She hasn't forgotten how to work!

[Tassie]

Took my little girl to my trainer's farm today for the first time for nearly four months. I was hoping that she hadn't forgotten everything we'd learned.

 

We worked the ewe hoggets - a mob of about 350 or so - in a 40 acre paddock that was sown to pasture last autumn, and now has some very long grass. What we discovered is that Kirra hasn't forgotten what to do (yay!), but without the regular sheep work and walking over large distances that we had been doing in the early part of the year, she'd lost some confidence in going out, and she'd definitely lost speed - course the loooong grass didn't help - and some physical and mental stamina.

 

At one point, she was tired, and decided - or maybe it just happened - to split the mob, so she only had about 100 to work. Given where she was at, I let her stick with those for a while, and she found that much easier.

 

Then we walked off and got the others, and joined the mob up again, so we could work on getting round them. The girls were a bit more settled by then, and we found an area where the grass was a bit shorter, so we were able to get some reasonable work in so we could finish on a good note.

 

Hopefully we'll be able to get up there more regularly in a little while, but it was so comforting to know that the foundation work we'd done was really solid. And it was so good to be working in that partnership with her again. Just wanted to share.

[bobh]

YESSSSSS!!

bobh

[Eileen Stein]

That sounds very good. I hate working in long grass myself -- I think it's really hard on the dog, having to jump like a gazelle to try to keep track of where the sheep are.