I had to take a minute to brag about my dog. Hee! Last night we went to our final herding practice before our trials coming up on Friday and Sunday. Buck's been doing well, but it's tough for me to describe what he does and why he looks better at it than some of the other dogs out there. My instructor, who breeds cattle dogs very well- she even has a grandkid who is a Cruft's Best of Breed- mentioned last night that she wishes she had a dog in her kennel that could wear stock like Buck does. Wearing is when you are walking with the sheep next to you and the dog is keeping them there by walking behind them.
It sounds pretty easy, but a lot of the dogs will get too jumpy and scare the sheep, or be too close and 'push' the sheep which makes them move too fast, or they get bored with it and don't focus well enough and the sheep get away from you. Buck is really serious about it- he has his tail down (when a cattle dog is playful and excited their tail is up) and his head down and just walks along behind them, or comes slowly up beside them if they are getting too far left or right, then he goes back behind.
Anyway, it's cool that this lady, who has seen so many herding dogs, thinks Buck is good. She thinks that we'll have no problems getting our next title at all (that would be the PT- we're going for his HT, or Herding Test, this weekend).
Oh, and he's also getting good at force barking. That's what a dog will do when a sheep challenges him instead of nipping. You don't want a dog barking constantly, but if they can get the sheep to do what they want with a few sharp barks, that's a good thing. Buck hasn't been confident enough until recently to get up in a sheep's face and make it do what he wants, so that was an awesome breakthrough.
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