Working Sheep

laying with sheep! These pictures may not be in the proper order, but these are of Gwydion and Gwen, having fun their first time seeing sheep. I am so glad we got to do this! These pics were taken by Peggy, with ARIM (Aussie Rescue In Michigan). Thanks! (I'm the person in the green shirt, with the silly happy grin on my face.)

Gwydion

Gwydion went in first, and he absolutely amazed me! I honestly didn't think he had much instinct. I figured he'd chase a bit, and maybe bite at their tails, and that would be it. He started out dragging a long line, and he was kinda chasing, but not too bad, and obviously bothered by the line, so it came off. And he did GREAT! He was a bit uncertain at times, but he moved them around without crowding too much, didn't try to "get" them, and changed direction when I asked him to. He even regrouped them when they split up. The light in his eyes was awesome to see, and he had so much fun! I was glad to see that there is some instinct there, even if we will never know how much or what he could have done with it.

Gwydion just couldn't wait for his second chance (a year later, at another rescue fun day). He managed to get away from me once and ran around the outside of the pen (which wasn't a good thing). I wish he could have taken lessons, he just enjoyed himself so much.

Gwen

Gwen is much more intense than Gwydion, and I was pretty sure the instinct was there (from watching her play and such for the past 4 years), but was afraid she'd be too rough and mouthy and out of control. We started with her on a long line, but she was being pretty good, so we took it off. She wanted to work right up close to them, but she's rather sensitive, and would back off completely if you pushed her off the sheep too hard (she'd just leave them and go to the other side of the pen). But she didn't bite them, and she did change direction when asked (and we were able to get her to back off a bit too). One of the sheep decided to challenge her, but she got right back in his face and made him turn around and go! She loved it!

I don't have pictures of her second time out, but she had just as much fun that time. She was getting a bit too riled up at one point, so I told her to lie down (thinking that we should stop), but since she actually did it, the instructor said to let her go for a bit longer (as a reward for listening - Duh! Why didn't I think of that?)