Ranch Type Work
I’ve been going on Saturday’s so that i can start getting used to working in front people. Also going on Saturday’s keeps me from doing the same thing over and over as often during a day we’ll have to work in 2 or 3 different spaces. Each has different sheep, obstacles and arena size. So while we always do our homework… we often end up doing other things as well. 
Our homework is pretty easy to describe. We have to go around, down the middle of, crossways and generally all over all of the arenas with our sheep. We’re supposed to do so with the subtrial sheep. They’re fetchy, but not quite surfing quality. Last weekend we started in the 2 yards you see on the left. We were pretty successful once Molly settled in and rated her sheep a little.
In this map… i’m the red dots, the sheep are green and Molly is pink.
Before we can do homework though we have to get our sheep. Our 3 sheep live in the Large Field. Now these are 3 of like 20 sheep of this training level that are stationed around the farm every morning. So we don’t see the same 3 knuckleheads every time. Anyhow, we have to go out to the big field and fetch them into the small sorting pen. It’s about 7×7. I tend to dawdle in the small sorting pen a little and practice doing little flanks and tiny little fence lifts. Originally Molly was so wide working that she wouldn’t work in small spaces at all. Couldn’t even get her into the pen. So i often have her also fetch them in and out of the small pen and into the field. This weekend was the first time i was able to do it form the other side of the gate. 
anyhow, so after the small pen we have to head down the alley. Since we’ve not delt with how best to manage the sheep through the gate and down the alley in a more controlled way, we’re learning that it’s ok to not be in control all the time. Learning to manage the Down/Stay has been an interesting ride. Sometimes it goes very well and we can do a few controlled fetches in the alley as well. The first time we watched them leave this weekend, Molly had a ‘moment’ and finally tried to get through the gate. She was quite successful and made alittle mess, but no damage done and we got it back together again. I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time. The alley is a special challenge for me as there are multiple draws/gates to read when she’s doing her fetch AND there is a panel that sticks half way into the alley about 3/4 of the way down. I also like having her walk with me or recall to me past the sheep. i don’t want to micromanage her, but i do need to have a little control for safety’s sake.
At this point i can choose where i want to play, usually. Today (sunday) there was a fun trial at Fido’s so normal ASCA sheep arena had a non-standard course in it. Since alot of the obstacles just happened to be around the fenceline… i had to deal with them. The 3 panels in the corner were a lot of fun to toy with. Sometimes having her kick out to cover the heads, sometimes following me in to the corner and having to stay behind and navigate the corner with the distractions. The fenceline pen was fun to mess with as well.
Anyhow, since we’ve not done video in a while i thought a diagram would be fun. The facility has alot of other fields and arenas. But this is the area we hang out in the most. 
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