Learning to Drive

Today, we finally made it to Lore's to work sheep, and wouldn't you know it, we ended up with flurries so heavy that everyone was covered with snow in a minute.  Lore and Bonnie had the best weather and their arena practice  was really nice, with Bonnie calling off and doing an inside flank to begin her drive.  Loved it.

Next was Drummer who showed no sign of sickness today (thank goodness). He worked in the arena on the same sheep Lore used and he was a dream dog, switching flanks easily and happily.  I did notice, though, that when I sent him on his gather after doing three inside flank changes, he was quick to lose his distance on the gather and needed to be reminded to stay out.  We did not lie the dogs down before changing flanks.  We just called them and when they turned to come towards us we changed our inside shoulder and just let them swing by in front of us into the other flank.  Nice.

I used the Supremes for Hunter's drive in the round pen and I was so pleased.
He was powerful enough to keep them away from me and do a couple of inside flank changes before being sent for the gather.   It's hard to get more than one inside flank when the sheep are running towards the handler before the dog even gets sent. Lol.

 Rem was full of go and he worked in the round pen and also wanted to run closer to the sheep on a gather after his drive practice.  Lore pushed him out a couple of times and he was super.  The Supremes were just too clingy and so Lore opted for a lighter bunch and that helped, too. I couldn't stay to watch Daisy as today was the day to get winter tires off the van, but I am sure she did fine because the method is broken down so that the dogs can be successful.

We were both really happy with the fact that the dogs seemed to know their sides better than before.

Can't wait to go again.   Thank you to wonderful, patient sheep and more patient dogs.

There is a light at the end of this tunnel...... driving.  Hmmm. Whodathunk?