Pepper Herding 8-22-08, Part 2

Pepper's first official herding lesson. Our instructor had us practice the HT (Herding Test) course for the upcoming trial in Oct. While it's a little chaotic, and I was a bit confused on how to guide her as it was my first time doing this course, for the first go around she did great!

What is the HT course? First, the handler has to lay the dog down by the gate then walk towards the sheep. Then the handler calls the dog to gather the sheep. Then you have to walk between the two cones three times (without losing the sheep!), then recall the dog to you, leash the dog up, and walk out. Ideally, since the sheep like to dart for the back fence (at least in this corral), the handler should have the dog lie down on the back end of the ring, so on the side of the cone that is closest to the back fence. Pepper does alright! Next we'll have to work on her doing a walk up instead of running in circles around the sheep while driving them, even though that too is acceptable in the HT.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• herd
• herding
• sheep
• border
• collie
• bc
• dog
• sheepherding