If Mercury stopped his motion here, it’d be a classic BC drag, but he always manages to get those back feet off the ground:

If the rear feet don't leave the ground, it's the "Border Collie Drag."

Other popular Frisbee dog breeds like Australian Shepherds often jump in a horizontal alignment where the hips and the shoulders are almost level when the dog catches the disc. This stance also increases the distance that the dogs travel in the air after the catch. When the judges are marking distance by where the dog first touches down after the catch, level jumpers don’t have to break forward momentum to catch the disc and can soar several yards further after the catch before coming down. Vertical jumpers shift their momentum from forward movement into vertical movement and their rear feet will touch down soon after the catch, limiting the bonus distance and risking the jump bonus too.

Mercury Rising above the Frisbee. He jumped too soon.

Mercury still keeps a typical border collie vertical profile, but he has no problem getting plenty of air under his body and he doesn’t drag his feet at all.  Here he is repeatedly vaulting over his mother, Celeste while playing catch:

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With all that exuberance comes impatience and we’re still working on his timing as you can see from these other near misses:

... so close... He jumped too late.

When he jumps too early like in the top picture, he’s too high when the disc arrives and it sails right under him. When he jumps too late, he’s going up while the disc is going down and the disc hits the ground before he has a chance to catch it.

Waiting until the last possible second to make the catch.

Although he still makes a valiant effort to get it even when he misses the air catch.  This is where the handler really has to do right by the dog by avoiding the dreaded digger.  If the Frisbee is thrown too fast and too low, the dog can actually pole vault over the disc when the leading edge hits the ground while the dog is still driving for the catch.  This is often disastrous and tosses the dog ass over teakettle.  Dogs break teeth if the ground is hard, whiplash their necks, sprain their front feet, get grass burns and raspberries, and get the wind knocked out of their lungs or even suffer a concussion.

Entry-level disc dog sport is easily the most laid back and approachable of the dog sports: demanding a little bit of training, a dog that can catch and a Frisbee.  But even at its most simple, the sport still requires situational awareness and handler performance.  Obedience requires little physical skill from the handler, Agility rewards running but there’s no physical interaction with the dog, Flyball is more about motivation and timing than any dexterity on the part of the handler, and Dock Diving is very forgiving of botched throws and fumbled landings.

Advanced disc dog sport where the handler creates a routine that’s set to music and includes more daring tricks, vaults, and physical interaction between the dog and handler ups the ante even more.  While the creative elements of Dog Dancing are rewarded, so too are big air vaults that can launch the dog much higher than they can get on their own and acrobatic flips and twists that are difficult to land safely.

Seeing a dog achieve big air is a beautiful thing to watch, especially when the landing is as uneventful as the vault was spectacular.

The Taylor Ranches.

Kara Taylor, Cattle Rancher

I spent the Memorial Day weekend on a working vacation in Wyoming.  One of the puppies from the Dublin x Celeste litter is a working cattle dog on a 300-600 head cattle ranch outside of Daniel, and this last weekend was the yearly branding.  The whole month of May is branding season and like a Mennonite barn raising, it’s both a working and social event where most of the community will assist in the work on each other’s ranches and enjoy a feast and party afterward.

Pinedale High School class of 2011 graduated on Friday and several of the graduates were in attendance at the branding, one even moved her graduation party forward just so she could attend.  I don’t think any of the city kids at my high school would have moved their graduation party to work for free for an entire afternoon riding, roping, wrestling, and branding cattle.  Especially not the Gucci-Hoochie girls or the velvet-palmed boys.

That’s not the case in cattle country, and there were more girls and women in attendance at the branding than there were boys and men.  It was rather fitting given that the entire ranch is ostensibly a one woman show most of the year with Kara at the helm.  Mr. Taylor runs a construction company and is the master of the various snow machines, 4x4s, motorcycles and diesel powered fun machines.  Kara is the purveyor of all things warm blooded on the ranch, both two and four legged: children, dogs, horses, and cattle.

After a full morning’s work feeding, birthing, and cooking the dogs followed us over to the old homestead and we saddled up the horses as we waited for the guests to arrive.

All saddled up and ready to ride out.

