Sheep Herding

This weekend I look the two Mals sheep herding after Ring practice. I wasn't too sure what to expect with either of them. Reckon has seen sheep before, about a year ago. That wasn't a good experience. Reckon was intense and John didn't know what to do with him. So he held onto his tail. Not so good. Anyways this time around we went back to see Shelley Fritzke. Beezer got his HIT (Herding Instinct Test) with her a while back. I quite liked her. I told her I was totally prepared to muzzle R, and for her to do her thing. I know his prey drive is pretty high. She had him on his pinch collar, and put the sheep in the round pen. This doesn't give the sheep as much room to run. She walked him around, and I was surprised at how calm he was. He was certainly interested in the sheep but was respectful of Shelley and listened to her very well. She then handed his leash to me (I was on the other side of the fence) and told him to sit. I then unclipped the leash and we let him go! Well he floored me once again. Maybe he has just matured since he last saw sheep, but he did amazing! You could see him thinking, not just running in prey drive. He listened to Shelley and respected the wand/stick thingy. If he got "inside" of the flight zone, he would go in the nip, but would back off with just a voice correction Good boy!!

I expected Avion to run in there barking her little butt off and not stop.  She surprised me too.  She barked at Shelley when we first got there, but soon settled in.  I brought her into the ring with Shelley on leash. The sheep were behind a curtain so we walked towards them and she got us to line up about 30 feet away behind them.  At first Avi didn't seem to notice anything.  Honestly.  Nothing.  Not even sheep or horse poop.  Then the sheep started to move.  OH!  That looks like fun.  And no barking!  A bloody miracle.

Shelley asked me to take her off leash to see what she'd do.  My girl was amazing!  She was actually herding, not just chasing them.  Shelley was quite impressed. She was also a thinker.  She kept her distance and respected Shelley's commands.  I was a proud momma.

Side note, there was another woman there who does a lot of conformation with her Tervs and Collies.  She immediately remarked on how well put Avion was and how she had excellent movement,  Shelley agreed, who owns, shows, works and breeds German Shepherds.

I knew she had good looks and brains :)