Highwood Stockdog Series- Round 2

Well this round didn't go as I anticipated.

Brit had an incident with a cranky ewe last week at my lesson. She was chased and threatened and of course being the chicken she is would not stand up to her. Sigh. So we tried our best to get the ewe moving and let Brit take control but it didn't end so good. So I was worried going in to the trial that she would be afraid to come up behind them. My plan was to just jazz her up and let her bowl them to me. lol. Good plan eh?

The first round she did manage to get them going- but it took quite a bit of time and encouragment from me. We finished strong though, and I let her run them a bit to get some excitement built for the next one.

The second round was rough. She couldn't lift them at all. And after a few seconds of watching her worry about it I marched up there to help her out. With the help of a guy from the chutes we got them moving ourselves and then I sent Brit behind them so she could feel as though she did it. LOL.

So no glory this time, but I was still happy with the work she did on the first round. She had to really push and she did it, but she just didn't have enough confidence to do it a second time. I know that my dog is a bit of a chicken. She has no eye, and won't face off a ewe. Heck, we couldn't even get her to grip at the lesson last week.... I am pretty sure this likely won't ever change. I would be very surprised if it did. Brit's kind of an open book.

So I am not sure what the plan is. I have zero experience with this in relation to stock. But I do know that if this is like any other bad experience it will probably take quite a lot of good experiences to overshadow the bad. I need to find some local sheep that I can use. Once a week won't be enough to get over this, and I can't afford more than that. Gas, Time, and Lesson costs add up pretty fast!

The next trial isn't until the end of January so we have a while- but if her confidence isn't up by then I am not sure if I will just pull her, or forfeit my run and go with her. Time will tell I guess!

Plans are in the works to try and get our own sheep- we have a friend who has some space on her acreage... But there are lots of fences to fix, and a slight weed problem to deal with first.. Maybe we need to get a goat first to eat all the weeds.... ;)

The video of her first run