No Hables Ingles

That means "Don't speak English" in Spanish. Apparently, Dan lost either his hearing or his comprehension of my whistles, or both. I went to a friend's place to work him. First, we worked on shedding, he did well- once I remembered to look at the sheep I wanted to shed. I am really not good at remembering things....

Then, we went to another field with a small group of sheep and left the main flock next door, to my left as I stood at one end of the field. E held the sheep for me, and I sent Dan away. He was good on his outrun, but over ran, for some reason he does not pay attention on that away side like he should (working with the lambs is helping him, but my regular sheep ruin any form of lift). So, he over ran, and then came in at the over ran angle and moved the sheep way off line to the right side drive away panels. I whistled and I whistled, NO HABLES INGLES, Dan said. He ended up bringing them nicely through those drive panes. OY VEY.

I then went to the opposite side of the field, sent him come by and his lift was spot on, so freaking nice. He then got them going but had no pace, and just tailed them down on the fetch. I then decided to work on some flanks a bit closer on the fetch and he took them. Wow, nothing like going some where different and seeing what you weak spots are. Then, we worked on pulling the sheep off the fence, as they were just sticking there looking to be with the main flock. Dan starts his flanks nice, but zoomed through between them and fence, and I forgot I am supposed to lay him down on the fence once he gets them off. We repeated this action until he was tired, and then we got some good calm fence pulling.

We then worked on a Maltese cross and Dan didn't have much finesse at first (as in he lurched at them) but then we got it. Lots to work on. The pen stuff I can do with the barn. The fence I can do at home, but the appropriate lift/fetch flanks I have to work with someone who can hold sheep. We certainly have our work cut out for us.

So, that's that for now!