After what seemed an ever lasting hiatus, Lucy and Danny got to work sheep yesterday. I took some time off of work, and headed up to my friend's place. Long drive, put about 300 miles total, on my car. But, the weather and good company made up for it (oh, and the yummy lunch too!).
I first worked Lucy she did well, but we had the issue as we had last time where she is hesitant to pull sheep that are held to my friend. Since this person has done some training with Lucy, I am betting she is just too submissive. It causes the sheep to think she's wishy washy, and then she has to bust them to move them. When sheep are on their own she's fine. Not sure what to do about this. But, her fetches were decent, and her driving was great. These are those tricky Scotties, so I was pretty proud of her.
Danny didn't get a lot of work, but I worked him in the huge field. Danny was a bit tight on his flanks, but he widened out. A couple times he lost his head, but always kicked back and re-grouped calmly. Remember, he hasn't worked sheep in three weeks. Toward the end of the short session, he got his groove on and looked very nice. We will get there, but no rush, as I want correct flanks at all times, before we go back to trying long outruns again, because it will set us up to fail if we don't have flanks correct. His downs were good, and he took my growl at the top to hitch up his plodding right into them. I don't want to make him mechanical at this point and down him at the top all the time. That's not what I want. I want a dog who comes up at the top and minds his p's and q's.
When we left, Lucy was tired. So tired in fact that she actually lay down and close her eyes on the front seat. She never does that. I was really tired too. Got home, and Ginger had not peed on my bed (YEAH!). Had some cereal for dinner and just went to bed. It was a great day.
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