That was fun!
Finally we got around to organising one of the training days we keep talking about having here, thanks to some prompting from Nan Lloyd. It was perfect weather for dog training, cool and overcast with the promise of rain dark on the horizon, and our training sheep were pretty well behaved. Nan brought over her nice bunch of youngsters, including Balto the collie x giraffe, Yindi the midget collie and some very good looking young kelpies (Zinc, Tonka and Mango), Karen Buller dropped in with her young dogs, and Andrew and Wendy (Esme's breeders) brought her litter sisters Martha and Ditto, their father Tippy and a couple of other pups.
I did take a bit of video, but I'll hold off on posting it until I've okayed it with the victims.
And if you haven't noticed, you only have 12 hours or so to vote in the Flyboy poll: which one should stay? Finbar's in the lead still, JJ and Elvis neck and neck in second, and Harry is the least popular (sssh, don't tell him). Interesting as this poll has been, I still have absolutely no idea which pup to keep. I've always thought Fin was staying, but I've bonded with all the little ratbags, and it's so hard to decide.
We'd kind of decided that Elvis would go, since he was the last to switch on and up until today didn't really seem that interested in sheep. But in the round pen today he started to get into it, low and smooth and focussed, and went around the sheep, didn't do too much rushing or woolclassing, and was actually pretty nice.
My boy Fin, on the other hand, seems to have waaay too much eye, and just held the sheep on the fence as though I wasn't there. Andrew suggested taking him out in the paddock with real kneeknockers and trying to get some balancing going, and we did give that a go after everyone had gone home, with all thirty training sheep. He actually did better, balanced up and was a little calmer, although he isn't as smooth and arcing as Elvis. Maybe that'll come with a bit more time on sheep?
JJ was his usual full-on self, although he settled down a bit after a couple of round pen turns. He's a lot like his uncle Jim in many ways, pathologically confident, bouncing off corrections with a wag of his tail. More style though.
And Harry had a quick spin. He's still the smoothest and most natural of the four at this stage. He balances up quietly, pushes through on the fence and doesn't have too much eye. I put a bit of pressure on him at the end of the afternoon, probably unnecessarily, and he ran over to give me a cuddle in a slightly sooky way. We'll have to remember that he's obviously a lot softer than he looks.
Grassvalley Tippy (Esme's dad):
Esme is so like Tippy- living up to her puppy name of LT (Little Tippy). I had hoped for a Little Bell, but I won't be too disappointed if she turns out like Tip (when he's Good Tip, anyway).
Martha, Esme's sister:
Martha is so much like her mother, Bell, it's uncanny. She's going to be a total star.
Ditto, the third sister:
Ditto is somewhere between Es and Martha, I guess. She's a lovely steady little girl. And she's available for the right amount of arm-twisting!
Ditto and Martha:
I think this is Nan's Mango:
(it's art, not a poor shot, okay?)And now for the compulsory BabyJ photo:
Grubby Farmboy plays the good host, keeping Wendy amused with his new set of plastic dinosaurs (thanks Nan!). That Wendy, she LOVES dinosaurs!
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