Round 2: Buck 2 - Sheep 0

Well, we passed our second round of qualifications and Buck now has his AKC Herding Tested title. He shall henceforth be known as Sir Buck of Anchorage. All hail, Sir Buck!



He did a pretty good job on Sunday, except he kept splitting the sheep, which means that instead of going on the outside to push them to me when they were acting up, he'd zoom in between them and scatter one away from me. Not sure what was up with that- he's never done that in practice. So, it was either my nerves bleeding onto him and making him nutty or a new bad habit we'll need to break. That tends to happen though. As the dog gains experience, it also picks up bad habits that you have to get them to knock off. I've watched this with many of the other dogs in practices and just wondered when it'd be our turn for that nonsense. Heh!

One of my friends from my dog group came to watch us Sunday with his wife and made a video for me. Here's that:



Oh, and to give some background on what the Herding Test is, here's what you are supposed to do: 1. Put your dog in a stay (with the sheep in the ring) 2. Have your dog gather them to you showing some level of control. Because it's the beginner level, you can help your dog by going toward the sheep so they don't have to work as hard. Most dogs confidence at this level isn't great, so you don't want them to fail and then get discouraged or worry the sheep because they get frustrated. 3. Walk in a controlled manner with the sheep next to the handler and change direction three times. This involves getting the sheep as close to cones on either end of the field as possible. How close depends on the judge, but the rules say you just have to change direction. 4. Put your dog in a stay and then have it come to you.

We had some trouble with that on Sunday because the first time I tried to get him to come, the sheep were still really close and he also learned from Friday's run that once he came to me, he wouldn't get to herd anymore. That's not much of a reason to want to come. Heh! When we would work on our 'come's at practice, he'd always get the reward of getting to herd the sheep more after he came to me. Otherwise they learn that if they come, the fun is over. Obviously, they learn that fast. :D

Anyway, that's our first step done. We've got a herding clinic with one of the judges tomorrow, so we'll learn some new stuff and have a new set of eyes instructing us. Then, it's back to practising to see if we'll be good enough for the next trial in September. I'll post some vids of a Samoyed, a German Shepherd and a Rottweiler herding this week.

Round one- Buck 1 - Sheep 0

Buck qualified for the first leg of his AKC Herding Tested title. He was a little nutty, pushing the sheep into running more than he's ever done, but he still did really well, kept good control of them and had a perfect 'come' to me away from them. Our run wasn't very long, so the video is pretty short - about three minutes or so (short is good). That can be found here:



I was telling my loser brother Eric that Buck just has to do good on Sunday to get his title and Eric (and my non-loser Aunt Sue) both said, 'so is he a Duke or an Earl then?' Heh! No, it just means that the AKC thinks he's awesome and if he was some fancy dog with papers and such, he'd have letters at the end of his name.

The judge also said that he was an 'excellent, excellent dog' and that he was one of the best dogs out there today (in our HT class). Good stuff! We'll let you know on Sunday if the dog below will be known as Sir Buck of Anchorage. I think he looks pretty regal.



Also, this is a link to the video I made of one of my herding buddies, Doug, and his cattle dog, Tucker, doing their PT (Pre-Trial) Test. That's the step above us and it's what we'll be trying for this Fall if everything goes well. Tucker did real well at it- they started training last summer and got their HT last Fall.

Herding trials this weekend

I had to take a minute to brag about my dog. Hee! Last night we went to our final herding practice before our trials coming up on Friday and Sunday. Buck's been doing well, but it's tough for me to describe what he does and why he looks better at it than some of the other dogs out there. My instructor, who breeds cattle dogs very well- she even has a grandkid who is a Cruft's Best of Breed- mentioned last night that she wishes she had a dog in her kennel that could wear stock like Buck does. Wearing is when you are walking with the sheep next to you and the dog is keeping them there by walking behind them.

It sounds pretty easy, but a lot of the dogs will get too jumpy and scare the sheep, or be too close and 'push' the sheep which makes them move too fast, or they get bored with it and don't focus well enough and the sheep get away from you. Buck is really serious about it- he has his tail down (when a cattle dog is playful and excited their tail is up) and his head down and just walks along behind them, or comes slowly up beside them if they are getting too far left or right, then he goes back behind.

Anyway, it's cool that this lady, who has seen so many herding dogs, thinks Buck is good. She thinks that we'll have no problems getting our next title at all (that would be the PT- we're going for his HT, or Herding Test, this weekend).

