©1997 Dale P. Carriere
Annie and I return to Boot Camp for the second year. This year the weather is stunning. Oh, sure, it rains. It rains on EVERY Boot Camp. You should have been here last year when we had the freezing rains; But, after beautiful, balmy, slightly overcast days, who cares if it rains in the evening. So the 16 handlers enjoyed very comfortable short-sleeve weather...It was definately time for summer sunscreen lotion. What a lovely 3-day weekend.
Annie and I arrive on Thursday, a day before Friday's start. Gayle is busy with setup chores for Boot Camp, so I do a little work with Annie on our own. We've had a year's lessons under our belts. Annie's matured with her own style of stock handling. She's no longer the agressive beginner with no end in sight. She now knows that there is a job to be done, and works under my command. Annie and I work on our own now--we have a new level of confidence. Annie likes to work close, with the stock just a nibble away. She prefers close contact. She likes 'em right under her chinny-chin-chin.
I have seen many situations where dogs fail under close, intense contact with the stock. To me that's a critical situation - it tests your dogs' mettle. It shows your level of accomplishment. I force her to go in between the stock and the holding pen fencing, where there was no room for a dog. Annie made her own room. She moved stock when and where I told her. I was so proud of her. I wanted to reach out and give her the biggest hug in the world, but I couldn't because the darn sheep were in the way. So I stopped her and gave her a recall. The sheep parted like the waters of the Red Sea and my Annie came to me, confidently wading through shoulder-to-shoulder stock with her tail held high and wagging all the way to me. Ladies and Gentlemen, we are on our way!
Once again, we ate our way through Boot Camp. The accomodations Gayle provided were unbelieveable. Let's start with breakfast, cooked to order. Watcha want? Eggs over easy, an omelet or pancakes, or rolls, all with fresh bacon. (Wilber was very fresh.) Lots of fruit and juices, and plenty of fresh coffee. Or, how about a healty portion of all of the above? No problem. Oh yeah. I haven't introduced Wilbur. Wilbur was the sheep-herding pig. I emphasize "was". He used to do a darn good job. Gayle actually had a pretty good outrun on him. I know. I saw him do it. I wonder if the sheep appreciated the irony of it all. Naahh. I don't think so!
O.K. a recap. What's the purpose of Boot Camp? Boot Camp provides situations to handlers and dogs that are real everyday problems that would be enountered on a working ranch. You don't take your dog through a set of AKC approved gates in a given amount of time. At Boot Camp you work, you make mistakes, and you learn like you've never learned before. At first, it all seems--so simple.
Here's some of the days' routines that had to be accomplished:
"Dale and Annie, there are about 45 head of sheep in that small holding pen. I want five that need milking moved to the pen over there, where five teams of two will milk them to remove the pressure from their udders. Their "bags" are too heavy and uncomfortable for them. Their little ones have just been weaned, so we have to help the mamas a little. Do this with as little stress to the sheep as possible, as they are already uncomfortable enough."
Another situation - "Christy and Klaus (a big and active Rottie), move the black faces and their babies from the evening holding pen over there. Be careful, the mothers are very protective and I don't want Klaus to be too aggressive with the mothers and especially with the little ones."
And, another ranch situation - "Barbara, move those sheep that have just been milked into the field with the carrot piles, it's now time for them to have a good meal."
"Robert, go into the holding pen and have "Mike" remove eight head with white ear tags. The white ear-tagged sheep are ready for shearing and we're going to show you how that's done."
That was the gist of day one. Gather sheep, sort sheep and move them over there. Precise dog handling was a must. How else could Robert and Mike remove only eight head of white-tagged stock? Actually, the situation wasn't that tough, you see, if Robert and Mike pushed out nine head, all they had to do was put only one back where it came from. That's all!
It was a long day. We watched one another. We critiqued one another (kindly, and with all due consideration of course). And we laughed a lot. It was a good day.
"Last call for pancakes, I wanna hear it now or forget it, we're turning the grill off. And this morning we want more help cleaning up before chores." What a way to start the second brutal day.
I notice that Gayle has a smile on her face all during breakfast. A big smile. Not that Gayle doesn't smile a lot, she does. She's a great person who always smiles a lot. But it's still there after breakfast, and I know what that means. Uh-oh, somethin's up. Gayle still has that huge grin as she assembles everyone after the morning's scrumptious repast. (Wilbur, we appreciate your total committment.)
O.K., EVERYONE GATHER ROUND AND LISTEN UP.
"Yesterday was a good day. You tuned your basic stock handling, watched your dog, watched your stock and positioned the dog as needed. You saw the mechanism of proper gate handling. You saw when to use your dog and how to use him to apply the needed amount of pressure on the stock when, and only when it was needed. You learned that in some cases you don't want the dog too close to the stock. You saw yesterday that you can't milk a nervous sheep when your dog is breathing down its neck. It doesn't work. The dog has to back off and allow you to get the job done. This is the real world, ladies and gentlemen. YOU have to milk the sheep. The dog can't do it for you. Your dog can assist you, but he can't do it alone. This is teamwork, real day-to-day teamwork. Today your're going to learn how to use a sorting pen, and then we have to castrate some sheep."
So, day 2 evolves. The sorting pen started as mayhem. Sheep, dogs and people were crammed into the small holding pen. Sheep were panicking and jumping all over the place. Handlers were screaming, yes, screaming, at their dogs. "I told you to lie down, and I mean, lie down, now go by." It was very close quarters. People and dogs were frustrated. Handlers were knocked off their feet by 150-pound stock. The close, crowded work tested your mettle. It did, indeed. After a while things settled down. The dogs' confidence grew. The handlers worked with more patience and we began to get some work done.
The sorting pen was a line of gates in a chute the width of a single sheep. One end
had a "V" shape, so it acted like a funnel to guide the sheep into the
chute with the gates. So the whole contraption looked like a big "Y". The
V-shaped end butted up to the holding pen, the infamous holding pen. The chute gates
were set up to let us guide sheep in two directions. One was another small holding
pen. The other was a larger handling pen. We were to put the small ones into the
small holding pen. Some of the small ones were male. All males needed to be castrated.
Oh, great!! I broke out into a cold sweat. Robert offered to do the paper work. Greg
left the area. I can't believe the number of women that volunteered to learn to castrate!!
Are they telling us something? I gave shots--that, I can do. So we
got an assembly line going; the women's line was long. Day 2 had a brutal start.
Day 3 was for fine tuning. Individual needs were addressed. The agenda was pretty open. Some went out to do yet more open field work, others stayed out to do more pen work or short distance handling. It was today that our individual weaknesses were more closely addressed. Lambs were born, sheep were sorted, sheep were moved, people were knocked down, some cried with frustration, some cried with accomplishment. We all learned a great deal. We all ate our way through Boot Camp. Will we all return next year? I think most will!
You should be here. You should bring your Bouv and laugh and cry with the rest
of us.
Dale Carriere
has been active in herding for a few years now.
He has served on the SCBdFC Board of Directors.
Annie is Ch. Donlee Antoinette.
Please also visit the American Herding Breed Association (AHBA) website.
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