Suzi, the neighbor girl came over yesterday to work with Oakley and I took advantage of the decent weather and let her ride. Thought I would jump on Willie bareback, see how that went.
I told Suzi that she might see a rodeo as Willie had never been ridden bareback to my knowledge and I was not sure how he was going to be. He did OK, not great. He wanted to buck a couple times but I kept him under control.. had to spank him on the neck a few times and he did attempt to buck/kick at Oakley so I went a little "monkey-on-his-ass" and smacked the heck out of him and atop his head between the ears.. Not sure if it hurt his head or my hand worse! lol
As we walked around the little round pen, all the sudden Oakley started to act up. He spun around and was acting very flighty. I was nervous for Suzi at this point because Oakely was not himself. I looked off to the woods, didnt see anything that could be spooking him. So I jumped off Willie and grabbed hold of Oakley. By this time he is really worked up about something and I told her to just hold on, I would get him under control so she could get off. I realized that Oakley was getting worked up over the pile of poop that Willie had just dumped a minute earlier. So I led him over to it and let him sniff it out, but then he went right to eating it! WTF!!! I jerked his head up and he got pretty mad that I was not going to let him eat the poo.. I got him halted long enough to get Suzi off, gave her Willie to lead away and proceeded to spank the hell out of Oakley who was acting obsessed about this poop. He wanted that pile so badly, he was going to battle me over it and I really had to work to keep him focused on me and not the poop. After a couple minutes I got on him and rode him around, he was still battling me when I rode by the poop and he tried to buck/rear, I had no stirrups so I about came off but I worked it out and finally after 5 minutes, he calmed down and would walk past the pile w/o making a bee-line straight to it with his face!
Once we got back up to his corral, his attitude was back to care-free, so I asked Suzi to get back on and ride him around for a few minutes. I did NOT want her to end her riding session on such a sour note, she needed to have a good ride on him so she wouldnt focus on the bad. I am thinking it is time I consider having her parents sign a waiver because you just never know when a horse is going to be so stupid over something so unpredictable! Who would have thought??
It only took me a few seconds to realize why he wanted that poop so bad! I have been feeding Willie alfalfa pellets every day to help him put on weight, but Oakley gets none of it. Well apparently fat Oakley thinks he is starving and MUST HAVE ALFALFA, and is willing to do whatever it takes to eat it! Damn horses...
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Atta Boy!!!
Yep, that's right... 2 ribbons means 2 passes for the weekend!! We are so proud of our little Coopey! :)The Hunt Test was down in Deer Island OR which is about 20 minutes SE from Longview.. the same general area where Cooper was trained last year. We decided to take all 3 dogs with us, even though we knew it was going to be a hassle but we wanted Ellie & Russell along to keep Cooper company and assure him that this was going to be a fun trip and not a stressful one. We pulled into the test grounds at 11:05 pm on Friday evening! There were other campers there, we hoped we made a quiet enough entrance that we didnt stir up dogs and wake anyone.
It poured almost all night and was still raining the next morning. The week prior I was having some anxiety about doing the tests with Cooper, I was a little nervous and felt a bit awkward about it all. But as the morning got under way, I was feeling just fine. I was prepared with rain pants and a poncho; ready to run our dog, hoping for the best but expecting nothing!
Our first session on Saturday was water. The first bird he did well... his second bird he started to swim out to where the duck landed but then he veared off course and started swimming towards the decoy ducks. I thought to myself "Oh shit! This is going to get ugly"... He approached the decoy, sniffed it out, realized right away it was not his bird and he literally did a 180 and bolted over to the real bird. Which showed me he knew EXACTLY where the bird was, he just needed to trust his own judgement and trust the straight line I sent him on. I was super excited because overall he did better than I had hoped!
In the afternoon, our land retrieves were okay.. He marked the birds perfectly, meaning he watched the bird until it hit the ground and upon release, he went straight to the birds. BUT he did not want to pick them up. I had to really work to get him to pick up the first bird, LOTS of praise and encouragement and I kept saying "Cooper Fetch it Up".. When I would say that, he would look at the bird and then pop his head up and look at me as if it say "Repeat Piper, I'm not sure I understood the command" so I would say again "Fetch it up" and he would look down at the bird and quickly back up at me... "Really?? You want me to pick up what?" .. "Cooper, Fetch it up" .. "Nah, how about I go walk around a little and leave that for the next dog".. When he did that, I took a deep breathe, and stood there in silence for a few seconds. I didnt want to be harping on him and I needed the break to gather my patience (which I was not loosing at all, I just was trying to figure out what else I could say to him to get him to WANT to pick up that damn bird!) LOL He didnt wander for long or very far, just a few seconds is all.. It took him a minute or two to FINALLY pick it up and bring it to me. The second bird was not quite as dawnting of a task, but he still needed the encouragement.
I was so excited because we felt pretty good about the possibility of getting a pass.. and sure enough that evening during the awards ceremony, Cooper received his first pass and ribbon! Derek and I were very proud of him... He did so good and he was happy. The other exciting part of the awards ceremony that night was that Coopers daddy Earl had earned his 1005th point that day!! which is a MAJOR MAJOR accomplishment. He is the 1st dog (of all breeds) that was born, raised and started in our region to achieve 1,000 points!!!
Earlier in the day we were all pooped and needed to dry off, so we layed down and napped for a while, waiting on our fellow dog friends to finish with their tests.
