Easter Vacation: New York Here We Come!

    Last week was Easter vacation for the kids so we loaded and headed to New York to visit family. One of my favorite parts about getting home, besides seeing my family, is that I get to go work stock with Dawn and Amanda. Dawn's schedule was very busy but we did manage to get in some sheep and cattle time, yay! 

   We started our day at Dawn's house working sheep and I had made mention that Diva was needing work on her away side while fetching. Of course I no sooner said that than she went out and did some truly beautiful work, which included several gorgeous aways. Seriously, it was picture perfect and I am not one prone to bragging unless it's warranted. Diva was working calmly and deliberately so the effect on the sheep was very calming. They settled immediately and moved nicely where she asked them to go. I was beaming and Diva was smiling! Amanda took some pictures on my camera so I have a few to share :-). 

    After working the sheep we headed over to Sue's to work cattle. I got a first hand taste of what it is like to try and take your own photos while working your dog...it isn't pretty, lol. Diva was tired (not really in shape after a long winter break) and she also didn't want to slog through the "mud" that took up one side of the pen we were using. He reluctance lead to slow response times taking commands and me getting frustrated so there was a point I had to put the camera down and go out and really work my dog. Sue's cattle are so nicely broke and they really want to be right. I love that they will fetch right to you and this allowed me to try and be quiet while Diva got back on track and watched her stock. Of course this also means I had cows close up in my camera lens a time or two ;-). Towards the end I think things finally shifted and Diva got a boost of over confidence. This lead to a naughty moment where she blew into the cattle and almost pushed them over top of poor Enya who was helping by holding one side. Enya was fine and Diva got her proper chastising so we finished up with some more fetching and called it quits. I really need to find cattle closer to home again so that I can put some time into getting Diva to work farther away and even more independently. We all know that giving commands is a vicious cycle. Once you open your mouth it seems like you have to say more and more or else you have the dog stopping and looking back. I accepted a long time ago that Diva needs to check in with me, but there is room for improvement and that will only happen with consistent opportunities. It was wonderful to work cattle again though and I am eternally grateful that Dawn continues to make this happen for me every time we get up to NY. My plan is to work sheep as much as possible while continuing to look out for new cattle opportunities and of course looking forward to being back in NY in May!