Yesterday was a very nice day indeed. Had a relaxing morning and then headed up to farm to feed sheep. Not sure what I will do about separating mothers/lambs and those who do not get feed... as it is very hard to separate the two groups...
After that I headed to my friend's place to work dogs. Worked Joe and Dan. Dan did well, we worked on driving and a bit of shedding. Dan has a bad fault where if I put pressure on him, he will spin away, not because of sheep but because he believes I want him totally off the sheep, and it will get hit at trials as well as it tells the sheep the wrong message. I did some things in training him as a young dog, that I will never do again, and that is put a lot of pressure on a dog before they are ready. I feel like I am at least learning from my mistakes. Those of you who work dogs, learn from my mistakes! I was happy with Dan, except at one point he would NOT take a left flank. I see this at the beginning of trial season last year. So, I had to get closer and then we worked on freeing up that side...
Joe worked very well. Good out runs, and worked a bit on pace at the fetch. He did something very amazing though, that I want to share. I was on a hill looking down at him and having him cross drive to my left. He was moving with good pace, not fast, not slow. The sheep separated on him, into two groups. Without me saying a word he went out to bring in the further group back in, then, did a square flank to bring the group closer to me back in and then kept going. I did not say anything at all... I was absolutely well, amazed. Still am. What a very good dog.
I got home relatively early, and just relaxed a bit and lamented that I do have to mow my lawn very soon!
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