Sunday was a semi-dry day and this time we started with Land first. Pretty much the same scenario as the day before with our land. We had new judges this day so they were seeing our dog for the first time. He needed a bit more encouragement to pick up the bird on Sunday but he did it!! On his first retrieve he stopped to pee on his way back BUT he kept that bird in his mouth the whole time. And on his second retrieve he stopped to poop on his way back, again keeping ahold of the bird which is a huge accomplishment for Cooper. He KNOWS what he is supposed to do, but still has issues with fetching up birds.. :)
Our water retrieves which I thought would be easy-peazy were not quite what I expected from Cooper. By this time the birds are getting pretty well used and I became quite concerned when I realized the birds were sitting VERY LOW in the water. So on both his water retrieves, he did not trust the line I sent him on and he veared off course, searching all around trying to find the bird. The exciting part of it all was that the water was not very deep so at times he was walking in belly high water and because he couldnt see the bird, he started to use his nose to find the bird. It was really cool to watch him sniff the top of the water trying to catch wind of the bird! and sure enough, he did! It is hard to explain the excitement and joy of watching your dog accomplish things you were not sure he would.
We were a little concerned he might not pass Sunday's test, because it was sloppy on both land and water, but the objective is for the dog to "mark" the bird and bring the bird back. He did that, although not perfectly. Actually during the water test, the judge was standing behind me and when Cooper veared off course away from the bird, the judge grumbled under his breathe because he saw what I did which was a very low bird in the water and he knew it was going to be an issue so I believe they gave some lee-way in their judging based on the difficulty of the birds. But at the end of our test, he qualified for another pass!
We were SOOO happy with Cooper over the weekend and I was proud of myself for doing it. Once I got Cooper to the line to run his retrieves, I had NO nerves or anxiety at all.. I was calm cool and collected actually, which was a little bit of a suprise. I was a little nervous waiting my turn in line, but at that line it all dissappeared and I just did what I had to, to get Cooper to retrieve those birds. Cooper's original trainer Butch was there that weekend, although he didnt get to see Cooper run, he seemed quite happy to hear Cooper got his first 2 passes!
We have some work to do and will probably try to get Cooper in another hunt test in August or September. Our goal is to get his Started Title this year so we can focus on Seasoned for next year. He will need 2 more passes to get his title. :)
The newest silly thing for Cooper is car rides.. He used to hunker down and travel laying down, never wanting to sit up and see the sights. Now that almost every car ride we take him on leads to water retrieves of some sort, he spends the entire ride looking out the windows, moving back/forth from left to right rear windows, waiting to see water! And when he sees water, whether it be a pond, lake, river, puddle.. He gets over-excited!! He has yelped, but typically he perks up, stands on the window ledge and digs/paws at the window to get out.. He is SO excited to see water and thinks we should stop at EVERY water he sees! It's quite comical..
Thursday, June 21, 2012
I see Light!
It is so easy for frustration to take over your mind that you have to work hard to take a deep breathe, take a step back and be okay with it all.
I was concerned that working Cooper so much this week was going to set him back but it appears I was wrong and as the week goes on, the drive in him seems to be increasing! We've been doing little tricks that may or may not be the reason he is doing better. From information we have gathered via web threads online and then our own ideas on how to work our dog, its paying off!
We've had him out at the pond every afternoon and he is really doing great in water. He brings the bird all the way out of the water up to us, he wiggles and prances around us, happy to show us what he's got! In the mornings, I throw the bird around the yard in a more playful manner and progressively every day he is getting better at just picking up the bird and bringing it to me. I've even let Ellie & Russell out while I am doing this because that seemed to help, he has competition for getting the bird and it put more desire in him to keep the bird from Ellie. Ellie is MORE than happy to pick up the bird, it is funny to see my little Aussie try to steal his bird and get angry at him when he gets it away from her. They are not fighting over it, but using the other 2 dogs really seems to be helping.
At home with his bones, when he is super excited to show us his bone, he whines.. Just this morning for the first time, he whined just a tiny bit when he was showing me his duck. THAT was an amazing difference in him because he is finally getting excited about the birds in his mouth. Yesterday we were throwing a water logged bird and on the 4th water retrieve, he swam right to the duck but it was 95% under water and when he got too close, the bird went under. Cooper kept circling and circling the spot where that bird was but I think he was then pushing it further and further under water and it never popped back up! It took a long time to get Cooper out of the water, he was not about to give up on finding that bird and I think he finally got so frustrated that he found a stick in the water and brought that back to me instead... It was not a good way to end the session (we had no other birds to throw for him) but it was great to see him so eager to find that darn bird.
I did talk with the local trainer who is on the same page as us, I liked him very much over the phone and feel he will be a great tool for us to move forward. He wants to get Cooper on some live birds and thinks the adrenaline of a live bird will really jump start his drive and get him to finally have that "click" moment we've been trying for.
I was concerned that working Cooper so much this week was going to set him back but it appears I was wrong and as the week goes on, the drive in him seems to be increasing! We've been doing little tricks that may or may not be the reason he is doing better. From information we have gathered via web threads online and then our own ideas on how to work our dog, its paying off!
We've had him out at the pond every afternoon and he is really doing great in water. He brings the bird all the way out of the water up to us, he wiggles and prances around us, happy to show us what he's got! In the mornings, I throw the bird around the yard in a more playful manner and progressively every day he is getting better at just picking up the bird and bringing it to me. I've even let Ellie & Russell out while I am doing this because that seemed to help, he has competition for getting the bird and it put more desire in him to keep the bird from Ellie. Ellie is MORE than happy to pick up the bird, it is funny to see my little Aussie try to steal his bird and get angry at him when he gets it away from her. They are not fighting over it, but using the other 2 dogs really seems to be helping.
