Fina

Fina has been slowly coming together. Little by little we have been working through her worries, gaining confidence at a distance, and most importantly learning that she has to keep trying and keep listening. Fina is a bit independent and does not handle pressure well. She also loses confidence fast when working at a distance from me. Not a great combination. However she is also blessed with a quiet and direct way on stock. That talent and the fact that she was a gift from my friend Darlene gave me the determination to continue working with Fina. I decided to work her through this summer, and if by fall we had not gained some significant ground I would find a home more suited to what Fina could give.

We had a tough spring. Fina would get to the top of her outrun, lay down and watch the sheep run to the setout. Or she'd get them down the fetch, start the drive, then get flustered, lay down and quit. She frequently became the flankless wonder, walking her sheep beautifully on a line, but not the line to the panel and not willing to flank to correct it. These problems showed up at home, and even more on the trial field. Her half sister Song delights in new sheep and new fields, not at all bothered by trial environment pressure. Fina is more fragile and gets worried about such pressure.

Fina was training up rather well this spring at home, but periodically went into the avoidance mode when under pressure. Add trial pressure and she quickly closed her mind. By mid May and many retires I was pretty frustrated. The problem manifested as the dog losing confidence at a distance, stopping taking commands, and often just laying down. I started picking people's brains on the problem. I got lots of good traing suggestions. It was Barb Armata that got to the heart of the problem. Fina's solution to pressure was to avoid it. So she closed her mind and either lay down or just blindly followed the stock. Barb told me to work through that avoidance first, make Fina listen. Not in a harsh way, but get her in situations where I could be right there to make it happen. So I put a short line on Fina, and when she stopped walking up because she was flustered I took the line and got her started. I worked her in smaller areas and subjected her to bursts of rapid fire commands, moving in and insisting when she tried to opt out. As I removed the avoidance option Fina learned that she really can do what I'm asking. Little by little she is gaining confidence in herself, in me, and in our ability to work together. She can handle some pressure for compliance now, knowing that the moment she does what is being asked the pressure will lift.

Fina placed at the Ames' Cascade Farm trial on the July 4th weekend. Nothing fancy, 9th in a field of 35 dogs or so. But a decent run. The July 4th Cascade trial was the last trial that Darlene was well enough to attend last year. The next weekend at Merck Forest was not always what I wanted, often hesitation before giving me the (oh so difficult) flanks I wanted, but she was with me. This past Saturday I had a dog on my whistle the entire run. She won the trial. Sunday she had to set out for some time early in the afternoon and did great on some very tough and recalcitrant sheep. Then she ran late afternoon. She had a bit more of the flankless wonder going on. The come by tends to fail first. So our lines were not great, but she took corrections, got the flanks eventually, and we got around. She did some lovely work at the pen with stock that did not want to go in. Since the run was not competitive at this point I used the pen for some stern flank practice and she was good with it, cleaned her flanks right up and worked extremely hard to get those girls in. We timed out in the shedding ring, having walked in with about 30 seconds to work.

I look forward to taking Fina to the post now. She still has her problems, but don't they all. Now Fina has opened herself to working with me, trusting my commands and her own ability to do the job. Fina was bounced around for training a bit when young as Darlene was sick. Then Fina ran in Open with Darlene. Darlene was too sick to train and Fina was not really ready, but they were well matched and earned a placement. I believe that Fina was put on this earth for Darlene to partner with. It looks like now Fina will partner with me as well, frosting on the cake.