Today we worked dogs in the far field. it's 650 yd by 250 yards wide. It's not an easy field as part of it has grass waist to head high and dips. It has panels set up for Open and sometimes we try to run a course.
I set the panels next but not on the sheep trails. If you don't watch it and try to run the course you will miss each panel as the sheep want to walk on their trail and not through the panels.
There are some good draws also. Just behind you is a long ditch and they sheep will jump it to go to the other side which is the upper part of the pasture to join their pals and horses. Is that doesn't suit their fancy, then they run to the gate.
And to top it off, if they don't run to the ditch or gate, they will bolt for the far end of the pasture and hide in the tall grass. The sheep have been worked by dogs but they don't run to you unless the dogs does their job correctly. They are not easy to drive and make your dog work to push them, however if your dog can drive well, you can do the drive quite well.
This is Jack who is owned and trained by Nancy. Nancy got Jack as a pup from me and he is devoted to her. He is still a youngster. We have been working on lengthening his outruns and getting him to come in deep. This is the farthest he has gone on an outrun in this field. See how nice and wide his outrun is and how deep he comes behind the sheep. Behind the sheep you can see how tall the grass has grown. The rest of the field will be cut this week.
Jack has a nice outrun, lift and fetch but pushed on the sheep so Nancy is teaching him a "lie" which is his hitch up command. What you don't see is that he drove the sheep about 50 -75 plus yards and then came back to Nancy for another outrun. My camera died so I didn't tape those so that will be next time. These are not the best videos but hey, it is what it is!!
This is Logan who is owned by Courtney. He is a brother to Jack. Courtney has been coming out here since she was 13 and now she is 16. we can't believe she has her driver's license. She is a very bright girl in school as well as doing well in training her dogs.
He has a nice outrun, lift and a hard fetch. Logan was not too sure about pressure so we have been working on him to lean on his sheep which you see he is doing quite well. He came in fast at the top and pushed them hard on the fetch but we have been asking him for that. He also drove his sheep to be set up for his next outrun. This is the first time that he has gone this far in this field also. Both dogs ran out about 250 plus yards.
Tomorrow I will post the Kelpie "Mig" and on Wednesday, the dog will be "Epic aka Anson" who is the bother of Rainey.
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