I have entered Hana at a stock trial in July, so we have been doing our best to get to work the sheep once if not twice a week.
Well, words can't describe how thrilled I am with the way my girl works. She has so many skills that I never taught the boys. I don't know if that is because she has more instinct or if I just know better, but I have never had the pleasure of working a dog like her.
I love to watch her, she will move the slow ones by turning her head or her shoulder, all the while keeping her eye on the fast ones. Her drive is lovely.. and I never thought she would figure out driving... cross drive is amazing and she can be so quiet. Sure there are times when she likes to mix it up, but for the most part, she is nice and calm and business like.
Last night she worked the new set of lambs. I was worried we would have lamp chops, but she read them beautifully and was able to contain them without them running.
We even penned them! Paulie got her boy to get them in the pen first, then we tried and succeeded!
We are working on getting her to quietly pick them up and bring them in to me after a cross drive. I have her hold them in front and want her to circle on the fence and bring them to me in the center, sometimes she cuts in too fast and splits, so I set up that exercise a lot. She will lay down at the top of her outrun and come under the panels at the center pen to take the sheep out. If I need her to get back from the center pen, she will turn, walk away, turn back to the sheep, square up and lay down. Pretty cool stuff. Not sure how I taught her all this, but it is a total blast and it is amazing the options you have when you have a dog working like this.
I hope that we have a good showing in July, my only goal is not a Q, but to have a run that makes me go WOW...
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