It was just one of those days, as I'm typing this I'm struggling to bring the successes to the forefront. Yeah, we had some, but the failures sure seem to have out numbered them. We waited to work dogs until this evening, Sharon and her sister Ruth joined us in the "Adventure". I should have known better then to work the young dogs after spending 15 minutes trying to coax the sheep that Ruth's dog literally blew through a gate back into the square pasture with Jake. Our one Barbardo ewe, we call her the camel, was ticked off, flapping her lips and snorting threatening to take any dog out in her path. Her lip flapping and snorting is what earned her the camel designation. Jake finally was tired of her threats and leaped 5 foot forward to latch onto her, she got the point and was back to being a ewe the nicely honors a dog. Oh well, on with it, here goes.
Jake: Wayne said he got some nice work with him today, well other then the loose sheep tyraid, I had to take over the reins on that deal. He said he was able to get some nice sheds with Jake driving his charges off away from the other sheep.
Willie: Oh poor Willie. Willie has a little escape trick that she arrived here with, when she either does not know what to do or if what you are asking is too difficult she goes bounding through the steel gates to go and try to find and easier task. Rather then getting annoyed with her I just kept calling her back. Finally she would try what I asked once, maybe twice before she went back to hunt easier work. Over the work session her absentee rate decreased so I guess we gained.
JJ: JJ is trying so hard, but progress is slow. He goes from being too careful to being reckless. If I could ever get him to settle somewhere in the middle I think I will have a heck of a little dog. I really can't report anything standing out success wise in our session, just continued on getting him comfortable flanking off balance, stopping him before he gets to balance and trying to build some driving distance.
Vicki: Vicki showed me some nice stuff, especially with people here, usually that's when she is at her worst. She went out on a super nice outrun, reproducing the vision I had in my mind near perfectly, she went nice and deep at the top and actually honored a flank command midway through the fetch allowing me to position her on a new drive line. I was also able to get her flank off balance to execute a cross drive at about 50 yards, a little thing to many but huge for Vicki. The flank was not perfect, a little tight but it was there. She is giving me high hopes for the trial Sunday.
Weasel: Weasel gave me a headache, I should have just let her sit another day or week or maybe even a month. I shouldn't say that, we actually did gain on the little demon, inbetween the plum of duck feathers off the duck that wondered into the work area. The duck was safe until the Weasers decided to get aggressive with the sheep, I corrected her, she left the sheep and took it out on the duck. And she is suppose to be a goose control dog when she grows up, not quite what they want for controlling the goose population though I suppose effective. Anyway, I went back over yesterdays lesson and got her bending to pressure again and ended the work session on a pretty darn good note. At one point while in a drive when the sheep started to feel the pressure of the fence rather then blowing up she just flanked, Yippee. Of course Wayne pointed out that she should have stopped. I about blew up at him, hey, right now I'm happy with anything but the choice she was making, atleast she tried something else and the something else was useful, no not ideal I really don't want her swapping back and forth from drives to flanks on her own but we can work through that part once we get her undesirable thoughts into the history books.
Oh yeah, almost forgot, high point for the day was discovering some photos taken of Jake, JJ and the pups at the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival, here is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/don3rdse/3633582781/
No comments:
Post a Comment