At home with his bones, when he is super excited to show us his bone, he whines.. Just this morning for the first time, he whined just a tiny bit when he was showing me his duck. THAT was an amazing difference in him because he is finally getting excited about the birds in his mouth. Yesterday we were throwing a water logged bird and on the 4th water retrieve, he swam right to the duck but it was 95% under water and when he got too close, the bird went under. Cooper kept circling and circling the spot where that bird was but I think he was then pushing it further and further under water and it never popped back up! It took a long time to get Cooper out of the water, he was not about to give up on finding that bird and I think he finally got so frustrated that he found a stick in the water and brought that back to me instead... It was not a good way to end the session (we had no other birds to throw for him) but it was great to see him so eager to find that darn bird.
I did talk with the local trainer who is on the same page as us, I liked him very much over the phone and feel he will be a great tool for us to move forward. He wants to get Cooper on some live birds and thinks the adrenaline of a live bird will really jump start his drive and get him to finally have that "click" moment we've been trying for.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Frustration....
We are trying very hard to not get frustrated, but it has not been easy! Ever since that hunt test, Cooper is really struggling with picking up birds.. We are not sure if it was the stress of Saturday that was put on him unknowingly or if he is just being stubborn and defiant or if he has just realized he hates the taste, texture, smell of ducks! Not knowing is not easy.
My guess is that the stress did not help and he has realized he doesnt love to pick up birds. I am worried we are working him too much with birds now and he is reverting back to his training memories. That is the LAST thing I want to do, is bring back bad memories because he is sensitive. Or is it that we saw him traumatized at one time, so we dont push him like we should?
Either way, I think its time to seek some professional advice. We are not willing to just put him in training, but mabye an outsider can provide some guidance for us as we try to navigate through this problem. Since he retrieves much better in water, for now we are going to only work him in water. Plus he LOVES to swim, so its a bonus and he always picks up the bird in the water.. He doesnt always bring it all the way out of the water, but its usually within easy reach.
We have him entered in a hunt test this weekend, I actually would like to drop him out of it, but Derek does not agree. I am worried he is not ready and why waste the time and money to fail. I personally think once it all clicks for Cooper, the exposure of going to new places etc will not even be an issue because he'll be so happy to be doing it. I am thinking that because we are working him daily at this point, it's just too much and we need to work with baby steps instead of setting him up to fail. We've had opinions cast at us from both sides.. some agree with Derek, some agree with me.
I do see in Cooper though his willingness to shut down if we try too hard to force the issue. Some opinions to us have been that he needs to redo his "force fetch" program, but thats exactly what it is... Force! You force the dog to pick up & hold something until you tell him to let go. Its an issue of obedience in the eyes of many. But I dont want to force him to do anything (although when I reach my highest frustration levels, I feel like shoving that damn bird down his throat)! :) He should WANT to do this and should do it because he loves us and loves all the positive attention he gets. It is not the fastest route to go, it definately is the more frustrating route but I dont see any other options that Cooper will respond to. Maybe the local trainer will have some better ideas...
My guess is that the stress did not help and he has realized he doesnt love to pick up birds. I am worried we are working him too much with birds now and he is reverting back to his training memories. That is the LAST thing I want to do, is bring back bad memories because he is sensitive. Or is it that we saw him traumatized at one time, so we dont push him like we should?
Either way, I think its time to seek some professional advice. We are not willing to just put him in training, but mabye an outsider can provide some guidance for us as we try to navigate through this problem. Since he retrieves much better in water, for now we are going to only work him in water. Plus he LOVES to swim, so its a bonus and he always picks up the bird in the water.. He doesnt always bring it all the way out of the water, but its usually within easy reach.
We have him entered in a hunt test this weekend, I actually would like to drop him out of it, but Derek does not agree. I am worried he is not ready and why waste the time and money to fail. I personally think once it all clicks for Cooper, the exposure of going to new places etc will not even be an issue because he'll be so happy to be doing it. I am thinking that because we are working him daily at this point, it's just too much and we need to work with baby steps instead of setting him up to fail. We've had opinions cast at us from both sides.. some agree with Derek, some agree with me.
I do see in Cooper though his willingness to shut down if we try too hard to force the issue. Some opinions to us have been that he needs to redo his "force fetch" program, but thats exactly what it is... Force! You force the dog to pick up & hold something until you tell him to let go. Its an issue of obedience in the eyes of many. But I dont want to force him to do anything (although when I reach my highest frustration levels, I feel like shoving that damn bird down his throat)! :) He should WANT to do this and should do it because he loves us and loves all the positive attention he gets. It is not the fastest route to go, it definately is the more frustrating route but I dont see any other options that Cooper will respond to. Maybe the local trainer will have some better ideas...
Friday, June 15, 2012
Big Willie Style..
I've had Willie home for 2 weeks now, I can hardly believe time has flown by so quickly! He is laid back, mellow and easy going.. just like I had hoped he would be when I first decided to buy him. He might actually be the horse I envisioned.. Only time will tell but so far so good.
He is a little thin, so I'm working to build his weight back up. I LOVE Shannon to pieces, but she keeps her horses thinner than I like so my focus is letting him have a mental break so he can really appreciate his new comfy life! He is an asshole at feeding time, kicks the wall if Oakley gets too close and almost every day at about 5am, he and Oakley must get to playing a little between their stalls because he kicks the barn wall and wakes me up damn near daily! :) His ground manners have been really great though. He still has some young horse attitude about a few things like picking up his feet, but that will all come in time and is easy to deal with.
