Jean Mueller, Cash’s owner, tells the story of one of the early days with Cash:
Pulling my car into the drive, I came to Glass farm with real apprehension. How would this new teacher feel about my problem dog. Thoughts of our previous herding history flashed before me. The 10+ months of training where my old teacher let me be in the ring alone with my oh so dominate dog as he made a game of "bite and chase the sheep". Remembering the few times when she would come in and help me smack my dog with a plastic rake. Sounds terrible and it was! The dog could take that kind of correction but what were either of us learning? I shook my head to clear my thinking to the task at hand.
I was ready to try a new way to understand my dog. It was a nice cool morning and I came well equipped. Cash had his thick leather work collar on and a horse rope attached to that. I carried my rake. You must imagine Cash now if you will. A strong aggressive male German Shepherd who is overly direct in his approach to sheep. Cash's philosophy is take down the leader and that will fix that! This is a nice quality, don't get me wrong; but lack of correct direction made it a dangerous one in this dog. AND doubly so with a green handler like me.
So we prepared the game plan. Ken (my new instructor), wearing a very nice
blue cap, explained the fact that Cash was just over reacting and that we
needed to see he wasn't a bad dog at all. I had just set him up to expect a
fun sheep chase every time we entered the field, that's all. Now it was
time to start setting ground rules. I was reminded not to yell at my dog.
Me, lose my temper and yell at my dog. The dog at the other end of my rope lunges bringing me back to reality.
It's Cash's turn. I needed to focus. Here's the deal. Cash would be on rope
with three of us in there to discourage his getting in the sheeps flight
zone. It was agreed at first we would tie his rope to the gate post so if
Cash charged he would end up correcting himself. (These were drastic
measures we took with this dog and not something done lightly!)
We were ready. Ken (in his soon to be very dirty cap) and my friend Julie
positioned themselves. I opened the gate and asked Cash in then had him
stay and closed the gate. As I turned, at dizzying speed Cash hit the end
of the line and before I knew it was on the sheep! We managed to redirect
him, Ken losing his cap in the process. But what happened? Cash had broke
right out of his collar! Boy were we surprised but we steeled ourselves to
try this again.
Now Ken wearing a mud colored cap and Cash wearing a different collar, we
entered the ring for the second time. SNAP! Cash broke the link that held
the clip to the horse rope. Can you believe it! But folks this time we were
prepared. Ken slapped his cap to the ground, Julie got in Cash's face and I
dashed to guard the rear position. We didn't allow him to run in on the
sheep once. As he readjusted himself, Cash started to run a boundary back
and forth. We all joined in to praise him for this wonderful job he was
doing.
It was a big day for both of us. Tired, muddy and so very proud of this
first step, we, Cash and I both pranced to our car.
The real test came weeks later when we would be on our own. Again out at
Glass farm I asked Cash into the ring. He came in and sat waiting intently
watching the sheep. I didn't say a thing. I hissed him into motion and he
skirted the edges of the area giving the sheep all the space in the world.
The birds sang, the flowers bloomed, the sun came out and my dog and I both
knew something had definitly changed for the better. Of course later Ken
just smiled at Cash and said to me "you've got the makings of a real nice
worker there." And now we could begin. :)
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And there are still more puppy
pictures, testing and training information.