The dogs were excited with all the people, movement, and anticipation in the air but they didn’t know how much fun they were about to have chasing cows and splashing in the natural streams that crisscross the acreage.  Border Collies are natural workers and any sort of methodical human activity will draw their attention.  One way to really freak out a reactive Border Collie is to totally ignore them and start dancing, or very slowly follow them around from behind.  So all the commotion and orchestrated movement of the riders and the horses really had Mercury and Dublin mesmerized.

Where are we going? What are we doing? I want to help.

I was curious to see how well the dogs behaved around horses as this was their first exposure and you never know where the dog will draw the line between an animal that needs to be worked and one that is off limits.  Both did just fine and were neither scared nor enticed to herd by the horses.  With everything I throw at these dogs I’m always waiting to find the one thing they can’t handle, the spark for a melt down or tantrum and they never disappoint.  It’s a blessing to have dogs that you never have to explain to people, dismiss their bad behavior, or worry about their safety or that of others.  They always abide, are always friendly, and they always draw compliments.

When we first left the homestead and entered the pastures, there were only a few cattle milling about and the dogs were unsure what we wanted from them or what the mission was.  Mercury came over to check in multiple times with a look on his face that said “why are you ignoring these cows!?  Let me move them!”

Mercury takes in the sights

But when we got up to the bulk of the herd and the riders began to arc behind and bring in the cattle from the rear, the lights turned on and Dublin and Mercury took off to get behind the cattle and help drive them back into the corral.

Look, cows!

Dublin stayed close on my side of the herd and Mercury split out in a wide outrun to the other side of the herd and disappeared from view.  I didn’t meet up with him again until the herd was all the way back in the corral and the branding was started.  Word is that he was quite the little cow dog and one rider made a point of searching me out to tell me that my dog was hilarious.  Apparently after most of the cows were through the last gate Mercury celebrated the event by finding a mud bog and wallowing in it vigorously while bellowing his satisfaction.  I keep a blue plastic kiddie pool in the backyard to keep the dogs cool in the summer and Mercury is always the first one in and the last one out, but he’s never yodeled in bliss before so he was either totally amped by the cattle drive or he was stuck in the mud and wanted help out.  Either way, I finally tracked him down wet but clean and sleeping in the back of one of the 4×4 utility vehicles I had given him a ride in earlier in the day and left parked behind the barn.  He apparently managed to open the Velcro door himself and knew I’d come back for him there.  I thought that maybe someone had put him there but it was so out of the way and everyone was busy with the drive that I suspect he figured it out himself.  Smart dog.

On the cattle drive.

I took some video of the drive but it’s so shaky that it’d probably give you an epileptic seizure if you tried to watch it.  While most of the pasture is flat, it’s surrounded by several small bluffs which we riders would often use to form a perimeter.  This was rather exciting for me getting Big Red to navigate the hills and valleys while keeping me on his back.  This part of Wyoming has had record snows this year so the natural streams on the property were full and flowing.  The clear shallow crossings went without incident, although a couple of times Big Red decided to jump the streams instead of wading into them, and somehow I survived and stayed in the saddle the entire time.  I was told Big Red was a stellar horse, so thank dog there was at least one of us who knew what he was doing.  The pool to see how long the city slicker stayed in his saddle payed out on “until the end.”

Six cowgirls, One Cowboy bring up the rear.

Back on the drive I did my best to stay on the horse and not make a complete fool of myself.  It’s a lot easier to ride a horse as an adult since your legs are at 10 and 2 instead of 9 and 3.  I remember as a child that I always had the feeling that I could fall off at any moment despite being unable to even get my legs back over the saddle without some clunky gymnastics.  Now as an adult, sitting in a saddle felt very natural and I had no sensation of instability or falling, even when I got Red up to a fast trot to catch up to the other riders after I fell behind fooling with my camera.  It was extremely liberating to be on a horse again after so many years and I can hardly wait until I get the chance again.

Poor Red drew the fat kid in the rider lottery.

The final obstacle on the drive was the gate leading back into a long fenced corral where the roping and branding would soon take place.  The experienced riders knew exactly where to park their horses to keep the cattle in line and moving.  When I wasn’t needed to fill a gap along an edge I rode behind the final riders and snapped a few shots of the roundup.