We hauled up to Mann Rd on Sunday to go on our first trail ride since having him home. I hadnt been on him in over a month and my last ride on him was at Shannons, a windy rainy night inwhich he was a huge asshole.. so I was a bit apprehensive about my first ride on him even telling Derek on the drive to Sultan that if he doesnt work out by the end of the year, I'm not keeping him. Even with my slight nerves, he did AWESOME!! He tried to act a little green a couple times, but nothing I couldnt handle... He was not the same horse I had ridden a month earlier. We had a very nice 1.5hr ride with Kathy & Leanne, I cant wait to get out again!
Willie doesnt love the goats, he tolerates them normally but at feeding time, they have learned they cannot go anywhere near his stall if they want to keep their heads.. Literally!! I've seen him kick out at them when they've crossed the feeding line, scares the shit outta me that he's gonna kill one but goats are not dumb and they have quickly learned where that invisible line is!
He is a little thin, so I'm working to build his weight back up. I LOVE Shannon to pieces, but she keeps her horses thinner than I like so my focus is letting him have a mental break so he can really appreciate his new comfy life! He is an asshole at feeding time, kicks the wall if Oakley gets too close and almost every day at about 5am, he and Oakley must get to playing a little between their stalls because he kicks the barn wall and wakes me up damn near daily! :) His ground manners have been really great though. He still has some young horse attitude about a few things like picking up his feet, but that will all come in time and is easy to deal with.
We hauled up to Mann Rd on Sunday to go on our first trail ride since having him home. I hadnt been on him in over a month and my last ride on him was at Shannons, a windy rainy night inwhich he was a huge asshole.. so I was a bit apprehensive about my first ride on him even telling Derek on the drive to Sultan that if he doesnt work out by the end of the year, I'm not keeping him. Even with my slight nerves, he did AWESOME!! He tried to act a little green a couple times, but nothing I couldnt handle... He was not the same horse I had ridden a month earlier. We had a very nice 1.5hr ride with Kathy & Leanne, I cant wait to get out again!
Willie doesnt love the goats, he tolerates them normally but at feeding time, they have learned they cannot go anywhere near his stall if they want to keep their heads.. Literally!! I've seen him kick out at them when they've crossed the feeding line, scares the shit outta me that he's gonna kill one but goats are not dumb and they have quickly learned where that invisible line is!
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Coopers First Hunt Test
It was a last minute decision to run Cooper at the Quilcene Hunt Test on June 9th, but we wanted to see how he was going to do; unfortunately 3:30am was not exactly what I had in mind for a Saturday morning wake up, but thats what we had to do to get to the ferry terminal on time!!
The tests are run in 2 sections, Land & Water with 2 retrieves per section. You have to pass both sections to get an official PASS on the Hunt Test. Cooper was entered in the "Started" Division and will have to get 4 seperate Passes total, to earn his Started Title and then move up to the next level. You can only run your dog one time per test and there is only 1 test per day. We had paid just to run Cooper at the Saturday test and had not planned to run him on Sunday.
On Saturday, As the first duck was thrown for the Land Session, Cooper's attention was all in when the bird hit the ground. Upon release, Cooper ran straight to the bird, picked it up and started to come back to Derek..... BUT.... Then he stopped! The small crowd of spectators took a gasp of breath and said things like "oh no" "common Cooper" (under their breaths of course as to not interfere with the test). He was very reluctant to pick up the bird again, he is now plucking feathers out with his mouth, he starts to gag, he is shaking the bird, he then pukes on (or right next to) the bird... about 7 minutes into this, Cooper FINALLY brings the bird back to Derek!! Good boy!
As the second bird is thrown, Cooper again watches very intently and runs straight to the bird when released... He picks it up right away (YES, I am thinking in my mind) but then he veers off course and heads over to the area he had the first bird, he drops it and proceeds to start the same shinanigans all over again... At this point, Derek realizes he's not gonna get Cooper back in a timely manner and has to walk out and get the duck, therefore disqualifying his dog from the test.
What a bummer! We were pretty dissappointed but our new Boykin friends assured us that it was OK and that you cant expect perfection with the first test. Derek decided to go ahead and run Cooper in the 2nd section anyways, Water.. we had already paid our fees for the day and it was good practice at this point. Cooper did AWESOME in the water! He swam to both birds and brought them straight back to Derek. It was encouraging to see since the morning land session was so terrible. Many encouraged us to come back the next day and enter him into the Sunday Test, so we did.
Sunday was a new Day! We left our stress and worries back in Saturday and decided there was no pressure or outside influences to frazzle up the day and we were just going to have some fun. Cooper was eager to get going that morning, he wanted to go!! On our ferry ride and as we drove over a huge bridge, Cooper was antsy in the back seat as he stared out at the water, he wanted to swim!
Sunday's test was in a new location and this time they did the water session first. Cooper retrieved his first water duck perfectly; however the second duck was not thrown well and the bird got sucked back up against the shore, making it difficult for Cooper to see the bird once he started swimming.. so he lost the bird and swam in circles for quite some time. Derek started to instruct Cooper on where the bird was located, therefore again disqualifying himself. Because we are new, we didnt realize the manner inwhich he instructed Cooper was not good enough to pass their standards and although Cooper did find the bird and bring it back, it was too late. In our minds, Cooper passed and we felt it was an unfair scenario that Cooper was put it, but oh well.. Derek decided to run the Land session with Cooper and he did that okay, retrieving both birds with only minimal issues.
