Dawn's farm presents a great chance to work on sorting and pen work that I don't usually get so that is where I started with Diva. I was very happy to see that her lack of confidence on cattle had not carried over to sheep. She was eager to work and listening well. Our problem with sorting has always been the fact that Diva doesn't understand the concept of holding pressure and walking in to split the sheep. I tend to over command her and then she starts watching me and things don't go well. Don't get me wrong, we manage to do it but it isn't pretty and polished like I would like it to be. I started out trying to sort one ewe and her twin lambs from the flock but it wasn't go so easily. Dawn pointed out I was in the wring position and talking to much ;-). To make things easier we took it down to just the ewe, her twin lambs, and three other sheep. Diva and I still struggled to make things happen but eventually we did get the right ones in there. Dawn suggested that I needed to first work on shedding and then apply that to my sorting so that is what we will do next time.
Our next session involved the flock and working on the free standing pen. Diva gets out wide now but her circle lacks speed. I don't know if I will ever get her back to the speed she once had but that is another training goal. It took us a while to get everyone in and Desmond the ram was the last to go. Even though it wasn't pretty I stuck with my plan to make everything positive so Diva and I had a little party once I closed the gate. Much to my surprise when I sent Diva in the pen to pull everyone back out Desmond put his head down and challenged. I was equally surprised to watch Diva transform before my eyes and really get in his face. She never once backed down and Desmond left the pen. That should have been enough but one of the wethers crammed himself in the back and also started to challenge Diva. I really didn't have to say much of anything because she was focused and serious about the challenge. It was an awesome moment for her and I was beaming!
As the day went on we got to a point where all of the dogs were accompanying us everywhere and helping out as needed. Diva helped out with one puppy on sheep which was a cool experience on it's own. I stayed outside the small pen and Dawn went in with Diva and the puppy. At one point one of the lambs made a break for it and managed to get through the gate and back to the flock. I sent Diva out to bring the flock back from the arena (I am still outside the fence) so we could re-sort of the ewe and her two lambs. This for me was probably the coolest part of the day. Dawn was at the gate and Diva brought the sheep. I gave her one command and then I couldn't see her so dawn said to just be quiet. Lo and behold Dawn and diva sorted the right sheep with out a word and on the first try! Point made, lol. It's me. Pretty funny when someone else can sort with your dog without saying a word ;-).
We ended our girl's day by heading over to work cattle at a local farm. These cattle were very light and not into challenging which is exactly the type of cattle Diva likes to work. She did an awesome job being steady, driving around, working halfmoons on the fence, and holding pressure when needed. I was very happy with her work and decided to end after just one short session (score for me for being a good handler ;-)).
No comments:
Post a Comment