Traffic Jam

After the herd was driven past the gate and crammed at the end of the corral, two horse trailers were pulled in sideways to provide a visual and physical barrier and the branding equipment was brought out.  Dublin had a stellar moment when he turned back a stray calf in the corral and rounded up another stray all by himself.

On to the branding!

Co-pilot is my dog.

Of the six Dublin x Celeste puppies: I kept two, two others stayed in Colorado, and two went to homes out of state.  I had the chance to visit Stella Rose in Monterey California in 2009, and despite getting to meet up with Bella’s family several times while they were in town for hockey tournaments or music concerts, I hadn’t gotten the chance to see her in the flesh since we met her ride home to Daniel in Cheyenne when she was just under 3 months old.  Winter storms had prevented her from going home sooner.

Eager to see how the quiet, reserved, and gorgeous girl was growing up and regretful of missing the event last year, I packed up Mercury and Dublin to attend the 2011 Taylor Ranches cattle branding and barbecue over Memorial Day weekend.

Mercury took the co-pilot’s chair while Dublin decided to work Engineering on the lower deck, and we headed off on the 8 hour drive from Denver to the northwest corner of Wyoming.

I'm giving her all she's got, Captain!

We were several hours outside of Denver before the boys decided that they no longer had to sample the 65mph wind for traces of the dog park or sheep and settled down for the rest of the trip.  They don’t like the windows in my car as much because they can’t roll them down all by themselves like they can in the big Jeep.  Plus, the big Jeep has 4 windows and mine only has two.  I never really appreciated why one would need a child lock on the automatic windows until the dogs discovered the magic black button on the console.

Dublin was the first to teach himself how to open the window and he was also he first to accidentally strangle himself by pushing the button the wrong way while his head was hanging out of the car.  Since then I’ve used the child lock much to the dogs’ frustration. They’ll paw at the button now and then poke me in the back with their nose as if to say “make it work, daddy.”  In my car there’s no magic button so they simply paw at the glass until I oblige.  I also keep the doors locked because Dublin, in an effort to see if any of the things he could paw on the door worked like the magic black button in the other car, found the handle which opens the door and successfully pulled it hard enough to unlatch the door.  He’s either very adventurous or suicidal.  His old favorite trick was to lean out the window so far he’d put both his front feet on the rear view mirror and play superman, blissfully unaware that his harness would prevent him from taking flight.

Our first stop was at the highest point along I-80 at 8,640 feet, which has a nice monument to Abraham Lincoln.  A huge bust sitting atop a rather square pillar like the world’s largest rock PEZ dispenser.  The dogs were unimpressed.

Abraham Lincoln, brought to you by PEZ.

Luckily the rest of our drive up was uneventful, although there were 50-60mph gusts crossing the highway on I-80 between Cheyenne and Laramie, one of which overturned a truck carrying a light trailer which blocked up the eastbound lanes for at least 10 miles.  The WHP was out in force, my Whistler radar detector lit up like a volume meter most of I-80.  Once I hit the turn off to US 191 though, the clouds parted, the cops disappeared, and the sun came out.

The Road north to Daniel, Wyoming

After getting the dogs some fried chicken gizzards and liver at some gas station in the middle of nowhere, we finally pulled into Daniel with just enough daylight left for a little Frisbee in the Pinedale city park with Bella’s mom Kara before dinner, an unexpected attendance at the Pinedale 2011 Graduation, and a late night arrival at Taylor Ranch.

8 minutes of Frisbee wasn't enough payment for 8 hours of driving, thought the dogs; but they didn't know all the fun that was in store for them over the weekend.

The dogs were very appreciative of their short Frisbee session, but after all the fun they had over the next few days, they didn’t even notice that the frisbee didn’t make it back into the car with us on the way home.

Behind the back?

Down low.

Anticipation.

Victory!

Here I’ve collected some photos and videos of the border collie puppies’ first attempts to herd sheep.

Dublin making friends at White Fence Farm, 8 weeks old

I picked up Dubin on St. Patrick’s Day and here we are just a few days later at my birthday dinner at White Fence Farm.   Apparently this sheep was unimpressed with Dublin’s predator stare, and I can’t blame her, he was so damn cute I’d run toward him instead of away from him too!  He’d have to wait another two months before his real first time “working” sheep (because you have to call it work even when it’s play, them’s the rules!).