So it was a frustrating and dissappointing weekend, but Cooper learned a lot and got his first tests under his paw and we learned a lot as well on where we need to focus our training with him. We met a lot of new people and grew more excited about future tests with our dog.
A week later our Hunt Club had a practice day (they are held in Monroe, which is REALLY great!!). He did OK on land retrieves, he was still very reluctant to pick up the birds, and needed Derek to walk out to encourage him to pick them up. I ran Cooper for the water retrieves because Derek was helping to throw birds. It was a little exciting for me to get to run him.. Cooper did really good in the water! Amazing because the trainer that had him for 3 months told us that Cooper did not like water and he never was able to get him to retrieve a bird in water.. 8 months later his best retrieves are in water! :) Anyways, thats a big huge kudos to Derek & I, we have worked very hard to get Cooper to where he is at and will continue to use patience and understanding as our training guides and not force.
Cooper's drive is growing every time we get him out, his instinct is all coming back to him and sooner than later, we wont have these problems. Cooper did seem to respond better to my voice than to Dereks so at this point we have ordered me some camo clothes as I might be running him in future tests.. After another week of training, we'll evaluate who he seems to respond better to and go from there. We have taken away all his toy balls and are no longer practicing with plastic training bumpers. He ONLY gets to retrieve ducks at this point until he KNOWS and LOVES to pick up birds!! :) We have some frozen birds in our freezer and although they are more difficult to pick up, he is learning that if he wants to retrieve, he better get that bird!! Ideally the birds should not be frozen but sometimes it is easier than trying to defrost them every other day.
We have a good thing going with Cooper and are very optimistic that his next hunt test will be more successful and we might get a pass or two for him! :)
The tests are run in 2 sections, Land & Water with 2 retrieves per section. You have to pass both sections to get an official PASS on the Hunt Test. Cooper was entered in the "Started" Division and will have to get 4 seperate Passes total, to earn his Started Title and then move up to the next level. You can only run your dog one time per test and there is only 1 test per day. We had paid just to run Cooper at the Saturday test and had not planned to run him on Sunday.
On Saturday, As the first duck was thrown for the Land Session, Cooper's attention was all in when the bird hit the ground. Upon release, Cooper ran straight to the bird, picked it up and started to come back to Derek..... BUT.... Then he stopped! The small crowd of spectators took a gasp of breath and said things like "oh no" "common Cooper" (under their breaths of course as to not interfere with the test). He was very reluctant to pick up the bird again, he is now plucking feathers out with his mouth, he starts to gag, he is shaking the bird, he then pukes on (or right next to) the bird... about 7 minutes into this, Cooper FINALLY brings the bird back to Derek!! Good boy!
As the second bird is thrown, Cooper again watches very intently and runs straight to the bird when released... He picks it up right away (YES, I am thinking in my mind) but then he veers off course and heads over to the area he had the first bird, he drops it and proceeds to start the same shinanigans all over again... At this point, Derek realizes he's not gonna get Cooper back in a timely manner and has to walk out and get the duck, therefore disqualifying his dog from the test.
What a bummer! We were pretty dissappointed but our new Boykin friends assured us that it was OK and that you cant expect perfection with the first test. Derek decided to go ahead and run Cooper in the 2nd section anyways, Water.. we had already paid our fees for the day and it was good practice at this point. Cooper did AWESOME in the water! He swam to both birds and brought them straight back to Derek. It was encouraging to see since the morning land session was so terrible. Many encouraged us to come back the next day and enter him into the Sunday Test, so we did.
Sunday was a new Day! We left our stress and worries back in Saturday and decided there was no pressure or outside influences to frazzle up the day and we were just going to have some fun. Cooper was eager to get going that morning, he wanted to go!! On our ferry ride and as we drove over a huge bridge, Cooper was antsy in the back seat as he stared out at the water, he wanted to swim!
Sunday's test was in a new location and this time they did the water session first. Cooper retrieved his first water duck perfectly; however the second duck was not thrown well and the bird got sucked back up against the shore, making it difficult for Cooper to see the bird once he started swimming.. so he lost the bird and swam in circles for quite some time. Derek started to instruct Cooper on where the bird was located, therefore again disqualifying himself. Because we are new, we didnt realize the manner inwhich he instructed Cooper was not good enough to pass their standards and although Cooper did find the bird and bring it back, it was too late. In our minds, Cooper passed and we felt it was an unfair scenario that Cooper was put it, but oh well.. Derek decided to run the Land session with Cooper and he did that okay, retrieving both birds with only minimal issues.
So it was a frustrating and dissappointing weekend, but Cooper learned a lot and got his first tests under his paw and we learned a lot as well on where we need to focus our training with him. We met a lot of new people and grew more excited about future tests with our dog.
A week later our Hunt Club had a practice day (they are held in Monroe, which is REALLY great!!). He did OK on land retrieves, he was still very reluctant to pick up the birds, and needed Derek to walk out to encourage him to pick them up. I ran Cooper for the water retrieves because Derek was helping to throw birds. It was a little exciting for me to get to run him.. Cooper did really good in the water! Amazing because the trainer that had him for 3 months told us that Cooper did not like water and he never was able to get him to retrieve a bird in water.. 8 months later his best retrieves are in water! :) Anyways, thats a big huge kudos to Derek & I, we have worked very hard to get Cooper to where he is at and will continue to use patience and understanding as our training guides and not force.
