Herding at Camp W

Today our activity for the morning was herding. Tinkerbell is my little herder, so Jan took Glitter and Chip to water sports for the second time and I went with Shanna and Cindy Wilkinson to Gardnerville. We go to herd with Lisa Edwards, she is an awesome, patient instructor. We drive up and over the Kingsbury Grade, yes we were stopped with the one way traffic. Life in Lake Tahoe.

Ziva being shown the lamb.

When we got to Lisa's place she had a few students already there and she worked us in. First we introduced little Ziva to a lamb. Very fun, she didn't really like it at all. You can see Ziva was scared of the cute little lamb, and Tinkerbell wasn’t too keen on it either. She was trying to sneak up behind it and not be seen.

Holly (Ziva's grandma) and Alaska (Ziva's mom)
checking out the lamb.

Tinkerbell watching the lamb.

One thing that is so great about Lisa is her instinct in working with animals. She put the first little lamb away, and we were about to head to the pen, when Ziva showed some interest in where the lamb went. So she took the time to get another one out, this one got a little better interest from the dogs.

Ziva herding ducks.

Lisa decided to try Ziva on ducks instead to test her herding instinct. Ducks can actually be harder than sheep, some dogs never do well with ducks. Well Ziva definitely like the ducks. She has the drive for herding, it was fun to watch her. Alaska also tried herding ducks. She was over-stimulated and it was more like a duck chase, she would be better on sheep.

Lisa's sheep.

Tinkerbell did a great job herding. She was a good little worker. She was pretty excited to begin with and did some chasing, but once I got her settled down and the sheep thought they could trust her she moved them around nicely. Shanna took a few nice pictures and when I get them from her I will post them here.

Thank You Robyn

I am just really bursting with happiness and near tears tonight as I sit here on the couch thinking about my day .... I've had to take a break from doggie sports to do my running and although I love what I am doing with running, biking and swimming .... I do miss being a team with my dog. Right now I don't have time to "do it all" but my dear friend and teacher Robyn handled Tinkerbell today at the 2 WWASC herding trials. This left me free to run. And so pleased at the outcome of both my and Robyn's accomplishment for the day. 
Robyn and Tink took 1st place & Q in Started Sheep & High in Trial Started Sheep in the first trial under Judge Canby Scott with a score of 80 and a time of 2:23. In the second trial they took 2nd place &Q with a score of 86 and a time of 2:38.
Then each trial had the duck runs. Tinkerbell has only been worked on ducks once before this trial, about 3 weeks ago. They gave the ducks a try in both trials, in the first trial Tink got a 2nd place, score of 66 - time 5:17. The second trial she got another 2nd place with a score of 39 - time 4:56. No Q's but ducks are new to her so I'm sure with experience she will improve. I can hardly wait to watch the video that Jan took of all sheep and duck runs.
I got done running my 20 miles in time see her last duck run. When Tink doesn't quite know what to do she wants to do it her way. Many things I let her get away with at home that are "cute" don't help with controlling her in herding. She is very out spoken and likes to be bossy. I know I am responsible for some of this rebellion in the ring.
Robyn did a wonderful job with Tinkerbell and it is very touching to me that she would do this for me. I love that my dog was able to go herding today and do this trial. Tink's skill level is way above mine and it will take me too long to catch up in this sport right now. I can enjoy Tink herding without handling her myself. I just can't say enough how thankful I am for this opportunity for Tinkerbell. When I finally get serious about wanting to be her team mate I will practice and teach her weaves and other agility skill and we will play there together. Less frustrating for me to see her not have to suffer through with an unskilled handler. A mom can still enjoy her doggies accomplishments.  
Well, when I started this post Tinkerbell was sitting here on the couch talking to me.... she does not like it when I write and is vocal quite a lot when I am on the computer. She will perch on the arm of the couch and hit me with her paw or just talk and talk to get me to stop. Now she is sleeping soundly by my feet, finally tuckered out after her big day.
Thank you Robyn, you are AWESOME.