A "full" weekend

What a weekend. First, there was Friday, wherein I worked Lucy. We worked a long time, and at the end, I sent her for sheep to pull off a set out person/dog. They were about done- the sheep, and they didn't want to go. Lucy didn't know what to make of it- maybe SHE was tired? Anyway, her head went down to graze. We ended when she came out of her funk. That worried me a bit. So, I made a mental note to work her again this weekend- to see if it was a "one off".

Saturday it rained later in the day. I stayed home, and made peanut butter cookies, and a nice roast chicken dinner. Cookies were great. Chicken etc., was great too, except for one little detail. I put the bird in upside down. I learned this by trying to get at the breast, and finding bone. DUMMY I am. Well, at least the breast meat was nice and moist :) The dogs all got some chicken in their dinners- I thought they might choke they downed the food so fast!

Sunday I worked Lucy again- not too long. I sent her, and at first the sheep wouldn't go- they can be fickle this new group. Not like the Dorsets who always look to run from a dog. Anyway, she had trouble moving them, and then she bumped them hard and circled. Ick. So, I got in closer (I started very far away). Then, I sent her, and again. What I learned is that no, these sheep don't move away easily, and Lucy has to remain completely focused as she comes in to Affect a change-that is, them moving off. Hmmm. Odd. I hadn't seen this issue before. So, finally, we got through that, by me having her down at the top, walk in a bit, and then down again, and then forward. It gave the sheep a chance to think about moving and Lucy time to think about how to do it. I don't see this as a fault in her so much, as an example of what can happen when you only work light not look at the dog sheep. So, now that we have access to the latter, I shall hope things move along well.

After we did that, I had to get the group out of the corner. Lucy has a bad habit of not sticking close to the fence coming in on the corner, and this not only does not pull sheep out of a corner, it smashes them against the fence ahead of them. Again, not something we work on. There was the added pressure of other sheep just on the other side of the fence from them, but still, we needed to get her to be able to do this. So, with the help of my friend (thank GOD for their help), I put Lucy on a leash, and had her walk around tight to the fence. Wouldn't you know? One ewe thought that she would face up Lucy. Great. Lucy did grip her nicely on her top knot. This happened more than once- as we did repetitions to get her comfy with this. At one point the ewe butted her- I felt the shudder of her head on my leg, and Lucy returned the volley without hesitation. Finally, we had the sheep moving out of the corner well. It is something that we will work on each time we work sheep- the proper way (stay on the fence line) to move sheep out. If you do that, they WILL move- otherwise, they have to fight, because you squished them up there, you ninny! I will give her credit. Lucy has never let any of this stuff knock her back. She's like me- lots of patience, but once you really stick it to me, I tend to respond in kind :)

Okay, that was long (PHEW!). Last thing for the day, I went and looked at property that I might be able to keep sheep on. It's about 12 miles from my house and very close to my day job. It will need to be brush hogged and fenced. I think we will work out the fence installation as payment for the first ? period of rental. It looks like a good place, and will allow me to stay close to home to work sheep. That will be good. The folks who own the place seem quite keen to do this, so we shall see :)

So, as you can see, quite a full weekend. I think I will rest well tonight!