Cooper's drive is growing every time we get him out, his instinct is all coming back to him and sooner than later, we wont have these problems. Cooper did seem to respond better to my voice than to Dereks so at this point we have ordered me some camo clothes as I might be running him in future tests.. After another week of training, we'll evaluate who he seems to respond better to and go from there. We have taken away all his toy balls and are no longer practicing with plastic training bumpers. He ONLY gets to retrieve ducks at this point until he KNOWS and LOVES to pick up birds!! :) We have some frozen birds in our freezer and although they are more difficult to pick up, he is learning that if he wants to retrieve, he better get that bird!! Ideally the birds should not be frozen but sometimes it is easier than trying to defrost them every other day.
We have a good thing going with Cooper and are very optimistic that his next hunt test will be more successful and we might get a pass or two for him! :)
Monday, June 4, 2012
Memorial Weekend
This is not how we had planned Memorial Weekend, but it's just the way it worked out!
The original plan was to haul the car on the flatbed over to Beavercreek (Twisp) to go camping with some horse club friends; we wanted to explore the area with no horses or dogs! Well the trailer floor is pretty weak these days and we couldnt get the lights to work (bad connection on our truck) so this is how we got there.. Derek drove the truck/camper and I followed in the car! lol
I did get GREAT gas mileage though as a bonus! I thought this was going to be my top MPG but I actually got up to 44.3 MPG. The car has only been getting about 27 city miles, but the other day I got a flat (damn screw) and Les Schwab checked all the tires.. they all had about 50lbs of pressure; factory settings indicate 35 is best, so they dropped the pressure and I am now getting 30+ city miles.. :)
We arrived on Thursday afternoon.. the next day Derek, Scott & Barbara hiked up a trail to do some clearing. The picture above is of the trail overlooking camp down below.. It is the same trail we rode 2 years prior, that had a lot of sage brush in the way and since it is a very steep trail with NO room for error and no real good options to get around the brush, they wanted to cut it out. If you are wondering why I did not go with to help, just look at that picture!! I was not about to hike up that hillside to get to them! :)
As they were hacking away, they came across a rattle snake! We've been told rattlers are in the area, but not very active in late May. This was Derek's first encounter with one, and he was determined to kill that snake! When they got to it, he threw some large rocks at the snake but was uncertain if he had killed it. And since he didnt have a safe way to shoot the snake at the time, they all hiked back down to camp. Derek and I drove to town and he purchased some shot shells for his pistol and later that afternoon he hiked back up the trail, determined to bring back a dead snake!
Sure enough he did! The snake had moved down the trail further under some brush but Derek managed to safely kill it.. I wanted him to cook some up (not so I could eat it but thought he might enjoy eating some) but cleaning and skinning it seemed too difficult to attempt so he chopped the head off, put it in the fire, chopped the rattler off and kept it to give to his boss, then threw the body over the hillside. :) He had told his boss that if he came across a rattler, he would bring him back the tail... never imagining he would actually have the chance! lol
The next day we drove over to Twisp River Horse Camp.. I've heard of it for years, wanted to see it in person. Beavercreek is on the North side of Twisp, up in the hills.. TRHC is on the South side of Twisp, up in the mountains! There were no campers there, apparently it is a bit too early in the season as there is still snow at that level.. not a lot, just patches here/there. It seemed nice though and we look forward to riding there some day.
We came across a few deer on our drive up the mountain and then also came upon a pile of poop in the road that was so big, I made Derek pull up to it and open the car door, so we could determine if it was sasquatch shit or bear or ??? We took a mental note and once back at our camp, asked the others what they thought it was and we now know it was Moose Poop!
Dena & Paul have a cottage up North of Twisp in Oroville, an hour and a half from us. And since Jen/John and Dena/Paul were all at the cottage that weekend, we decided to make the trek up that way to see the place and say hi. We didnt stay long, just long enough to see the house and the ammenities at the little community resort. Its a cute community, makes you feel like you stepped back in time or into the movie "The Truman Show" with Jim Carrey, where everyone smiles and all seems too nice to be real... :) Guess I could have taken a picture of the community, but all I seemed to get was a pic of this quail.
We were having a great weekend... a lot of driving around, got in a 45 minute post-dinner walk one night, Derek is pretty excited to start doing more hiking.. We ate VERY well, our dinners were all foil dinners and delicious. There were only 4 other camping that weekend in our little group, but we knew a few others camping/riding there that weekend. I'm always suprised that the campground is not fuller as it is a really great place to go for a Spring campout, with excellent riding and camping!
We tried to do some fishing, that was a bust! Too difficult to fish from the shore at the local lakes as they all have weeds around the shoreline and you can only use artificial lures, so no cast and wait with bobbers fishin! :) The weather was perfect, but I definately was missing my kids (Ellie Russell & Cooper).
Sunday started out well, but ended poorly. It was the day we attempted to fish, with no luck and a lot of backwoods driving, we ended up back at camp and laid down for a nap. My cell phone rang at 2pm, it was Barbara... I attempted to answer and there was no response on the other end.. I had a feeling something was up but I couldnt reach her via phone or text and had no idea where they might be. At 3:30 we decided to go hike the pipestone, jumped in the car to go but saw a Search & Rescue truck drive past us at camp, so we followed it up as I now realized it was late and the 4 horseback riders should have been back by now. We learned it was our group that was in trouble.. :(
Long story short, Steve Williams and his wife Bertha were riding with Scott & Barbara. As they were leading their horses up around a downed log, Bertha's mare refused and ended up stepping off the trail and falling down the cliffside. The guys got to her and attempted to lead her back up the hill but she again refused and ended up going down again. Steve took off on foot after her and the 3 others stayed put waiting for Steve to return. After a couple hours, with no indication of where Steve was, they luckily were able to reach 911 to call in help.
