The whole not the parts

I had a pretty good day yesterday. Work was good, and then I went home, popped Lucy and Danny into the car, and headed to the farm, to give some mineral to the sheep, but also do a bit of work with the steers. Yes, the steers. These are not calves, they are about two year old steers, and they are somewhat people tame, but not dog broke.

The last debacle when the steers ran with the sheep, made me realize that I needed Lucy to be able to work these animals, at the minimum, to move them off into another pasture so I can work the sheep. The pasture where the sheep currently live is still to heavily forested, so it is not doable to work Danny on them there.

So, I got to the farm and grabbed a long (really long) line, so I could have a hold of her, if she got a bit big for her breeches.

Wouldn't you know that the first steer we meet is the smaller hyper one that caused the stampede. I walked Lucy up to him, and she looked at me as if to say "Uh, THIS? what do you want me to do with THIS?" She went behind me to my left and to my right. I encouraged her and she ran at the steer, and then went back. Then she ran again and barked. I told her she was a good girl, and then she finally went up and bit, well, you would call it a bite, but on such a big head, I doubt she got any purchase, the steer, and he swung around and cow kicked. Luckily I had Lucy on that line, because she wanted to follow through.

We did the same thing to the other black steer, and then it was time for the white headed steer. He had his head down and was just curious. Lucy by this time was well practiced and in one motion (after I told her to get him) she ran up and bit him on his forehead, which I know she made contact because a big cloud of dust came up. He backed up and then they all left.

Later, I decided to walk her into the pasture, and she was gung-ho to get on with it. Glad I had a line on, because she was pulling me to get to them. Didn't take much for them to take off running and Lucy wanted after them badly.

So, she did it. It is not easy- those are big animals, and she has never been near them. Now she's all for it.

Oh, then I decided to try and do some shedding with my sheep. They are so flighty, Lucy worked her butt off, and only got 1, 1/2 a shed.

So, then it was time to go home. When there I threw the ball for Danny, and the Frisbee for Lucy, who is now back to normal energy wise, ergo, she had lots of speed catching those Frisbees.

As I sat there early evening, I thought about what my girl just did for me. She did it because I asked her to. She plucked up the courage, based on her trust in me. As she lay there near me in bed, I patted her and thanked her for being there for me.

Why I focus on her sheepdog trial faux pas so much, when there is so much more to her, I will never know. I need to remember that it's the whole package, not just one piece that matters.