Spice and I took a herding lesson today. Mike was able to come so we have great photos and several video segments. The photos show lots of shadow - due to the heat, we started our lesson very early in the morning while the sun was still low in the sky. I uploaded video segments from the
second time and
third time in pen with sheep. Take-aways from today:
- Spice is getting more comfortable around her sheep. We spend a good bit of time getting Spice to circle between the sheep and the fence while I gradually walked the sheep closer and closer to the fence. We are seeing improvement in her confidence.
- We are beginning to walk and transition Spice to following behind versus circling continuously. Spice still defaults to circle mode but she is doing much better We had a few spectacular bobbles with sheep flying everywhere and me running back to the sheep as fast as I could go in the tall grass.
- Spice showed even better sustained interest in the stock. It was hot and she is running or loping in the tall grass - very rarely walking now when she is working her sheep. The constant running wears her out quickly in the heat. Hoping to calm and slow her down so she runs less and has more stamina in the pen.
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| Practicing stays - Spice in photo rear |
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| Multitasking - cooling down and watching sheep |
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| Giving Mom a short break - I get dizzy after a zillion circles! |
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| Working her sheep |
