Worked at Dianne's yesterday. I think I have a new mantra running through my mind. To close for comfort. To close driving. To close penning.
Our first go was better, the sheep stayed pretty smooth on her drive and Rave kept her pace pretty well. Second go she was much to close, the sheep became habituated to her and didn't move smoothly. I tried doing the bump and run. Rave push into the sheep making them move off smartly and stopping Rave until a nice distance opened up and starting the walk up again. Only problem is that she was sliding off the side of the bubble instead of pushing straight in which changed our line. Then we would have to try to correct the line. And by the way I have a dept perception thing that makes holding the line hard. I don't see when we move off it. Got to get much better at that. We had a bit of a problem penning these easily penned sheep. Rave was much to close so we lost them around the back circling the pen instead of a nice easy flow into the pen. I should have been handling her more in the approach. I kind of was asleep at the switch as I thought they would go right in. My mistake!
Second run we had more trouble with our driving. She also cut in on her outrun and crossed over which she rarely does. Not the cutting in, she is to narrow on her outrun, but the cross over. She had to pass under the irrigation pipes that are up on high wheels to get to the sheep and I think the visual threw us both off. Anyway we called her back and reset up the outrun. I should have insisted that she widen out more at the beginning but didn't. She started coming in tight as she got abreast of the sheep but I was able to yell her back so at least the lift was better. I really need to quit being so indecisive in my corrections. If I am wrong she is just going to have to deal with it. L.P. said in his clinic that if the thought comes across our minds that they are wrong they probably are and correct!
Our second pen was much better although she was still pushing to close and tight. If the sheep had not been so pen broke we would have been in a bit of trouble there but as they where they went in. And we called it a day.
Accomplishments, Plans and Goals
*We are working in a big field and not loosing our minds ;-)
*Need to be consistent on my stop. DO NOT say stop when I mean slow down. This is a repeating theme
*Work for a better outrun. Rave is capable of going wider than I am accepting
*Continue to work on squaring flanks. Do more outside flanks and insist on it being square. Work half moons on the fence making sure she squares and doesn't move in on the flank
*Work the drill where we set the sheep up to want to go into a pen or exhaust, using the other sheep or food as a draw and have Rave push them back
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