she's fitting in well--she's met the cats and the terriers and Coal with no incidents and she's sniffed Nike through the gate. I'm limiting her interaction with my other dogs for now--I want her to settle in and be comfortable here. She's very alert and watchful of everything new, but very confident and calm. Just assessing and observing so far. I like her lots!

(more pictures here)

And that's good, because she's pregnant! She was bred in Germany to V Laruh v Grafental, KK1a, SchH3. This is a 100% DDR breeding, linebred on some very good DDR dogs. I've already got a lot of interest in this litter, so I'll start taking deposits in a few more weeks, as soon as I am *positive* she's pregnant.

Her litter will be born in early July, which means I'll have a plethora of puppies this summer. That's a first for me--I very rarely have more than one litter a year, much less more than one at a time!

Since Hunter will be in the office with her puppies, I think Xita's pups will be born in my bedroom. I do love the white-noise murmur of nursing newborn pups. But, I guess I'll adapt as needed. As long as both girls are comfortable and feel secure, I think the actual location matters little to them. But that is the first goal--security and comfort for the mommas and their babies.