A Sheeping We Will Go

   I am rejuvenated! Not that I wasn't enthusiastic before but all of the pressure is now gone and I can look forward to what's next... an ASCA farm trial! I love farm trials! Diva needs 1 leg to get her OFTDm title and I think we are in a good position to wrap that up nicely. We are two weeks out from that trial and my plan is to get Diva thinking "sheep" and chores.

   Today I was able to meet Rae at the Renn Farm to work and assess where Diva's mind is at. The good news is she was VERY steady and calm on her sheep. The bad news is that due to me dialing down on her she is back to looking at me a lot on the drive :-/. Also, our old nemesis of not completing her flanks until told otherwise (especially on the go by side) reared it's ugly head. She just loves to get to balance and bring them to me ;-)! I mainly worked on getting wide continuous flanks and she did get much better. My thought is that if I re-visit this enough in the next couple of weeks it will stop being an issue. We also worked on straight walk ups which is something of a pet peeve of mine. I have seen so many dogs in a trial situation that can't just walk straight into pressure and it teaches the stock to lean on the dog. What you end up with is a dog that has to constantly flank to make motion and/or the stock are zig zag around. Diva doesn't have a lot of power but I want her to use what she has effectively and it is my observation that if a dog comes in straight, holds, and waits 9 times out of 10 the stock will turn away even if the dog doesn't have a bite. This definitely works on sheep and it also works on cows. Patience, patience, patience! I need to continue to polish this in Diva as sometimes she wants to flip away or take a few steps either direction before walking in. This is often enough to turn the heads away from where they need to go.

  Overall I was pleased with her work today. Maryland has brought August weather back in full force so it was humid and rainy but she kept working and did a nice job of settling sheep that hadn't been worked by a dog much. The little bit of pen work we did today was also decent but before the farm trial I will have to make an effort to do some gate sorting and serious pen work practice. More pressure exercise! ;-)