Ready? Aim. Drive!

Dianne held lessons tonight for some of the GSH students. Ann & Levi, Jaenne & Mo, Yvonne & Iris, and Echo and I all went. It was nice and sunny and warm, with a warm "breeze", here in town. It proceeded to get nippier and nippier, and windier and windier out in Caldwell. Hopefully us Boiseans (namely ME) will catch on to that sometime soon.

First up was Ann and Levi. These guys are looking great and working on driving. Couldn't hear much of what was going on so I am not sure of the specifics of their lesson.

Next up was Yvonne & Iris. Yvonne and Dianne just met, and Dianne worked Iris first to get to know her. Man, Iris looked awesome compared to the last time I saw her! Second time in, Yvonne worked her like a pro. I think this will be a nice matchup.

Then Jaenne & Mo. They are working on lots of driving and they are looking great. Apparently Mo eyes up too easily, so they are doing the staircase effect and are only "allowed to drive in straight lines at a trial." LOL!

Last up was Echo and I. If nothing else, I have confirmed one thing. I suck at this! Seriously ... I am definitely the weak link here. I wouldn't know a straight line if someone drew one on my nose. Dianne told me to aim for a particular T-post along the fenceline. Well, the one I was "aiming" for changed 16 times on the way over. The second time, she told me to aim for the post with the bird on it. So I did. And we landed about 8 posts down. To give you an idea of the distance I missed it by, there's probably 10 or 12 feet between posts. How far were we cross-driving? Maybe 50 yards if we were lucky. So see? I'm so good at this!

Second time up was better. I made a conscious effort to pay attention to where we were going. I made it through both sets of panels or at least very close thereto. The nuances of driving are tough to hammer down. Your timing has to be perfect. The first step or two the dog makes makes all the difference in the world. Knowing how to correct that on the spot is going to take practice. But I love it. Echo worked very nicely, had great pace, took her commands well for the most part -- or as much as can be expected with as lousy as my whistles are. Oh yea ... whistles. A whole nuther language. I'm getting it. At my own pace. Shut up. I am too. ;-)

But can you imagine? All this ... and I never had to pop a leash and force her to lie down off stock in order to practice before going in there! And I never pinched or yanked her ear even once! In fact, the only time I touched her was to pet her to tell her what a good girl she was. Amazing, eh?

Happy tails,
Jodi