In an effort not to stick out…
Upon arriving at Fido’s on Sunday, i looked around and realized that there was absolutely no way we’d not be noticed. The Samoyed Club of Washington was holding an event at Fido’s. A Smiling Sammy Olympics of sorts. There I am with a little black dog in a sea of big fuzzy white dogs. Nope, they’ll never notice us… this will be great for that whole ‘i don’t work well in front of crowds’ thing i’ve been working through lately. hum.
So with the little white dogs everywhere, and most of the fields full of other people working dogs, I had to move up to the large arena where the yearlings are. Note here that it’s the field right next to all the people with the white dogs. There’s the dozen people, their dogs, an easy up and everything but a hotel room in the alley right next to ‘my’ field.
I’m a chicken. I put a line on Molly. No one wants to be *that person* with the crazy little dog blah blah blah…
She was great. A long time ago Elsie gave us homework to start going walk about in larger fields and I’m not really sure why it’s taken this long for me to get back to it. We walked allllllll over that field. Since it’s rectangular we went back and forth the short way. Back and forth the long way. Along the fence, off the fence. Walking forward. Walking backwards. There was a section in the middle of the field where someone had dug a trench and covered it up. It made little uneven ground and we went up and over the high parts, down into the low parts and then directly up it. I had her bring them to my little pile of stuff and soda. She had to watch them while i collected my junk and organized myself. She did trip out a little when the sheep tried to drink my Sprite, but i’m sure that had more to do with my swatting the sheep away, calling it a great woolly thief and get the &*(^ out of my soda.
I did find some interesting things. Usually i just put the flag up and over my shoulder as it’s easier to access that way. It doesn’t get hung up in sheepyness when i need it. This time, she was staying off her sheep a bit and so i put the flag down and she was working in a more relaxed manner. Also, when i reached the fencelines instead of stopping and trying to set her up to cover the turn, I just made sure when i turned that i was about 6′ off the fence.
So with those things in mind i did have to correct her a few times for trying to bomb off. Though i was finding that once she had ‘the job’ down, the bombing off was lessened. A few well placed No’s, There’s and Down’s and she started to make a picture.
And i don’t think anyone noticed us. It’s like being in a crowded club. There is so much going on that no one notices anything…
Comments