I taught a class this past weekend and used Hoot as the demo dog for several things. While she was not working I just asked her to lie down, really thinking nothing off it. After class I began to think about the accomplishment of my 9 month old. She could lie down, no leash, stay put while other dogs/puppies were running on her agility field. She didn't chase nor break. I am blown away by that.
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| Hoot In Action |
When I did ask her to work in class she was spot on. I didn't get any kind of over-stimulated behaviors, nor did I get any kind of stress behaviors. She just got the job done and in brilliant style.
I can honestly say that none of my other dogs could have done all of that at 9 months.
No wonder I can hardly wait to get out to the agility field and work this little girl, she makes me smile.
On another front Hoot and I are still pursuing herding. She has a lot of natural ability or so they say, I on the other hand know nothing but am trying to not ruin my dog while I learn.
In our last lesson we were working on a small round pen. Things seems more chaotic and frenzied than normal. I am really glad my husband taped the session.
I went back and watched the video. As I was watching it occurred to me that the pen was too small. Hoot normally keeps a bit more distance from the sheep and with the pen size she was forced to work close. I think that her balance point was closer than she preferred. It was stressing her and the sheep.
So we herd again this week and will try for the bigger pen and see if that removes the stress.
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