Having A Good Exit Strategy

    Sunday morning saw Jessica, Myst, Diva and I back out at Hog Dog ready to work. When we got there the sheep were already in from the pasture and some what sorted so I started with Myst in the round pen. Myst is now fully aware of what it means when she gets out of the vehicle at the farm and her exuberance is demonstrated both vocally and physically ;-). Jessica was getting upset so I had to remind her how many times I used to have to walk Diva away from the gate before she would calm down enough to be taken in. I swear we went backwards more than forwards in those early days. Anyway, it's something that Jessica needs to work on at home as well as at the farm for it to really take affect. From my perspective I would much rather see her pulling towards sheep and ready to go than sniffing around disinterested.


   I started her out again just to make sure she wasn't going to be naughty but quickly got frustrated with her circling because I couldn't move fast enough. The issue is that I don't want the circling to become a habit and I don't want correct her for circling. Later on we will want her watching those heads and covering, so for now just moving to help her natural instinct direct her is best. Jessica is doing a great job picking things up and I am feeling very comfortable that Myst isn't going to hurt the sheep so once she settled a little I handed over the stick and took up my position on the fence. There are 3 videos of her working and I will share them in a minute but first I have to give praise where praise is due. Last week Myst was taking a down much better than the week before but this week she had improved yet again! She is downing when the sheep are at balance pretty consistently for her age and this gives us something to work with in the round pen. Jessica's dry work on "down" is showing. I expect that if things continue as they have been she will be ready to move to the arena and do walk abouts soon.

    That is one very keen puppy, lol! Good job Jess for keeping up and not falling over any sheep ;-). 

    After we put Myst away I took Diva out to sort a few sheep. I had Jessica come with me and once we had our group of 4 sheep I spent some time setting up little outruns and drives so that I could quiz Jess on her directions and why sending the dog a certain way was best under certain circumstances. Diva was gracious enough to demonstrate some nice outruns as well as a few go by slices ;-). Once we had played around with that I headed for the pasture to work at the free standing pen again. I know what you all must be thinking but I really did learn my lesson ;-). This time I opened the gate wide and I started by standing in the opening. Diva worked it out pretty quickly and we penned/un-penned a few times before moving on. The next exercise was with me standing about 15 feet away from the pen. The sheep were being just cagey enough that she was not successful the first couple of tries but she stuck to it and did get them in. I had her hold the opening, then un-pen, and we set it up one last time. On that last try Diva only penned two of the 4 sheep but what made it a big deal was as she was walking up she finally locked on, rated, and self adjusted to "hold" the two sheep that were trying to join their buddies. Like a smart handler I gave her the "that'll do" and praised profusely! Our total work time was probably all of 15 minutes long but it was enough. See I told you I learned from my mistake :-). 

   So why did I think it was successful if only 2 sheep went in? It was because of her demeanor at that moment and the way she was watching the stock. I wanted to mark that moment for her and end there because I know that Diva will remember that. It is the way she is. I had anticipated keeping things short and sweet after Wednesday but this was the most perfect set up I could have hoped for. It isn't always about the how long you work or what you do. Sometimes you need to have a good exit strategy to ;-).