Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Everyone has a great herding Monday!

AMAZING BREEZE-the highlight of the whole day!!!!!!

What can I say? Breeze is amazing.
She stayed very sound-YIPPIE!
She has been exposed to sheep twice as a baby, she did one lesson with a crappy trainer who did not teach her anything several months ago, and now she has started with Robin and just did her second lesson
SHE IS AMAZING!!!!!
We are planning on trialing her soon, we are going to skip the HT which is the first step in herding and go to the PT level, which should be fun!



What makes me feel so good is that Breeze is a high drive dog, and she has not been doing so well holding up physically lately with agility, so I do feel like herding is going to be a little easier on her and we are still trying some things in agility but if she really is not able to do that....she can still have an activity to keep her happy and healthy, that is what it is all about, right?


It was HERDING MONDAY and everyone got a turn yesterday!

Here are some pictures from the ranch where we go herding:



the orange trees on the side of the herding corral



Some of the sheep taking a nap at lunch time




like I said EVERYONE got to do some herding yesterday-which made for a busy day.

LIZ: First off Liz got to try her hand and did the best she has ever done. My kids were not around so I had no one to video her. There was a HUGE puddle in the middle of the herding round pen and Liz LOVED that. She must have rolled in the mudd a thousand times, the stinky mudd with a lot of sheep poo and pee in it, yep she was LOVELY by the time we left. When we got home she had to go STRAIGHT to the sink to be washed even though it was after 8 pm, I love her VERY much but she was NOT going to be sleeping in my bed smelling like that!

Robin is a super terrific herding instructor, now days I am handling all the herding with the dogs myself, she sits outside and usually yells thing like YOU ARE DOING PERFECT, EXCELLENT, she is so good at buildng up my confidence and explaining what we are doing. Herding has never made sense to me before but I really understand what we are doing now and that makes herding so much fun and so interesting!

We got to visit with Gabrielle from Florida. She owns Zing who is Breezes littermate. We had a great visit, and it was great to hear about Zing, and we even got to talk a little bit about contacts. It was a real family reunion, when I got to the ranch Batman who is also a littermate was there with Kristie and then Gabrielle came over to watch Breeze.

CRICKET: Next was Crickets turn to have her first look at sheep. Well, maybe a good thing she seems like she is going to like agility, LOL, she did not look amazing at her first try with the sheep. At that age it really does not mean a whole lot that she was not into herding the sheep, and she had a great time, so heck it was all good. Robin brought in her dog Lass to move the sheep to try to interest Cricket and Cricket was sure Lass should just play with her. Poor Lass was trying to work and does not really like puppies....Cricket was jumping at her head, chasing her, barking at her and trying to keep her from listening to Robin, poor Lass did not look happy...but what a trooper--Sorry Lass-but I did appreciate her efforts.

9 comments:

AC said...

Wow, Breeze did great! I'm amazed at her control. It's really fun to watch dogs working at a job that really aligns with their instincts.

And dear Cricket. What a funny video. You know what stood out most to me was how confident she was having those sheep so close by. She didn't even pay much attention to them. While that may not be the best for herding, I do thing it speaks volumes about her confidence. Plus, she just looks like she was having a blast!

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

that is funny because I thought the same thing, at least Cricket was not scared, so even if she did not show a lot of instinct, it was still a good introduction because I know she had a good time ;-D

Diana said...

Breeze looks great. Lol Cricket is to funny. She couldnt give a flip about the sheep. She didnt even realize she was putting pressure on them and moving them. LoL To cute. But put that other dog in there and boy did she energize. Such fun. Diana

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

LOL, that is so funny Diana, I do feel like Cricket has a wonderful future herding dogs or cats....sheep we will have to see about, LOL.

Sara said...

Cricket was so funny. She had so many better things to do than look at dumb sheep!

I'm so glad Breeze was able to do something fun. She's amazing!

Chris and Ricky said...

Breeze has such self control in there with the sheep! She looked great and I'm glad she was able to get out and have fun herding!

Cricket was very cute and funny! Herding the dog with all those sheep right there - LOL!

Epicurus said...

That is totally cool Kathy! I am so happy Breeze if finding a nitch that works so well for the two of you:)

Jules said...

Woo-hoo! I am so glad Breeze stayed sound. I heart herding - I think more than agility!

I think herding requires a lot of endurance and tight turns but I do think over time it has less impact on the body than contacts, jumping, and weaves. I could be wrong though - I guess I'll see!

I am glad you and th egirls had such a super day.

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