[Lonewolfblue]

We just got back from Seattle again, and had a blast. This time was for her herding instinct test. When I first got there, we had to wait as they had customers that purchased some sheep, and had to load them up. It was fun to watch. Then when it came time to let Betty out, she got loose from me, and I thought, oh, no, there were several other dogs out. She first met this big older white dog, I think some kind of sheep dog maybe, not sure. Betty introduced herself, and they sniffed, and all was ok. Then she went after all the border collies, lol. She sniffed the first, said your ok, went to the next, your ok, went to the next, your ok, lol. Then they started racing around with each other. Then Betty took off after some ducks. I though, oh, no, she's going to get one or 2. But instead, she flanked around them and got them closer to each other. It was then that I was finally able to catch her and put the leash on her.

Once Monique had the sheep in the proper area for the instinct test, she had me come in with Betty, walking in over ankle deep mud in areas, lol. Was great, lol. We got to where the training sheep were and Monique took the leash. At first Betty wanted to go head on with them. Monique did a very good job describing to me exactly what Betty was doing, as she doesn't know yet exactly what to do. But after working with her for 10 minutes on leash, she was able to get Betty to the point where she could let the leash go. A couple times Betty had a good chase going on, but overall, she did very well. And with what I learned in the first day, her instinct level is very good, and she's out of shape, lol. So I'm now going to do some research on a good diet to put her on, as she's been only doing free-feeding. So I need to do some homework there and put her on a healthy diet. And as for the exercise, I think now that it's spring and going into summer, we are going to get plenty of exercise, and I'm also going to take her down for a lot more swimming once it starts warming up as well. The water is still a bit chilly with all the snow runoff. Will wait a couple more weeks and see how it is then. I do see other dogs in the water, but they aren't actually letting them swim after balls yet. Just wading and drinking.

Overall, I had a very good time. I wish I would have got more pics, but I only got 2, which I'll post once I get them downloaded from the camera. It was pics from after the session, with Monique holding the leash with Betty near the sheep. Here in a couple weeks I'm probably going to actually start up her training as well, since it's a long drive I'll probably start with every other weekend and see how it goes, then maybe go into every weekend. Just depends on my bills, etc. I think she'll have a blast doing it, she did very well, and I was very pleased.