But lately I'm, beginning to find that I, should be the one behind the wheel

Cedar and I continued to work on the same stuff we did on Friday... and for the most part, she did a great job today. Our first work was probably better overall. She listened to me well from the get-go, stayed nicely off her sheep, slowed up at the top of her outrun when I told her to, and brought them to me at a nice steady pace. It's nice occasionally to not have a small stampede bolt towards me every time I send her! She was being less one-sided today for some reason, and took her come bye flanks pretty nicely. She still has a tendency to not want to cover fully on that side but we're working on it. Whenever she comes up short, I've been walking to the left to make her cover. It seems to be working, sloooooooooowly.

I'm really liking what I'm seeing from her this week. She is getting much more confident and trusting me to tell her to do the right things. And I am trusting her more as well, which makes me feel better :) Her outruns were nice and wide, she took my direction well, and I only had to chase her down and pin her to the ground once ;)... at the very start of our second work, she blasted through me just as I left her on the down to walk to the sheep and dove in. So, I chased her down, took her to the ground, gave her a "what for," and started over. She was a perfect angel the rest of the time, go figure ;) Now, I don't condone doing that sort of thing unless it's absolutely necessary, but trust me, she deserved it! haha. But she stayed wayyy off her sheep with no unneccesary flanking back and forth up close behind them. Hopefully that phase of her training is over..... ugh I got SO sick of it! I think that making my bubble bigger, and enforcing my corrections with her has really helped with this aspect.

Our driving is coming along better, we're starting to build on the basic stuff Dianne taught us the first few times we worked on that skill so that's cool. She is MUCH more confident walking up into the pressure behind the sheep, and really seems to like driving. Again, I need to trust her more. This whole driving thing makes me nervous because I don't really know what the hell I'm doing :D. But she seems to be progressing, and Dianne hasn't been too hard on me about it, so I guess I must not be doing too badly? Cedar seemed pretty dang pleased with herself after our lesson, it was cute.

I still don't think we'll be ready for the February trial, though. I guess we'll see. I need to talk to Dianne about it.

P.S. Saw Moss again today, WOW what a difference even a couple days makes! The pups have gained a few more ounces, are getting fluffier, and much more mobile and talkative. Moss is HUGE! He really is a nice looking puppy. I paid attention to, messed with, and held all the puppies, and Moss was the only one that actually wanted to stay in my lap. Maybe he knows he's supposed to be mine? Haha, I know, wishful thinking... But I kissed his little nose before I put him back anyway and told him I couldn't wait for him to come home with me. What a cute boy he is.