Ducks

Prior to going to work, I put Gel on the whole flock of ducks for a few minutes. My flock consists of about 20 ducks so it's a good sized group to work. The larger the group, the more they tend to flatten out into a straight line vs. a group if the dog pushes too hard. This was good practice for him. Unfortunately, he was less than thrilled about working the ducks, especially with the sheep in close proximity. Good thing I do not have cattle around as he'd really be reluctant to work the "stupid" ducks. Gel much prefers bigger and faster stock. We had episodes when I first got the sheep wherein he refused to work the goats because he liked sheep better.

I didn't let him quit and ended on a good note. Meanwhile, Fern was in her kennel complaining that Gel was working "her" ducks. Depending on the weather tonight, I may take the ducks back out and let Fern go around them out in the open area. Geez, this is going to be hard, not working Fern on stock too often. She's become so keen. It is so neat seeing a young Border Collie discover what he or she has been bred to do. This is one reason why I'm glad I'm doing agility as well as herding. I can work with Fern on agility while she's young and when she's old enough to handle the pressures of the training involved for stock work I can do that and back off stock work when necessary and go to agility.

My ATV had to go into the shop today so I'll be without it this evening. Bummer! I have a ball riding around on it at night. The dogs love it too. Gel starts howling when I start it up.