On Saturday my training buddy and I braved the drizzle, occasional sleet, and mud to train our dogs. She has a lovely young male who is going to make a great stockdog. I have an older, just turned 4, (are they still young at 4?) female. Her name is Rave. Rave has oodles of talent. I do not. So we are having adventures as we try to work out how to handle the stock. We have referred to these adventures as Yahoo Moments and Rodeo Queen time. But they are getting fewer and further between, although when they do break out they are still pretty spectacular!
Saturday I worked Rave on one of my heavier sheep. I had all the other sheep in the holding pens and one singleton out. I worked on Rave driving the sheep away from the holding pens and the ewe's buddies to work on Rave's drive and increasing her power. I was pleased with Rave's work to hold the sheep from making a break back to the pens. Rave would kick out and cover with a very calm demeanour instead of 'racing' with the sheep. We never quite got a drive going but I was very pleased with her covering. On our second turn I kept it quite short and easy as our first session was a bit stressful. We did several outruns with a nice fetch and called it a day.
Goals, Plans, and Accomplishments
- Continue to work Rave on a singleton. Work on smooth covering and staight walk ups.
- Work on half moons on the fence (woollies). Concentrate on squaring flanks and quick responsive stop off balance.
- Work on controlled driving. Use 'driving in a square'. Also drive diagonally across arena to give more space for drive. Don't forget the PRAISE.
