Herding Lesson

Today Brit and I headed out to Alta Pete for another lesson. We have found our groove and for the first time I felt a little bit confident in what I was supposed to do. lol. Brit's outruns are very nice all of a sudden, and although she can still cut in a bit on the top it is still 100x's better than before. What really sucked were the lie downs. And I was using a non-grumpy voice and everything. They actually started out pretty well, and then went to shit. So we worked on some lie down drills, and she worked through her little pout pretty well. Other than her crappy stops she was pretty wonderful. Listening, and trying hard.

 Oh and for the first time we picked up the sheep from where Jenny was standing and Brit circled right around them- and of course she wouldn't stop when I asked her. So we worked on that a bit more- gather and stop, gather and stop.

She is a sensitive girl and today was the first time that we really pushed her to the point where she wasn't so happy to work. But we let her flank a little bit to rebuild some confidence and ended on a pretty decent down.

I'm not sure how I can really work on that anymore at home. I can down on her on the way to a toy, on a recall, and playing with a dog. We'll have to work a bit harder on it though- throw in some new challenges or something. I need for her to have a solid stop so that I can think. lol.

On the way home we went to PetSmart and she got to pick out a new toy, and I bought cookies, and cat treats. She had a good time sniffing stuff and meeting people, and I felt the disapproving stare of the store "dog trainer" as my cute little border collie jumped all over me and pulled on her leash. It made me smile.