Today we walked around Atascadero Lake again. This time it was a little earlier in the morning and there were more people and dogs walking around it. This was good news for me, I can use this for Decker's training. There were lots of people walking both ways around the lake. This means that there is more opportunity to help Decker. I was able to pass several groups of people while walking, and Decker had to deal with having people behind him. He is very insecure with that. After the second group was behind us, he was starting to relax, though not completely.

I glanced at the Border collies, and noticed that they could care less if anyone was behind them. I was hoping that they would influence him a bit more. He just kept turning his head, trying to see the people behind us. He kept getting corrections until he relented and quit looking and was not as nervous.

Decker and the girls didn't get to do any sheepdog herding at dog day. Sandy and her husband were on vacation, and left the sheep out in the agility field to help mow it down. I walked into the field with the dogs and saw the sheep. The gates were closed and apparently some of the sheep had closed the gate and been caught in the agility field. I just turned around with the dogs and went to the pool area to let the dogs swim. Nancy, one of my friends, was there with her Aussie. I mentioned the agility field to her, and she said that the sheep must be caught in there and can't get to water. Later I went back into the field to let the caught sheep back in their other pen with the rest of the flock.

The dogs swam and swam, with Tam getting scolded often for constantly drinking gulps of water. I am pretty concerned about her water drinking while swimming. She drinks tons of it. I know that people can die from drinking water too quickly, why not dogs? When she is allowed to swim for long periods of time, later, she pees and pees, sometimes for almost a minute! And a half of an hour later, she is needed to urinate again. So I am thinking that her water intake is not too healthy for her.

Even though none of the dogs got to do any agility or sheepdog herding, they had fun with swimming.