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Yes, you did hear that right. My father puts down Dublin and says “Now listen, I’m hungry, so go get me a sandwich” and later, “Chris, why don’t you try this at the singles bar.” Heh.

This was also young Celeste’s first time seeing sheep, mere days after we got her. She had just turned 9 weeks old. This was also the first time she had a new heavy collar on so she spent a lot of time trying to scratch at it, much to our amusement. The cuts are where she ran out of frame into the shade to work on getting her collar off.

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I also took my camera to Mercury and Gemma’s first exposure to sheep but since I was no longer a complete idiot around sheep, my instructor had me take the pups into the ring instead of me watching her do it. Thus my humble little camera was left perched on a chair.

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It’s amazing to watch that light go on when they first realize that they have power over the sheep.  You can see it, they are rather carefree and oblivious, looking around like this is any other dog park except with smaller pieces of poop on the ground, and in an instant it’s BAM, the instinct kicks in and it’s a different life from then on.

Here, Mercury takes on the automatic watering system at a Bed and Breakfast I first visited when his father Dublin was a two month old puppy.  In an unlikely coincidence, the family of friend bought the B&B recently and when they heard I’d been there before I was invited down to be one of the first guests after they did some cleanup and remodeling.

Without an in-ground sprinkler system, they’re using this ingenious automatic water feeding system built to look like a John Deer tractor that actually follows the hose that supplies the water as a track around the lawn.

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What I find fascinating  is the mental problem solving we see going on in Mercury’s head as he confronts the beast, gets soaked, learns how it works, and slowly tests methods to avoid the spray and stop the device.  He ultimately succeeds.

Here’s Dublin making friends during our first trip to the Beddin’ Down four years ago right after I got him, playing on the same lawn where Mercury did great battle against the Water Monster.

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I didn’t think the current crop of dogs liked apples, they certainly don’t Bogart the Honeycrisp cores or raid the fruit bowl like Jack did. But I caught them this afternoon picking their own crabapples off of our tree in the backyard.  I think they got the idea from my dad who spent the afternoon a few days ago cleaning up the fallen apples.  The dogs always take an interest when there’s work going on.  It looks like they got a taste for them while helping clean them up and now they have to pick their own off of the low hanging branches.

Luckily, they haven’t yet joined the Farm Workers Union to protest their low pay or having to urinate and defecate in the same place they work picking fruit.

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This is the Dublin x Celeste litter at six weeks old (now 2 years), raiding the fridge.

The chocolate female demanded the most screen time yesterday, so here’s a longer clip of her refining her acting chops.

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Although you can’t tell from the above video, she’s actually quite the femme fatale.  She’s a bit shy at first, and by shy I mean that she’ll run up to within 6 inches of you, tail wagging and wriggling like a fish on a line and then stop as if there’s an invisible barrier preventing her from going any farther.  Then a few minutes later she’ll be sleeping in your lap.  After lulling you into a false sense of complacency, she’ll nuzzle her way up your neck until she can suckle your year.  Then, when she has you right where she wants you, it’s CHOMP!

I nearly died a few weeks back when she did this to my father. He was cooing about all the attention he was getting and then out of the blue he was screaming “Get her off of me!”  A 300 pound man felled by a puppy that’d barely register on the scale at the supermarket.  Just hilarious.  Now that she’s tasted human blood, we’re pretty sure she’s going to be a man-eating beast. You can see just how much she respects her mother:

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This next one is Zappa, and I’m predicting right now that this dog is going to be famous.  Since daddy is a cover model for the biggest name in dog publishing and mommy is a spokes-model for the biggest name in dog toys, it’s in his blood.  He’s also one of four puppies from this litter who are going to live with professional dog trainers, so we’ve got nurture covered as well.  This dog oozes charisma and the camera just loves him.  He already has the “pose and move” down pat.

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This one is the chocolate boy, who is devastatingly handsome just like his father.  Whereas the lilac female looks just like her mother, this one looks the most like Mercury.  He’s also going to be famous as his new home is with a trainer out in Utah who is planning on using him as her demonstration partner.

The chocolate boy also carries the trademark naughty spot on his nose, passed down from Mercury, from Celeste, from Cowboy.  Quite dashing, no?