Woke up early this morning, putzed around for a while, then got ready to head out to the ASCA trial to watch Jaenne and Colleen compete. Ellie was coming over at 10:00. I was ready about 9:15, so I went out and worked Echo for a while. We worked on several different things. She was lovely. We got most of the sheep penned (they are lambs for the most part). When we left a few of them out, I got a brilliant idea (yeah yeah ... no comments please!). I asked her to peel the few sheep off the pen. I didn't hold out much hope that she would understand what I meant ... and once again she blew my socks off. I backed up away from the pen, she swung around and boom! All of the loose sheep were being fetched to me, leaving the freestanding pen full of their buddies! Now we've got a strong, artifically created draw to work with. Woo hoo! So I set it up so that she would walk into my feet, and then we would both drive the sheep away from the pen for a short distance. When she gave it to me, I would let her go to head and fetch them to me before they got back to their buddies at the pen. Then I figured out that if I do that on her comebye side, she is forced to cover and not come up short. She quickly figured that out and did really well with it. This dog just blows my doors off.
Ellie showed up promptly at 10:00 ... so we loaded Cedar, Echo and Rio into the truck and headed out. By the time we had gotten to the trial, Jaenne and Kip had already done their duck run. We hung out and saw some of the regulars: Roy, Lindy, Bob and Francis, Lisa, etc. Always an interesting dynamic at the ASCA trial. Stayed and watched Colleen and Jaenne do their runs. I'll let you read their blogs to find out how they did.
Ellie and I bought the dogs home and went out and checked on fatty. She's still fat.
Ellie worked Cedar in the pasture on a few lambs and a few ewes. They are becoming a great team!
Worked Echo again. Have I told you lately how much I love that little dog? She fetches beautifully, we penned the sheep a couple of times, and we did the figure 8 around the panels. We also worked on a little bit of driving. I keep thinking that I am going over her head, but it seems it's the other way around.
Still keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to swing the Shannahan/Helsley clinic. The funds aren't panned out yet, but I'm working on it.
Tomorrow I'm off to take Rob over to see Helsley. If he has time, perhaps I'll take a lesson from him, and hopefully, he'll get to see how Echo really works, especially after that not-so-stellar display at the CC fair.
Happy tails,
JD
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