Working dogs this week

I was able to get out and work dogs twice this week. We have a thick crust of snow that all of us are able to walk on without breaking thru too badly. There is about 3 - 4 inches of snow on top of it, but I can walk thru that easily enough.

They are both working very nicely. Corbie is taking her inside flanks and squaring them off nicely. I guess that is one nice thing about her not being too strong eyed, she will release the sheep. She also gives to my pressure fairly easily. I do need to work with her and having other people around so that she can get more comfortable with others being there and that it okay to take the sheep away from another person and their dog. Hopefully I can do that a little bit tomorrow at Polly's.

Cash will still come in flat on his come bye if I let him. So I have to remind him that it is not acceptable. He is also a stronger eyed dog and it tends to "suck" him in on his outruns and on his driving. I have to be much more proactive with him on getting his commands out while driving before it's too late. If I am the least bit late and I can end up with the sheep starting back towards me. In the snow today it gave me time to get him back around and pushing the sheep back where I wanted. But on an open field with no snow to slow the sheep down, I really have to be on my toes with him. Because of his being a strong eyed dog, he is harder to get to give and square his inside flanks. I just need to figure out how to correct that with him. I know that I need to always insist that he square his flanks. Maybe I need to go back and do some of the exercises that I did with Jag, such as the one I learned while at Sheep Camp.

Both of them had to push on the sheep in the snow because they didn't want to go in directions away from the barn/gate. It is a good thing for both of them to work on as they can use building their push on heavy sheep.