Oh, and he's also getting good at force barking. That's what a dog will do when a sheep challenges him instead of nipping. You don't want a dog barking constantly, but if they can get the sheep to do what they want with a few sharp barks, that's a good thing. Buck hasn't been confident enough until recently to get up in a sheep's face and make it do what he wants, so that was an awesome breakthrough.

Busy summer

Man, I can't believe it's been a month since I posted last. Yikes! My schedule has been pretty packed and when it hasn't, some vital lying about has been necessary. Heh! I still need to post some scenery pictures from my Memorial Day trip and talk about that, but since I don't have those handy, I'll just update about everything that's been going on since then.

Buck and I have been stepping up his herding practice. We are entered into a competition on the 4th and 6th of July and that's coming up fast. We will be trying for his Herding Test title which is step one of the AKC trials. Here's the basics of what you and the dog have to do: sit and stay before going into the ring- put the dog in a stay once in the ring- walk close to the sheep and then release the dog and have them bring the sheep to you (called a gather)- walk in a figure 8 around two cones about 80 ft apart three times in a row without the sheep going on the inside of the cones- then you have to stop the sheep, walk away from them and call your dog to you.

We do great on everything but that last one. At first Buck wouldn't even look at me, he'd just stare at the sheep even though he was in a down-stay. Now, he'll glance at me, but when I say 'come' but then the sheep move, he runs to go get them. We've been working on pretty much nothing but that for the last two practice sessions and he's doing better, but he just comes close to me and then wants to take off to the sheep again. Sort of like, 'ok, see, I came like you told me to. Now can I go get my sheep?'

This weekend I have my fishing trip down to Homer. I'll be loading up on Dramamine and taking a cooler of energy drinks to try to kill off the drowsiness. We get to the dock at 3pm Saturday, fish til we catch our limit or it hits midnight, and then we start again and fish until we get our limit or it hits 6 am which is when we stop to go back to shore. We should get to the dock by 9am or so, get our fish cleaned and packaged, and then head home. I may be taking a nap in the truck before attempting the four hour drive back home- we'll see how much sleep I get on the boat. We're fishing for rockfish, halibut and some fish I've never heard of before.

It's to the point now that it's light out all night long. It started out being like a dark dusk- when you can see just a bit of the sun left on the horizon. But now it's like the sun has just gone past the horizon-like light enough to still play ball. Speaking of which, none of the ball diamonds here have lights. There's just no need because by April (which still isn't warm enough to play yet), it's light until 9pm.

You'd think that after a while the sunlight would stop amazing me, but that hasn't happened yet. Luckily, my bedroom is shaded and south facing, so it gets the least amount of light(since the sun travels from W-SW to West to North to East-you can watch it move along the horizon). That also keeps it cooler than the living room which has a whole wall of west facing windows. I put up this film that blocks 50% of the heat out, but it's still massively hot in there. Well, really it's probably only about 70 degrees, but when it's in the high 50s outside and that feels good and you walk inside where it's 15 degrees hotter, it feels hot. My main problem is not having any screens to put on the windows so that I can have them open. Plus, only one of the windows in the living room opens.

I bought kits to make the screens, but the hacksaw I bought to cut the frames just bent the heck out of the first one I tried to cut. So, I need to mark a couple and take them to Lowes and see if their folks can cut them better with their machines. Once I have the screens in and fans placed in front of four of my five windows, it'll stay a lot cooler in my house. I need to get that accomplished Saturday morning. I may attempt to get at least two made this week, but I've got something going on each night, so I'm not sure I'll be able to manage it.

Ok, hopefully there will be pictures of scenery and Buck herding this week and pictures of all the halibut I caught up by Sunday night.

Spring at last

Break-up has been over with for a while now and it finally feels like Spring is here. Now, granted I think most people are on their way into Summer, but I think we're a few weeks away from that. Maybe by mid-June.

It was nice after the heat of California to get back to the nice, cool weather up here. But my class was good and I got to visit with my Aunt Janice, Uncle Bud and cousin Mark while I was in CA. Was great to see them- I think it's been about ten years since I saw them last.

I got back home at 2 a.m. Saturday morning and saw a moose chomping on some grass as the cab drove by. Then I saw another one swimming in Westchester Lagoon later in the morning when I went to pick Buck up. Oh, and I saw a Dahl sheep on the way home from my hike Saturday evening. So, the animals are definitely out enjoying the weather.

