Friday, November 7, 2008

Weekend Plans

Whew. I know I owe on the dog bios, but that'll just have to wait until my computer decides it's going to cooperate with me again... or until I'm back at work on Monday... whichever comes first. I've borrowed CR's computer for a few moments while I'm waiting for him to get home from work. Since I was off of work on vacation today, I managed to get my yard mowed, house vacuumed, some tidying up done, and then snuck over here to work dogs and walk dogs. Here shortly I'm to meet my Dad, brother & family, and sister over at the seafood place near the house for dinner.

I managed to get Nick, Raven, and Linc each worked twice today. Nick worked about like normal - and I managed to sort him out a nice driving group second time out. Raven and I worked on driving some - switching sides mostly. It took her until the second go until it seemed like she was "getting it" but she was in fact getting it. It was even more helpful when I realized how badly my timing was sucking, and got more on the spot about stopping her sooner. Duh! She pushed the sheep on out ahead of me about 30 to 40 yards or so also, which is something she's not been willing to do yet. She doesn't have a lot of steering on her yet, so mostly I just let her go on and stopped her and repositioned myself behind her if she tried to flank around.

I also took her in to do some practical work - gate sorting, and the like. She looked at me initially like I had lost my mind, but took to it fairly quickly. She didn't want to flank on around the sheep to my feet to push them away (and I don't know if she's done that before) so we worked a little on that, and on just being patient at the gate while I sorted sheep. She did well, very well. She seemed to really like what we were doing, once she relaxed and understood that we had a task to do.

Linc was a wildman, as usual. I worked him out in the 3 acre field, mostly because the roundpen here is uneven ground and wild puppy + uneven ground + somewhat uncoordinated me = me on my behind. He was keen, fast, and furious, and I wasn't making much of an impression on him.

At any rate, my back is a tad iffy today, and second go I just ran out of patience at the getting run over thing. As I said, I wasn't making much of an impression on Linc, and so I finally came through the sheep and got his attention. Whatdoyouknow he looked at me like, "well, why didn't you say so?" and settled RIGHT in behind the sheep and was looking quite amazing. Good boy Linc. When he stopped being a yahoo he settled right onto balance, was reading and feeling his sheep so nicely it was a little like driving a Cadillac.

But anyway, I've been hesitant to do that (and I didn't do much more than come through the sheep, stick in hand, and ask him what he was doing in a quite emphatic, but gruff tone), and I hope it wasn't the wrong thing. I suppose when your first dog is prone to quitting (as June was) sometimes it makes one slightly inclined to soft step around. And he's still quite young...

Tomorrow CR is coming over to lend a hand on fixing my fence, YAY! That thing is a rattletrap, and I've been very disappointed at all of the warping and pulling it's done. Well, you get what you pay for (danged wooden fence) and the folks who did it were the cheapest. Bah.

Sunday we're all headed out to Julie's to take a lesson with Robin. That should be loads of fun as there are lots of folks coming out, and it's going to be a beautiful day! Friends, sun, food, and dog working - sounds perfect to me!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the new blog look. :) I always really enjoy reading about your journey. Good times.

Deb said...

Lovely page!! The blog looks great! I really like the photos of your gang, too.

Deb

Laura Carson said...

Thanks gals! I really agonized over moving it, but I think it was the right decision. It's a lot easier to read, and manage for sure!