Saturday, February 28, 2009

Nobody does it better....



On the way home today, this song came on the radio- I have always loved this song. I thought of Darci's "Bear" and her recent post about his virtues as a sheepdog. How he is everything she could want. So, that ones for you (too) Darci.

The reason I say "too" is that today, while working Lucy, she did two things that really made my day.

On the last fetch of the day, as she was fetching away from the draw (sheep were bound to run toward me, and that has always been hard for her to have pace on) Lucy came in, lifted very nicely and never ONCE broke into a canter. She maintained a very nice trot, all the way to me. I about fell over. My friend who was holding, knew that I thought it was great, because we just ended there. WOW. That was a 20/10/20 if ever I saw it, and I never said a thing.

But, the coup de gras of the day, was this:

There were other folks working sheep in the adjoining pasture, and Lucy noticed this, because it was a young dog, and the sheep were a bit crazed- along the fence.
I had let my sheep drift up to the fence, and be near their friends. I then sent Lucy away. She ran up, and was met with a milling, want to be with their friends group of sheep. She stopped at first, not sure what to do, because there were TWO groups, a bit confusing. I half heartedly yelled "away", so that she would get along that fence, and get them. At one point the sheep split/scattered. I held my tongue. Next thing I know, I have 5 sheep (what we started with), all starting to come back together, and heading toward me. My lass knew the job- bring me the sheep, just bring them. And, she did.

Lucy knows the bottom line. I will forever be thankful to the sheepdog gods for allowing me to have such a wonderful sensible dog.

Yeah, nobody does it better. Thanks Luce, for yet another wonderful memory.

2 comments:

Darci said...

Ha! Thanks for for thinkng of us! I spect there are those that can "Do it Better" but he is plenty good enough for me! I just especially love those moments when they make my heart soar, and bring tears of joy to my eyes. Sounds like you and Lucy are tooling right along and getting past the curve as well. Good too cause it wont be long, and before you know it she is gonna need to show Danny boy there, the ropes. He is growing fast, gonna be a big boy from the looks of it.

Dancing shepherdess said...

It really doesn't matter if someone can do it better, truly. It matters that your dog does it best for you. I don't know about Lucy and me- we always find those hair pin curves ;) But, she does some really cool stuff- keeps my motor running, that's for sure. We'll see about Danny-- not sure how big he'll get- he's still a midget. He is smaller than my cat ;) His dad is 38 lbs and 20.5". That's shorter than Lucy, but a weightier. His mom is quite small- but who knows, maybe this cross is going to produce whoppers! All I want is for him to fit in my car crates :)