It was a very long day and after a lot of searching and coordination, the group of 3 were found and made it back to camp around 6pm, then Steve was found and brought out of the woods on horseback by other friends at 7pm. As for Bertha's horse, according to Steve, she unfortunately had a 3rd tumble down the hillside and died at the bottom of about a 500' fall..
A few lessons learned even by Derek & I, even though we did not ride that weekend. We tried to help, we were at the command center for hours and out driving the roads, trying to see if Steve had come out anywhere. We felt helpless but did all we could. The horse was not an experienced mountain horse and the trail they were on was more difficult than I think she should have been on.
There are a lot of very easy trails at Beavercreek to take, so it is too bad that this tragedy had to happen. Over the years, I have heard stories of many different trails and horses going over hillsides and cliffs, some making it out.. some not! Brings thoughts to me and reminds me to NEVER push beyond my comfort zone or my horses skill level and that its is OK to take things more conservatively and slowly. It is far better to do that, than to be walking out of the woods without your horse.
The weekend reminded me of a time that I experienced a horse going over a cliff while out riding. This was way back, 20+ years ago when I still lived at home. My sister and I had taken the horses out to do one of our trail loops.. we were having a good ride but as we got close to home, we came across a log across the trail. We literally were just 5 minutes from home and the only option we knew of was to either cross that log or turn around and go back the way we came, 90 minutes to get home if we went back. It was starting to get to dusk and we'd never get home before way too late to be out and on the roads so over that log I was determined to go. We got off the horses to lead them over, the log was lowest on the downhill side of the trail and my horse jumped over easily. I tied her up as my sisters mare "Darrell" was unwilling to cross. She was still young and fairly unexperienced on the trails. Her mare just refused and refused to budge.. We were spanking her, pulling, coaxing, nothing was working. My sister was ready to head back the long way but I was determined to get that damn horse over the log! Well the mare reared up in frustration I'm sure but when she came down she twisted her body and her front legs came down on the downhill slope and she fell, falling down the steep embankment to the bottom. It was probably only a 30' drop but it was far enough to panick my sister!
We quickly realized her mare was wedged upside down in some downed logs at the bottom. She was not going to be able to get up with her saddle hung up on trees. Carrie started screaming, I cant remember if I consoled her or just told her to calm down and go get help.. or maybe she stayed and watched me.. But I climbed down the hill and get down to her horse who THANK GOODNESS was not thrashing around.. She was very calm for a horse pinned on her back! Risking life, I was able to reach the cinch and get it off of her, then encouraged her to move to get up, she did and walked out of the hole with just a few scrapes.
It was then that I realized I had the mindset to get things done in a panick situation and was the cool headed one and not the panicker! Something I have held onto all these years because although I've been very lucky to have that experience be the worst of what I've had to deal with on the trail so far, I wont always be so lucky.
We ended the weekend with a nice drive home, a stop along the way to get a great view of Ross Lk and then very happy children greating us at home!! We had wished at times we had the horses, but it felt great to just get out camping. Looking forward to more trips this summer!
The original plan was to haul the car on the flatbed over to Beavercreek (Twisp) to go camping with some horse club friends; we wanted to explore the area with no horses or dogs! Well the trailer floor is pretty weak these days and we couldnt get the lights to work (bad connection on our truck) so this is how we got there.. Derek drove the truck/camper and I followed in the car! lol
I did get GREAT gas mileage though as a bonus! I thought this was going to be my top MPG but I actually got up to 44.3 MPG. The car has only been getting about 27 city miles, but the other day I got a flat (damn screw) and Les Schwab checked all the tires.. they all had about 50lbs of pressure; factory settings indicate 35 is best, so they dropped the pressure and I am now getting 30+ city miles.. :)We arrived on Thursday afternoon.. the next day Derek, Scott & Barbara hiked up a trail to do some clearing. The picture above is of the trail overlooking camp down below.. It is the same trail we rode 2 years prior, that had a lot of sage brush in the way and since it is a very steep trail with NO room for error and no real good options to get around the brush, they wanted to cut it out. If you are wondering why I did not go with to help, just look at that picture!! I was not about to hike up that hillside to get to them! :)As they were hacking away, they came across a rattle snake! We've been told rattlers are in the area, but not very active in late May. This was Derek's first encounter with one, and he was determined to kill that snake! When they got to it, he threw some large rocks at the snake but was uncertain if he had killed it. And since he didnt have a safe way to shoot the snake at the time, they all hiked back down to camp. Derek and I drove to town and he purchased some shot shells for his pistol and later that afternoon he hiked back up the trail, determined to bring back a dead snake!
Sure enough he did! The snake had moved down the trail further under some brush but Derek managed to safely kill it.. I wanted him to cook some up (not so I could eat it but thought he might enjoy eating some) but cleaning and skinning it seemed too difficult to attempt so he chopped the head off, put it in the fire, chopped the rattler off and kept it to give to his boss, then threw the body over the hillside. :) He had told his boss that if he came across a rattler, he would bring him back the tail... never imagining he would actually have the chance! lolThe next day we drove over to Twisp River Horse Camp.. I've heard of it for years, wanted to see it in person. Beavercreek is on the North side of Twisp, up in the hills.. TRHC is on the South side of Twisp, up in the mountains! There were no campers there, apparently it is a bit too early in the season as there is still snow at that level.. not a lot, just patches here/there. It seemed nice though and we look forward to riding there some day.
