A good week all around here at BorderSmith. Allen Mills', Sis, an own daughter of my Price, was 10th at the National Nursery Finals and followed that up with an amazing 3rd place finish in the double lift finals of the open National Finals the same weekend besting 148 of some of the very best dogs in the country. Congratulations to Allen and thanks for doing my old boy proud. Played out on my far smaller home stage, Star came on nicely and did some good work. He came off adversity one day retaining his lessons and moving beyond them with confidence. Then he got even better as the week progressed.
This week's lessons:
- Head's up at the gate
- Penning
- Squeezed through a tube or shot from a cannon?
Here's an excerpt:
After enthusiastic gathers in each direction, we practiced off-pressure flanks on the fetch, and I reminded him again about handling sheep gently there. I'm thrilled to report that he needed that lesson again, as I much prefer too much dog to too little. Great! I added a little twist today and we practiced penning and flanking at hand. With sheep near the mouth of the pen, Star was a little reluctant to flank, preferring to hold them to me without regard to the angle, or my direction. He certainly wasn't completely unwilling though, and made some very nice moves.
The weather is finally cooling as we move into fall. I am looking forward to leaving the 3 acre field behind and moving to the big field and new challenges that it provides.
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