Despair and excitement, all in one day

I went to the sheep with Jessie, Jai and Yoshi today. It was a nice day: dry and sunny, though very chilly. The dogs were keen to work sheep, and I had to work hard to keep them in line.

 
Jessie and Yoshi are a lot alike and I'm beginning to remember my despair from Jessie's early training days when I was just a beginner. With Yoshi I feel just so inadequate again, but I also know now I have to be patient and consistent and maybe one day she will be as strong as her mum. For now I just try to keep her off the sheep and to teach her to flank wider and not to come in to have a bite of wool. She is a very determined bitch though, just like her mum, and she needs to calm down and be sensible before I can proceed with her training. So repeating the lesson until she gets it seems the way to go for now. We'll have to keep working on it, I guess...

 

Now when I work with Jai I always end our session with a feeling of excitement. He is very sensitive and needs to gain more confidence, and although he has power he doesn't seem to realize it himself. Fortunately for me he stops when I tell him, well most of the time anyway and that's not bad. Especially when I have to be very careful not to put too much pressure on him because then he will hold himself back and runs very wide around instead of lie down. But Jai is a dog that is willing to learn, and he is starting to get it that stopping just means he gets to work again almost immediately. He is also getting it when I want him to widen more, and so I ended today's session after 10-12 minutes on a very good note at a moment when I was very pleased with him. I hope he will remember today's lesson.