Method to the Madness?!?!

About Style, Method, and

Relationships

     Recently, I have been pulled back into the world of work too many hours per week and have not seen my home or dogs nearly enough.  However, any spare minute I might have I have been reading about herding and watching random dvds/videos.  One of the topics that has jumped out at me is that a dog has to develop their own method of moving and working their sheep.  This is so true.  Every dog that I have has a completely different technique.  I am also evolving, trying to recognize which style I like and feel comfortable with.  In this realm, I truly do have a different relationship with each one of my dogs.  Not better.  Not worse.... just different.

     I have also been training and talking with different handlers this year, and have gained a different perspective on training outlooks.  This one open handler likes dogs that are NOT complicated.  Talented, athletic, and forthright.  From her view point, that is that.  I like it a lot.  Very simple.  Easy.  Good. A good friend of mine and another open handler compares gaining ones style to painting and art.  He is also very right.  Some handlers prefer a paint by number style, while others seem to be abstract or a mix of blended mediums like a water color slurry of shades.  

     Hmmm.  So how does this equate.  I would love to be very simple and forthright.  It is the circle of life evolution isn't it?  We are born simple.  Become as complicated as we allow life to make us.  Then it seems that we spend the rest of our time trying to get back to the simple and easy again.  Blah blah blah.  There is still a job that needs to be done.  A set course that needs to be run.  A team that needs to be made.  A technique and style that needs to be developed.  A human-dog team relationship that needs to be forged.

     "Leave the good in the dog".  Leave the good in the human.  Appreciate what the dog brings to the table naturally.  Bring it out and develop it.  Let the dog develop it's own method.  Let her paint with a water color abstract if it works for her.  See it.  Recognize it.  Paint in big strokes....  Do not micro-manage and make it complicated.  Keep it pure.  Simple.

     I am too soft.  Too sentimental.  I know it, I don't think I can help it.  It is one of my (many) weaknesses.  I have a big heart.  Not everyone is made to do the same thing.  I need to work on finding the right place for the right dog.  I am not good at letting go.  Getting better.  But I have a not too distant history of experiencing a run of VERY many losses in my life.  Thus, I may try to hang on to things (stuff, people, dogs....etc) for too long.  I am working on the "be sensitive" and then let it go axiom.  It was not hard for me to re-home my little white poodle De'jon to my receptionist/friend, I see them all the time.  But letting a working dog go .... it is almost inconceivable.  Even if it might be happier in a family that hikes and occasionally herds with very little pressure.  Or a golf course dog.  Or a ranch working dog.  It is admittedly my ego, probably more than my heart.

  Different style of dogs.  Different style of handlers.  I am also a recovering enabler, with a passive-aggressive dog.  Not a great team style to get a good job done.  Compassion fatigue, not so distant past. Yes, I agree, this may be the hardest part of the path.... identifying the type of handler I would like to become.  I am now a little skeptical in a very healthy way.  I listen.  I analyze.  I believe.... some, and let go of the rest.  I want to be the fly-fisherman with my own rod and casting style.  I would like to develop my own beat and rhythm.  NOT complicated is REALLY good.  I am older, and hopefully wiser, I doubt I can make it all the way back to simple.  Maybe.  

     So here we are in the heat of the summer.  Focus is on the good.  Bring out the good.  Let the dog and the handler develop a method.  Hopefully a good method.  Read each other.  Trust in each other.  Developing a good team.  In the context of CONSISTENCY.