"INCOMING!"

I worked Echo in the small pasture Monday night. She was kinda naughty. She wanted to do things her way and I ended up fighting her almost the whole time. I was asking her to do rather difficult stuff, though, and she was stressing a bit. We started out by putting all of the sheep in the freestanding pen. I let a few out and they stuck to the outside of it (there's no solid sides on it -- you can see right through all of it). So I helped her peel the sheep off and we drove them to the opposite end of the pasture. It wasn't pretty, but I think she was getting the idea. The sheep continually wanted to bend around her and she continually wanted to let them and flank around them, and she was getting annoyed that I wasn't letting her do that. Later on, I would call her off, let her do an outrun, flank her a few times, and then we would set it up again. Hopefully she will eventually learn to enjoy driving. She's good at it once things are moving. (Gee, isn't that original?)

Tuesday night, Colleen and Katy came over and practiced. The sheep ... broken into two groups ... were quite flighty. I will be glad to get my regular ewes back after the trial, and get rid of these lambs - other than Mr. Pepe Lay Ewe. :-)

So we are hanging out in the house in front of the fire, having a couple of beers, couple of shots of some good whiskey, and it's getting to be about 10:00 -- and for my neighbors' sake, I bring my dogs in so they aren't barking at some ridiculous hour of the night. I go out to their kennel run, open it up, let them out, go into the house, open the door, and so smartly announce, "INCOMING!" Three dogs come bounding in the house and meet up with Reena (who was protecting her Findley) and Scout. Reena and Jag immediately get into it. Ms. Rocket Scientist (that'd be me) has completely forgotten that these two have gotten into it before. We break them apart, and Jag starts screaming and will not put his front leg down. His screaming excites my other dogs who are now coming over to "help" by biting him. So I put those two away and tend to Jag. He got his front leg bit and I'm sure it hurt like heck. He's walking better on it today, but still limping. Poor guy. I feel like a heel. Sorry, Jag.

J.D.