May weekend with dogs and puppies and ducks and goats and sheep

I spent the last weekend with a friend, working dogs and catching up. Had a couple of really good herding lessons with Jubilee. For some reason, I never get pictures of her working, but dayumm, she makes my heart sing whenever I work her. (Bonus news: I re-xrayed her hips this past December and sent them in to AKC--she was re-evaluated as OFA Good based on the 54 month xrays!)

She was laying down some extremely nice work this past weekend, staying back, rating her pace, covering the stock nicely, and insisting that I be correct before she listened to me. Oh, yeah, that's what herding is really about--the human not screwing up.

No herding pic, so here's a stacked shot of Jubilee from this April.

Oda has had a resurgence of, well, let's call it, "ummmph" since her puppies and had to have some attitude adjustments to get back into the groove of working with me--and I did get a few pictures of her working, due to the help of a friend.

Leeroy the goat is not fond of Oda

Nemi had a go on ducks--she's got excellent herding instincts and I look forward to training her in herding--after I do a schutzhund 1 on her. For my own sake, I'm going to hold off on herding with her until I am done with the schutzhund. I also don't want to make her too handler aware/sensitive by doing both activities at the same time. In the one venue, it's about using her mouth in drive with lots of control and obedience. In the other, it's about NOT using her mouth in drive with lots of control and obedience. In the meantime, she has a blast these herding weekends--playing in the water, trying to get humans to play ball, being the mentor for little puppies.

Nemi - play with me?

Nemi, Zee, Calcifer

Nemi, Zee, Calcifer

And young Strider, from the Xita x Jedi litter, is back with me. He had two excellent sessions on goats. He has the potential to be an extremely good herding dog, I think. (He is here for a bit of training and then I hope to place him on co-ownership with someone who wants to work and title him.)

Strider, 11 months - April 2013