Star passed a mile-stone this week. With 60 days of training on sheep under his belt, he has crossed some hurdles and is really starting to come on. He learned a few new lessons this week, and polished his skills as we at last had some cool weather and got back on the big field for a day.This week's lessons:
- Trust me, I know where they are
- It's a big ol' world out there
- Flanking against all instinct
Here's an excerpt:
At first, he flanked to a point, then tried to reverse instead of going into the tight quarters and tons of pressure from me and the sheep. It only took a bit of encouragement and repeated flank commands from me to get him all the way through, and after that it was easy. Then I made it harder. Once the sheep begin to move away from me from Star's pressure, it's as if he is being squeezed through the hole until he hits a certain point, then shoots out the other side. If he had a thought bubble above his head while doing this, it would read; "Wheeeee!!." There after it became easier to get him to come through, and he did so brilliantly in both directions without the least bit of hesitation. To make it harder, I flanked him through, then stopped him when he was precisely between me and the sheep, and had him drive the ewes away. No problem. Star man was a very good boy today.
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