My friend Anita has me out to Terri’s farm in Smithfield, VA so I could learn more about how to work ducks on a much more refined level.
Fiddle: We worked on keeping sustained interest and making sure she stopped when I said stop. She struggled in driving the sheep, and wanted to be very far off the sheep to drive them up the fence. The geese we worked put a LOT of pressure on her, though she did respect them and was able to move them with ease once she settled in.
Mazikeen: Was very good with stopping I learned to stop her if the ducks started to split, as it takes her a bit to rate herself working on ducks vs other things. She did pretty well with the driving of sheep on the fence, and was able to negotiate the geese with ease!
Chunky: Really nice outruns this week! Stops were pretty good. She has had less exposure to birds in comparison to my other dogs, so teaching her balance, rate. and how not to split them was a great lesson! I was pleased overall with her effort on the sheep as well, she struggled a bit driving, as she wanted to be at a bigger distance, which didn’t help keep them on the fence like we wanted:
Rory: Extremely pleased with her stopping, and the distance she offered me on the outruns for ducks and geese. She struggled driving the sheep some, I used a line a bit, as we had been pattern training fetching sheep to me (oops!). In the afternoon, it took her a bit to want to come into the pressure on the geese. Anita’s pressure really influenced her as well, but we worked through it! Looking forward to the next big adventure!
Clarjo Farms 