We can 'work' it out...

Sometimes when I'm working Cedar I feel a bit like Paul McCartney when he sang the song "We Can Work It Out":

"Try to see it my way, do I have to keep on talking till I can't go on?"

Cedar, obviously, does NOT see things my way most of the time. A lot of the challenge with her so far has been getting her to believe that my way (read: Dianne's way, since I don't know wtf is going on most of the time....) is actually better than going super fast and gripping. And we go through this over, and over..... and over again. Every time. She has major self confidence issues too, which has made it harder, as we are getting into more difficult stuff, to put pressure on her as she has the tendency to just want to quit and run off when things get tough (or when I get mad at her). I need to stop getting mad at her for it, I guess. It's just how she's made.

But, as usual, we're working on it...

Today I went out to Diannes and hung out with Jaenne, Susan, Jodi, Katy, and Colleen. We all brought snacks (and drinks!) and had a really fun time hanging out and working dogs. I can't think of a more fun way to spend New Years! :) Mo, Scout, Reena, and Echo are all doing very well. The wind presented some challenges, I think it made both the dogs AND the sheep more squirrely. The first time we worked today, the sheep kept breaking for home, and Cedar was being wayyy too pushy. We eventually got it sorted out, though, thanks to Dianne, and managed to do some little outruns, fetches, and worked on getting her to widen out and calm down. Our second work was great! She stayed nicely off her sheep, listened to me fairly well (I got in some good corrections for once!) and we even managed to get about ten feet of decent driving! I was pretty happy with how well she walked up into the pressure today, it was much better than last time. There might be hope for us after all!

P.S. I saw Peg's puppies again today, they're a week old now and about twice the size they were when I saw them last week! I'll try and get some more photos on Sunday, maybe...