Rectangles in the Pasture

We went to Anna Guthrie's on Saturday to get in some sheep time at a different location since Canines n Ewe was spending the day at the Campo Rodeo. Unfortunately we could not make it down to the rodeo but I heard it was fun.

Anyway the plan was to work on flanks and flank drills. And so we did.

Working in a relatively small field with a group of runners that wanted to stay way off Piper we spent almost our entire first period with the sheep doing flanks. Half flanks, full flanks, quarter flanks - just trying to randomly place Piper in different spots in relation to the sheep without moving the sheep or getting into the comfort zone. Generally Piper did pretty well at this although she was slightly better going to the come bye side and tightened the circle a bit on the away side. So she got some corrections there and seemed to be doing better.

Our second (fairly lengthy) work session I worked on driving a specific pattern. We did at least ten minutes of me standing in the center of the field and driving rectangles around the perimeter of the field. We alternate drawing our rectangles clockwise and counter-clockwise. The point was to get straight lines and controlled flow. She did very well at this but as is her pattern she did better as she got tired. Piper still wants to get up to fast but an immediate sharp whistle slowed her to appropriate pace and I could keep her back with there whistles. After doing rectangles for some time we did what would essentially be a search pattern going up and down the field one lane at a time.

With Rylee I also did some flank drills - which she seemed to do well at for the most part. She still sometimes gets up to head in the wrong direction but she definitely takes her there and lie down better than Piper. I also put her in a fairly small "catch pen" - maybe 12 feet square with the sheep - where she definitely had enough room to flank around - and made her do flanks in the confined area to hopefully help with confidence a bit. Also had her lie down and just watch the sheep to hold them in place for short stretches.

Finally we did some open field driving and I tried to keep her moving to get a flow going for her confidence level. She is coming along nicely. Her natural tendency is to be very cautious and she does not like a mess. We also need to work on steering. I can put her on a line and she will drive that line but if the sheep pull hard to one side it can be difficult to get her to put them back on line. This is true both fetching and driving and we need to work on it.

I also started her with lie down and walk up whistles. They need to be much calmer than with Piper but she seems to be getting them both.

In many ways Piper and Rylee are opposites. I will spend my entire partnership with Piper trying to apply the brakes and slow her down. With Rylee it is just the opposite - the biggest thing is trying to just push on the accelerator just a bit. Sometimes she needs a firm "Get Up" after a lied own to get moving again. I don't think it is lack of power because once she gets up she will move most anything. It may be lack of confidence because she is very cautious about it. From talking to Elizabeth Baker it seems to be something that runs in the line a bit and they tend to grow into their confidence. So I hope she is right.

Anyway it is always good to get to different fields and different sheep and I enjoyed visiting with Anna.