Being that our next herding clinic is only a few short weeks away I wanted to spend a little time working on Reese's manners around sheep. For those that know Reese you know that she is a gung ho girl. She doesn't do anything half a$$ if she is going to do it she will give it her all. Insert "impulse control work" here. Reese has learned so much impulse control with agility and other dogs running etc. in the last year. The 180 degree shift in how she is now compared to where she was is quite amazing.
But she is still very gung ho to work sheep and while she should be, she still needs to have self control. Because she sometimes forgets her sheep manners the plan was to walk Reese through the pasture on leash and work on her walking nicely in the presence of sheep and calling her off from where she was back to me while on leash etc.
Well the next thing I hear is my trainer tell Reese, "If you want to work sheep you have to listen to me..."
Um, huh?? I thought we were just going to take a walk in the pasture.
To my surprise our trainer decided to give it a go and see how Reese would do working.
She was giving it her all and really trying. Such a good girl. We moved some of the sheep to the round pen to really let her work and work she did. She was amazing! She remembered all that she learned from the clinics we attended this summer. It has been awhile since she has worked stock so I wasn't sure how many steps back we would need to take, but she is back where we left off.
She did just wonderful. She was thinking...and listening... and understanding what was being asked of her. She called off the sheep, she downed when asked. I was so proud of her. She is such a good girlie. She tries so hard and that hard work is paying off. She is really getting it and understanding what working is.
The new Reese....chasing = balls, working = sheep!
1 comment:
She is doing awesome and so are YOU! :) Keep up all the hard work!
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