The Moss-Man Prophecies

Moss is so funny. I brought him with me to Dianne's yesterday for socialization and he ended up getting his first taste of working sheep :-P I'm so excited! He spent a few minutes not really knowing what was going on... following Dianne around, eating horse poop, and watching the sheep but not really knowing what was going on. Eventually, Dianne got him to circle and it was freakin' adorable. He had this big grin on his face like "OMGZ this is awesome!!!!" and was totally proud of himself after Dianne made him quit. He pranced around with his chest puffed out for the rest of the day like a badass. Must be nice to find your purpose in life at 15 weeks old. I think he'll be a lot of fun to train, he's so laid back. :)

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures but hopefully I can get some in the near future if Dianne will "work" him again for me. Ha ha. I seriously love this puppy. I taught him to roll over yesterday and now he does it all the time and looks at me expecting a treat. Funny stuff.

Worked Cedar yesterday in the indoor arena. We worked on keeping everything slooooooooooooowwww and easy. She did great! Her driving looked really nice and she was taking my commands pretty well. I think she is confused about the difference between the little mini flanks in driving and when I ask her for an outrun. She hasn't been wanting to cover fully on the outrun lately which is sort of irritating but I can understand why she is feeling that way. Oh well.... I have faith that it will all come together. At least she is listening to me and we both have more trust in each other.

Her problem is that she gets anxious about almost everything, especially if she thinks she's wrong. She wants to please me so much that when things start to go badly, it's almost like she goes into hyperdrive to try and "save" things.... but ends up usually making it worse. Her anxiety also makes her react extremely to pressure. However, I have seen a lot of progress in this area... and she was able to life the sheep off the wall right next to Dianne and the door of the indoor arena yesterday. Before, it would be impossible to get her to flank by Dianne, especially in such a tight place. So.... I'm encouraged. I think that we can at least get around the ASCA STD (Started) sheep course in a little over a month. Maybe I can even try to do an assisted drive instead of just fetching... hmm. :)