Sheep Herding Clinic

Yesterday Chandler and I headed out to a sheep herding clinic in MA. He's fine. I'm still recovering.

He apparently did very well, although I have to email the herding instructor to get more information on just what he was good at.

You see, my reaction was more of a "CALM DOWN, you maniac!"



The minute he saw the sheep he was crying to get at them, and trying to lunge forward if they moved too fast. This continued throughout the day, which meant that I didn't get to take pictures (many thanks to the person who gave these photos to me) or really watch the other dogs because I was busy leading my enthusiast away when he got too excited. Unfortunately he was so revved up I think he never got the point that he got led away when he starting crying and was allowed to watch the sheep when he was quiet. (We spent a lot of time away from the ring.)



When in the ring, I'm sorry to say the sheep were better at sticking to the instructor than I was. I suppose I was trying to balance watching Chandler, not getting run over by the sheep, staying out of the way of the pole the instructor was using to ward him off, and keeping up with where the instructor was. As it is, I was stepped on a lot.



But-
He apparently has good instincts, and also the drive to do herding
He's very biddable to instruction (I guess his obedience training helped)
...and he's a "strong dog" that would be good on cattle. (Yeesh..my MARSHMALLOW? Well, he did keep trying to rush in a "grip" the sheep's legs.)