Buck and I went hiking up Bird Ridge down by the Turnagain Arm (about 25 miles south of Anchorage on the Seward Hwy). We mainly went to test out my knee to see if it can handle a steep hike since we're headed to Denali next weekend for hiking and such. I went to the doctor and got an MRI and it turns out that my meniscus is just strained, not torn. So, great news because now I don't have to let it slow me down. He also basically told me that my knees aren't in good shape (not surprising considering all the sports and running and hiking I've done in the last 32 years) and that eventually I'll probably tear the meniscus or my cartilage will crap out on me or something. I pretty much stopped listening after, 'it's not a tear'.

Anyway, the knee fared well and is still not bothering me today, so it looks like I'm good to go.

The hike was a challenge- half of it was moderate, but the second half was up a goat trail and the footing wasn't stellar. The mosquitos are also out already even though we have yet to see 60 degrees. Since they only swarmed when you stood still, they definitely helped me keep moving. Heh! Here's a picture of Chugach's interior and a link to the rest of the pictures. I took two sets of panorama style, so you have to scroll through them in order to get the full effect.

Plans!

I've suddenly realized that the summer is fast approaching and that I need to get off my duff on making some plans for/with my friends that are coming up to visit. Chris (my sister) spoiled me by requiring no assistance other than checking out a couple B&Bs in town, so when people were like, 'so, what's cool to do?' I'm pretty much coming up blank. LOL! I've been up here three and a half months, but it's been all about unpacking and settling in and getting used to a new job, etc. Plus, the kind of things you can do in the winter are a bit different than what you can do in the summer.

After getting recommendations from the folks that have lived up here for forever, the consensus tends to be that Denali and Seward are two things that you have to do when you come up. There are many other cool things that you *can* do, but I'm also keeping in mind that my friends are budget oriented since they are young and most are still paying off school/new houses/the plane ticket up here, etc. So, yeah, knowing that, Seward and Denali are still good choices with a little Chugach hiking thrown in the mix.

Since I'm going along to do things with each of them, I've been trying to help map out a bit of their trip without being overbearing and making decisions for everyone. LOL! When my friend Jen comes up for Memorial Day, we're going to Denali on Friday and Saturday and then probably Seward on Monday. My friend Ang did Seward research for me on tours there. She's going to hit up a day trip on her own and then we're going to go hike and tour Denali for three days, including camping here:



That's McKinley on the right in case you were wondering. LOL! It's tough to miss. I got that all booked plus the night before booked at the Dome Home up in Healy. We're going to drive up of an evening and sleep over in Healy so that we can get an early start and hopefully get an awesome camp site the next morning.

I sent my buddy Tim a bunch of links, but I think I should have been shooting them to him a lot earlier since they are coming up in July which tends to be the busiest month according to all the B&Bs I was calling, trying to find a room for them. Mental note to let folks know to book crazy mad early- like five months out. It's kinda nuts, but when there are minimal places to stay, only a three month season, and lots of people coming up, you have to book way earlier than you would for anything else.

My fishing trip is still on for June, so my freezer will hopefully be stocked when most of the folks come up and I'll have had a chance to try a couple different ways of cooking the rockfish and halibut. I've nearly finished the paint job on my guest room and the bathroom is next. That'll happen next weekend when I get back from Anaheim and the woodwork and doors to both rooms will have to get painted that weekend, too. Lots to do, lots to do!

At least all the chores will keep me from hiking on my bum knee on the weekends. The brace that the doc gave me helps, but I need to get an MRI scheduled to see how bad it is. Here's hoping for a sprain so that the surgery doesn't screw up my summer. Ugh. I have plans, darn it! I don't have time to be hurt. Stupid surfing. I blame Hawaii for this.

This is awesome!

Ok, this has nothing to do with me or Alaska, but I had to pass it along. Even if you hate sports, this will warm the cockles of your heart. *This* is one of the important lessons I learned from being a jock all my life- sportsmanship (I also learned teamwork and how to be a good winner and a good loser). These are some classy broads, right here. I mean, wow!

'Unbelievable' softball play

And, yeah, they may have lost that playoff, but that won't be what everyone on that field remembers in twenty years. They'll just remember that they witnessed a perfect, golden moment. They may not have won the game, bu they definitely won something much more important.