Lots more work!

I've been getting the dogs worked about 4 days a week, sometimes a bit more! Wow what a difference:-))
We helped set sheep for a trial over the weekend and then got to work at my friends house on Sunday. Great work for the dogs. Sally, Bubbles and Patsy all got great work there; Abby set sheep Sat and was a bit tired. Abby was worked Tues-Thursday last week; I really have been pushing her now. She is experienced enough and needs to be held to a higher standard. Her outruns have been dismal at trials in particular but not great any where so those were the first thing to work on. They have been improving, I'm seeing her making some good decisions on her own without correction on my part. Today were the best outruns I've ever seen her do.
I rarely set me sheep for outruns, I usually just pick them up where they lie... Today I set them with grain and they are HUNGRY. Abby had nice outruns, lifts were still a bit rushed on the first one but the second I stopped her and it was beautiful!!! Drives were nice too. Now I'll be working on her flanks with running sheep again. She doesn't like to continue the flank when they want to run... So much better work overall though!!
Sally was great on Sunday and did pretty well with the grunt work today at home. She is so easy to do chores with her here at home. I think my friend Debby got some video of her work at her place.
Bubbles was much better this week too. She is starting to take stick pressure and not be as grippy on heels. Patsy had her hands full with some VERY light sheep that did not want any part of me or her! It was interesting to watch her think it through and figure it out!

Training videos

Ok first is Abby, the first minute or so there is nothing to see. It is a true blind outrun, I didn't know where the sheep were either! She did ok, the sheep got to my feet in a pretty straight line from what I could tell:-)) The lambs are just being broke to drive so the drive is pretty squiggly but its ok.





Second is Sally taking the school sheep up for lessons yesterday. Not her best work, she was being a bit of a pill actually! We got through it though.




Lastly is Bubbles, pretty shoddy to start. This is probably her 5th time on sheep or so, we are working on her not shutting down from the stick. You can see the sheep leave on her, takes a couple seconds to figure it out. She also did not like the line that was left on, it fell off as she finally decided to take after the sheep.

I have another video of Abbys work today but forgot to include it in the download so that will be posted later...

Wet and soggy work

Well we got work this weekend too but boy was it miserable! Rain, rain and more rain. Rain jackets didn't keep us dry or stop us working but icky!
Abby did some really nice work. Good outruns, driving was pretty good; though she was rolling off a little( I think cuz the sheep did not really want to go anywhere). Did a couple nice sheds and regather(lookbacks). Stops are better but still have to really get in her head to start, she just wants to rush through work! Really pretty happy though; mostly about her outrun improvement here. I am strongly thinking about entering her in the AHBA trial this weekend, it would be a good thing to see where we are for the upcoming Fall trials!
Sally did some work though not as much and she was PUSHY! Good work ethic as usual but boy she is like trying to slow down a Mack truck! Outruns were pretty good, still could have a better lift, fetch is really good though. Drives are better, though the flanks still need to be more square. Glad to be making the time to work dogs and now being able to see the results!

More work

Wow I got even more work on the girls this week.
Abby got some really good work on Monday and Tuesday. Below is a dogs eye pic of the tree field next door. So the dog has to be in the trees though the sheep are next to the fence where the pic was taken. It is a blind outrun once the dog leaves my feet. The trees are easy to get lost in too, but outruns even in here have been better this week.


Here is a human view of the same field you can see the grass strip on the fence where the sheep would be set. It is impossible to get pics of the dogs working in here though, I've got a hard enough time keeping track of where they are without looking through a lens:-))

I got a set of 5 ducks out for Sally this afternoon too. She did really well since we had a couple that didn't really want to play. I don't have any courses set up but I made a makeshift course with pipe sheep feeders. She did a nice job fetching, non-fetching ducks. Flanks were pretty good and the drive was nice. Funny enough she is much softer on the ducks then on sheep or goats. Even when they sull up she is soft about putting her mouth on them, I'm happy for that:-))

Life feels so much better when I can work my dogs!

Wow long time no post

Yes it really has been a long time; though the dogs have been getting worked thankfully. Lots of good work really. I entered a trial this Fall so figured I'd better make sure and fix some things that have gone astray...
Abby, Sally and Patsy have been getting a fair amount of work now. Bubbles has been on sheep 4x now and is really a nice working little dog. Lots of heel to her, good low bite mostly too:-) I'm hoping to get her PT this December.
Abby and Sally have been getting more outrun work than we've been doing. Outruns are the only thing really holding Sally back on Adv work and Abby and I need to work some things out on them too. At home the outruns are better than elsewhere. I got to work her two different places this weekend and the improvement was noticeable. Just need to get those results in trials too! Sally did well this weekend too, driving was strong, outruns were acceptable.
Patsy is working really nicely. Walk ups are improving, steadiness too. She is fun, just different from the cardis.