Today's Herding Lesson

I have Tuesdays off.  It's a weird, wonderful day to have off if you need to go grocery shopping as it is never crowded.  If you want to drive somewhere you have the roads pretty much to yourself too.  And today, my herding instructor Cathy and my time off schedules coincided so I went for an early morning lesson today.
We are beginning to teach an outrun, lift and fetch (where the dog goes out and around the sheep - that's the outrun, the lift is where the sheep start to come to you and fetch is where you are in the lead, the sheep in the middle and the dog holding them to you). 
Moto is really picking up quickly on the outrun.  Today was really fun as he naturally stopped when the sheep began to turn to me.  It doesn't get any better than that.  We then did some walkabouts (just like it sounds, you don't want the dog pushing the sheep past you, just keeping them to you) to see if he could balance as I moved about the large pasture.  He did pretty good, just has difficulty balancing on the left side for some reason.  The neatest thing was the Started course was still up and he was able to do it just fine!  Now, if all the stars will be in alignment wouldn't that be fun to qualify your first time in Started.  With both Dusty and Shiloh that did not happen.  If Moto qualifies on Saturday in PT, we will move up to Started on Sunday, so we should be prepared if the Herding gods are smiling on us.

I expected Moto to do well as he is from a long line of herding Shelties.  With Pinch I expected I'll need to teach more mechanics as he's mostly from conformation dogs.  He proved me wrong today:  while he needs quite a bit of work on his outrun, his lift and fetch were really, really good.  The biggest thing I've come to learn in this Herding Game is to keep my mouth shut, trust my dog and let THEM do the work.  Magic happens when I let go of the Control Freak in me.  So, I shut my mouth, stepped away from the sheep to see what Pinch would do.  Wouldn't you know it, he balanced nicely and brought them to me, as nice as could be.  So he too will begin his Started training in earnest, and maybe try for it in the Spring.
What a great way to start the day!