Well, its been quite a long while since I have entered a post. Sorry about that.

Chris is well, she still is currently in ProNovice level, not yet ready for Open. At this time, she is 3 1/2 years going on 1. Ha! She is still immature, but not as bad at herding as she used be. Her avoidance behavior has gone away, yay!

I have a new puppy, Corrie, aka Core. I am hoping that Corrie's presence will aid Christian maturation speed. But I do know 4 years old and even up to 5, is not unheard of for some Border collies to finally mature.

Chris is much better at feeling her sheep than in the past, and I am still doing exercises to help her eye develop. I talked with Jack Knox about a week ago, firming up dates for his clinic here in May.

He has a littermate, Sis, and has seen several littermates working at other clinics, and he told me that they seem much like her. Immature, looser eye, and really want to please, almost to a fault, to looking at their handler. SO, strategy, Chris looks at me, but have NEVER reinforced it. And that behavior is not that excessive with her.

Jack told me not to let her barge the sheep at the top. Most of the litter wants to do that and not properly feel their sheep when they lift. So I have been practicing that with her.

At the last trial we were at, the brand new iherd trial in Riverside, CA., the sheep were breaking back to the setout, or trying to, with most of the runs. When Chris ran, they did as expected, except Christian didn't do as expected.

The sheep were breaking before she got to the top, and I started whistling her to cover, and she didn't! Then I asked her again, and she started coming back to me...yikes, a new behavior....I asked her to look back and go and get them, and her answer was nope, I am coming back to you. CRAP. RT
oh well run over.

More to work on. This last week I broke out the lambs and used them with her. Much better, they were all over the place, and she was covering pretty well. So, I will keep working on that, and having the sheep run away, and letting her cover.

Christian herding at the Creston SDT 11/2014 Introducing Corrie Born 9/21/2014