Working dogs today

Finally, the snow cleared out, the sun came out and I was able to work dogs this afternoon. I first had Jet bring the sheep out and worked with her a bit. Last fall she was giving me a little trouble on taking the come by flank. So, I worked her on that and got her to continue on her come by instead of stopping short. I also got her to loosen up on her flanks. A good session for her. As we finished I decided that we need to get back to walks to get all of us (me included) in better condition.

I then took Sting out to work. I worked him first on his come by side as that is the side that he wanted to come up short on last year. I worked him with the exercise that Vergil had me doing. I just had to do it once and he was like oh yeah, I remember that and was then flanking all the way and looked more relaxed. The exercise some of you might ask was that as soon as he leaves me I run following him. If he stops short I then scold him with a what are you doing in there?!?! And then flank him again with my continuing behind him. This is good physical exercise for me too. It was neat to see him remember us working on this two weeks ago. I then worked him on his away outrun which he did much easier. The other thing is that Vergil did not want him to be too close to me when I sent him. This causes Sting to go straight up the field and stop short. One other thing that I need to work on with Sting is that when I call him to me with a here he needs to "release" the sheep and come to me. This is an ongoing thing for me to work on with him. Sting comes to me, but goes around and watches the sheep as opposed to focusing on me.

And then Jet got to go out and bring the sheep in so that we could put them away.

All in all, it was a good afternoon. I can't ever complain when I get to work dogs.