Get Back, I Said!

Both the dogs were definitely feeling their oats at Dianne's today.

I worked Moss first. Dianne had us sort sheep first, which was fun. I opened the gate, walked in with Mossy, and sent him on a come bye flank to pick up the whole flock. As usual, Mossy was great, and I was... in the way. :). With a little manuevering, we got the sheep out and I sorted off seven to work. Moss drove them out to the pasture like a champ, and we did a couple outruns before the sheep decided that they wanted to sprint for home. I should have trusted Mossy enough to get them, but I waited too long to send him and they made it back to the pens. I walked most of the way back and sent him on an away flank... Around Dianne's pond and by the pens. He only needed one redirect, and brought me the sheep easy as pie. He drove them out to the field... Agaaaaain... and I had him drive the sheep to random places in the pasture. He even did an inside flank on the comebye side when I asked! Yay! He definitely was pushier than usual today, though. I had to remind him that I am, in fact, worth listening to ;).

Cedar was naughty today.... haha. I should have known that she wasn't in the listening mood because I had to really work at getting her to look at me on the walk out to the sheep. Our first outrun was... Not good. She was fast, tight, and frantic; the more I told her to "get back," the faster and more frantic she got. I spent the majority of the time just trying to get her backed off and listening. Fortunately, my timing is improving and I was able to get her working calmly and intelligently by the end of our lesson.

I took the opportunity to work Moss a second time, and he did really well. Still a little pushy, but good. He is such a good boy, and a fast learner to boot. The sheep ended up escaping again, and in my characteristic "durrrr" fashion, let them get too far away before attempting to send Moss, even though I knew they wanted to bolt about ten seconds before they actually did. Gah! No worries, though... I walked closer to the pens like before, and sent Mossy on another away flank. This time, I didn't have to say a word to him. What a pro!

Moss is back at Dianne's for another month. I miss his face already :-(.