Sunday, February 17, 2019

Celebrating!

Celebrating today! I am so happy!

Cap and some of the sheep whose feet got trimmed




 We were able to finish trimming feet on the sheep at the coop. I thought it would take three sessions but we got it finished in two sessions. A whole future weekend day is now freed up...I am so happy! Some of the sheep needed it more than others; some hardly needed anything or could get away without any attention...while others required a lot of work on their feet. You can't tell until you get them in position to trim.

We have been working on modifying the set of pens and alleyway to better resemble the "Bud box" system...we are not there yet but it is getting better. And folks are learning how to better handle the sheep through the system. I am sure this is part of the reason we were able to finish so much faster this time around.  Big thank yous to Foothill Agrarian for help on this with videos and advice.

Also...regarding confidence... I've not had a dog yet (in my small number of dogs) who is so confident to move sheep that they don't need any help, ever. Maybe someday I will have "that dog". Meanwhile I work to build confidence. It is in the back of my mind every time I work dogs. If it goes out of my mind I will be sorry (and have been when I let emotion get in my way). I've had several lessons that were solely focused on building and maintaining confidence in my dogs and I go back to those principles time after time.

The sun is out...celebrating! :-)

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