I took Cali to her weekly herding lesson last night (she's on week 3 of her lessons) and finally had someone take photos for me (thanks Brenda :-))? We also took Lucky, Chaos and Echo along for instinct testing.? Echo is Brenda's SchIII Malinois.? Lucky is a 7 month old Terv from Malinois, and Chaos is one of my Mali girls.? Chaos had seen sheep once before, at 4 months old, Echo and Lucky had never seen sheep.
Cali's lesson went really well, she's starting to understand go by, away, walk up, etc? She's definitely "right handed", she would much rather do an "away" than a "go by".? We get really pretty "aways", nice and big.? The go by is closer right now, and will remain that way until she is better at taking that direction.? Last night we had added distractions in the arena, since the sprinklers were on to try to combat the heat.? Keep the ground cool and the dust down.? It's a test of your dogs focus when they are pushing the sheep and getting a face full of water at the same time LOL
Chaos instinct test went about as expected.? A lot of drive, coupled with some "get out of my way lady"? ? But she settled down after a few thunks, started to "check" herself, and towards the end was starting to do some wearing and trying to balance.? She'll be a fun dog, but I'm sure there will be a few arguments about who is in charge.
Echo did great, lots of desire to work but also very biddable.? He had plenty of opportunities to grip, but didn't take them.? I don't remember him gripping even once.? Instead he'd body check the sheep to try to control it.? Very quickly he figured out if he stayed back off the sheep a little bit they wouldn't scatter and he started circling and wearing.
And little Lucky was a star? ? I've been messing around with this pup, trying to find out what he really wants to do in life and what sort of home I should place him in.? Protection sports aren't really his thing.? But he loves working with his human, and herding definitely got him excited.? I think he's found his calling? ? He did quite a bit of gripping at first, but finally decided it really wasn't worth the consequences and started to exercise some self control.? Lots of interest/drive, and he showed himself to be biddable but also resilient.? My instructor was very impressed with him.?
As a side note, all the dogs except Lucky are trained/titled in protection sports.? Cali - FRII, Echo - SchIII and Chaos - FR Br? ?I guess just because they do bitework doesn't mean they can't tell the difference between a decoy/helper and livestock.? I already knew that? but more than one person has tried to tell me because my dogs do protection sports they will kill livestock?
I hope to start with Yentos again now that the problems of the sheeps' owners are cleared. The owners of course have BC and 1 of the 3 was afraid Yentos, not being a BC, would hurt them. That lady has now sold her sheep to the other 2 so on the next opportunity we will try again.
Saskia
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? But she settled down after a few thunks, started to "check" herself, and towards the end was starting to do some wearing and trying to balance.? She'll be a fun dog, but I'm sure there will be a few arguments about who is in charge.
? I've been messing around with this pup, trying to find out what he really wants to do in life and what sort of home I should place him in.? Protection sports aren't really his thing.? But he loves working with his human, and herding definitely got him excited.? I think he's found his calling? 
but more than one person has tried to tell me because my dogs do protection sports they will kill livestock? 
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