Working the cornfield.........

The neighbor who owns all of the fields around us has graciously allowed me to go out and work my dogs in his fields. I am internally grateful. Here is Sting patiently waiting for Corbie and I to bring the sheep up to the field. I chose to have Corbie bring the sheep up so that I wouldn't tire Sting out too much.

Corbie took some convincing to bring the sheep up......you know, I had to twist her little leg to get her to do it. LOL Not really.

I then worked Corbie on some of her driving out in the corn field. You can see the bales of corn silage that I used for obstacles while they were there.

Corbie working on some cross driving.

Here I had her drive the sheep thru some of the bales as an obstacle. As you can see by looking beyond the sheep this is a nice, big field. The whole area I would estimate at somewhere between 50-60 acres. This is a dream field for me to be working in. I kick myself for not asking him sooner if I could work my dogs out there.

I then worked Sting on some outruns. I was able to set up some long outruns for him. Probably some of the longest outruns that he has ever done. Each time that I have gone out on this field I can see his confidence growing and growing.

I then worked Sting on some driving.

And some cross driving. The pictures are deceiving as he is much further away from me than it looks. I did use the zoom lens on the camera for these shots.

And some more driving. These pictures were taken on November 1st. I did have him out on this field again on Friday, November 4th and had him driving at a much greater distance from me. It is so much fun working him out on a big field.

What I am noticing is that he is learning so much from being out on this field as there are no draws for the sheep and there doesn't seem to be any pressures on the field. So, it is teaching Sting more about holding lines and just going with the sheep. We are both learning so much from working out on the "big" field.

I then had him do some more outruns. Each time I take him out and do outruns, I see him figuring out things more and more. When I had him out on the 4th I watched him kick way out when he didn't know where the sheep were at.

He still wants to over-flank on the top, but I figure that has come from him wanting to come up short earlier in the year and how we worked on keeping him going around. I am thinking that eventually things will work out so that he lands more at balance. I am so looking forward to getting out and working some more on this field before the snows come.

And then Corbie went out to bring the sheep back in.

Look Ma, herding on only two legs.