I've been doing walk abouts amongst the sheep with Opal since she was just a wee pup. She has always showed interest in them, but never really "turned on" in the classic way. Oh she would eye them up and follow in sneaky fashion at a safe distance to study the flock.
Her brother Mose got keen to them maybe two months ago. As puppies Mose was always the bolder of the two. Fearless and unflappable. Opal was always one to assess a situation, study things a bit before going blindly forward. I always was impressed with Mose' forward nature. I like this in a dog. Though I also appreciate Opal's intelligence and reasoning power (and I am in no way saying Mose is not smart!)
So over the weekend she invited herself under the gate while I was filling the water tub and cast out and around the flock. Off the flock ran and I am sure they were saying "oh S***, here we go again!" She managed to head them and turn them back but at this point it was just a light bulb turning on and so around she went a few times before I could manage to get in the "picture". After a few missed attempts to stop her , she did finally call off on her own.I was pleased about that. So I took her out again today , with my camera. I managed a few photographs of her second go on the flock. I managed to get her to balance in both directions and after just about as much time as I would want to spend at this with her got her to call off again after a few requests. I honestly did not want to spend too much time out there with 80 something sheep and a fresh pup. I have had one broken leg already , thank you and would rather not "go there" again!
She was just a pleased with herself this time and I am excited to start slowly molding her to become a good working partner.
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| Opal "oh , I get it!" Sheep "here we go again!" |
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| She's back there just to the right of that Tunis on the left |
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| Opal "I like it...I like it a LOT!" |
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