Then, Lucy and I would be floating on air, and in the upper classes- or at least SHE would. Lucy can drive and put sheep where ever I like. Lucy can well, do what I ask, correctly most of the time with small correction if leaning toward the wrong... But, that is well, nice, but if you don't have a stop, reliably, you are really hamstrung.
Now, don't get me wrong, Lucy is coming along, but it's just an echoing irritation at times. It's our one problem. But, Lucy is so good in other ways, it's just a good carrot dangling thing for me.
Today I was sorting sheep. I was trying to get the hair sheep out of the way. I had one more, who kept planting herself in the middle of the woolies. So, I had to flank Lucy 'come', and as she did, she was met with a big fat woolie butt, and then another woolie was positioned in such a way, that she either could not see Lucy, or pretended so. Lucy walked up and was nose to nose, well, it was Lucy's nose near the side of the woolies' face. I was actually surprised that there wasn't an explosion. Then, I asked her to come in more, because we were a big fat cluster. Lucy gripped her fairly, and that got the cluster shifted.
Still later, I had Lucy block some sheep from coming out of one pasture to the other. Now, they *really* want back in their favorite pasture, so, Lucy has to do some plain, good old fashioned sheepdog work. She has to push them back in (they were already through the gate) and ALWAYS there is one who tries to break back. Lucy *loves* this- blocking, pushing back. Whatever- it's real work to her, and she lives for it.
Lucy's pen work was good today- getting better each time- she is understanding the concept. Good girl.
After we worked, we went to the pond, and there were two geese in the pond. Lucy was wanting to work them (as in move them away). So, she went around the pond, and I kept asking her to get in that water... She FINALLY did, and swam after them like a champ. They were gone, and I think she would have followed them for miles, if there wasn't field fence in her way. She does like her goose work.
Then, Danny. Well, Danny has just been watching. But, today my friend suggested I put the sheep in the small pen we have been practicing penning with (4 woolies), and see what he does. Well, my friend popped Danny into the field, and I was with Lucy near the pen. Danny was, ahem, quite interested in the sheep. He began RUNNING around it. Now, he had done this playing with another pup, so I thought maybe it was that memory. Then, he started to respond to the sheep moving- they were understandably worried about this little hellion running hell bent around them. At one point he stopped and one woolie mock charged/rammed toward him and it didn't' faze him in the least. Okay, good enough for now. I took Danny out of the pasture so I could move the sheep back to the other pasture, and sure enough, as I was worried, Danny made it through the combo panel (you know, those panels that are small rectangles at the bottom and squares further up.). YIKES. It wouldn't be so bad if Lucy wasn't such a fetching fool. So, I grabbed him up, and made a mental note to remember that Danny now KNOWS how to get in with the sheep....
On the way home, Danny got his last puppy shot. He will be 15 weeks tomorrow, and weighs 18 lbs. Slowly growing. I really don't think he will be very big. Lucy was 18 lbs at 13 weeks and is normal at about 33 lbs. But, he is a male, so maybe he will be about what she is + a few.
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