We came across a few deer on our drive up the mountain and then also came upon a pile of poop in the road that was so big, I made Derek pull up to it and open the car door, so we could determine if it was sasquatch shit or bear or ??? We took a mental note and once back at our camp, asked the others what they thought it was and we now know it was Moose Poop!
Dena & Paul have a cottage up North of Twisp in Oroville, an hour and a half from us. And since Jen/John and Dena/Paul were all at the cottage that weekend, we decided to make the trek up that way to see the place and say hi. We didnt stay long, just long enough to see the house and the ammenities at the little community resort. Its a cute community, makes you feel like you stepped back in time or into the movie "The Truman Show" with Jim Carrey, where everyone smiles and all seems too nice to be real... :) Guess I could have taken a picture of the community, but all I seemed to get was a pic of this quail.We were having a great weekend... a lot of driving around, got in a 45 minute post-dinner walk one night, Derek is pretty excited to start doing more hiking.. We ate VERY well, our dinners were all foil dinners and delicious. There were only 4 other camping that weekend in our little group, but we knew a few others camping/riding there that weekend. I'm always suprised that the campground is not fuller as it is a really great place to go for a Spring campout, with excellent riding and camping!We tried to do some fishing, that was a bust! Too difficult to fish from the shore at the local lakes as they all have weeds around the shoreline and you can only use artificial lures, so no cast and wait with bobbers fishin! :) The weather was perfect, but I definately was missing my kids (Ellie Russell & Cooper).
Sunday started out well, but ended poorly. It was the day we attempted to fish, with no luck and a lot of backwoods driving, we ended up back at camp and laid down for a nap. My cell phone rang at 2pm, it was Barbara... I attempted to answer and there was no response on the other end.. I had a feeling something was up but I couldnt reach her via phone or text and had no idea where they might be. At 3:30 we decided to go hike the pipestone, jumped in the car to go but saw a Search & Rescue truck drive past us at camp, so we followed it up as I now realized it was late and the 4 horseback riders should have been back by now. We learned it was our group that was in trouble.. :(
Long story short, Steve Williams and his wife Bertha were riding with Scott & Barbara. As they were leading their horses up around a downed log, Bertha's mare refused and ended up stepping off the trail and falling down the cliffside. The guys got to her and attempted to lead her back up the hill but she again refused and ended up going down again. Steve took off on foot after her and the 3 others stayed put waiting for Steve to return. After a couple hours, with no indication of where Steve was, they luckily were able to reach 911 to call in help.
It was a very long day and after a lot of searching and coordination, the group of 3 were found and made it back to camp around 6pm, then Steve was found and brought out of the woods on horseback by other friends at 7pm. As for Bertha's horse, according to Steve, she unfortunately had a 3rd tumble down the hillside and died at the bottom of about a 500' fall..
A few lessons learned even by Derek & I, even though we did not ride that weekend. We tried to help, we were at the command center for hours and out driving the roads, trying to see if Steve had come out anywhere. We felt helpless but did all we could. The horse was not an experienced mountain horse and the trail they were on was more difficult than I think she should have been on.
There are a lot of very easy trails at Beavercreek to take, so it is too bad that this tragedy had to happen. Over the years, I have heard stories of many different trails and horses going over hillsides and cliffs, some making it out.. some not! Brings thoughts to me and reminds me to NEVER push beyond my comfort zone or my horses skill level and that its is OK to take things more conservatively and slowly. It is far better to do that, than to be walking out of the woods without your horse.
The weekend reminded me of a time that I experienced a horse going over a cliff while out riding. This was way back, 20+ years ago when I still lived at home. My sister and I had taken the horses out to do one of our trail loops.. we were having a good ride but as we got close to home, we came across a log across the trail. We literally were just 5 minutes from home and the only option we knew of was to either cross that log or turn around and go back the way we came, 90 minutes to get home if we went back. It was starting to get to dusk and we'd never get home before way too late to be out and on the roads so over that log I was determined to go. We got off the horses to lead them over, the log was lowest on the downhill side of the trail and my horse jumped over easily. I tied her up as my sisters mare "Darrell" was unwilling to cross. She was still young and fairly unexperienced on the trails. Her mare just refused and refused to budge.. We were spanking her, pulling, coaxing, nothing was working. My sister was ready to head back the long way but I was determined to get that damn horse over the log! Well the mare reared up in frustration I'm sure but when she came down she twisted her body and her front legs came down on the downhill slope and she fell, falling down the steep embankment to the bottom. It was probably only a 30' drop but it was far enough to panick my sister!
We quickly realized her mare was wedged upside down in some downed logs at the bottom. She was not going to be able to get up with her saddle hung up on trees. Carrie started screaming, I cant remember if I consoled her or just told her to calm down and go get help.. or maybe she stayed and watched me.. But I climbed down the hill and get down to her horse who THANK GOODNESS was not thrashing around.. She was very calm for a horse pinned on her back! Risking life, I was able to reach the cinch and get it off of her, then encouraged her to move to get up, she did and walked out of the hole with just a few scrapes.
It was then that I realized I had the mindset to get things done in a panick situation and was the cool headed one and not the panicker! Something I have held onto all these years because although I've been very lucky to have that experience be the worst of what I've had to deal with on the trail so far, I wont always be so lucky.
We ended the weekend with a nice drive home, a stop along the way to get a great view of Ross Lk and then very happy children greating us at home!! We had wished at times we had the horses, but it felt great to just get out camping. Looking forward to more trips this summer!
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