Herding and Crickets first time at the beach

Monday was our herding day and I was really looking forward to it because I got to go down by myself with the dogs because the girls could stay home with their dad. It was a nice day, pretty overcast so it felt a little more like winter, and it just felt like a relaxed quiet day, I LOVED it. It was such a nice day, some good company, a pretty day, working with the dogs, what more could I ask for? Karen from Contact Point Border collies http://www.bordercollies.tv/index.html stopped by during my lesson so I got to talk to her a little bit, and of course Robin http://www.robinonthelamb.com/ always makes herding fun. I asked Robin to start off working with Liz a little bit to get us going, so I got a little video of Robin working with Liz. I did the rest of the lesson with Liz and boy, Robin makes it all look like a quiet, and that is not how it looks when I am doing it!



Next time I go I am going to try to get some video of the ewes and lambs, they are so adorable and they just jump straight up in the air like little Mexican jumping beans, I could sit and watch them all day.

After we finished herding I took all three dogs, Liz, Breeze and Cricket and did agility. I worked with Breeze and just did some playing with some short small elements of the course that was set up and we worked a bit on the contacts and had a good time. I think Breeze and I need to sit and play in the backyard a little more to get working really in sync with each other again. Liz was SPECTACULAR and looked like she was having a blast and little Cricket was very good on her recalls and just doing some of her stuff in a new place. Cricket gets GOLD stars for how she was walking on leash yesterday-probably because she does not yet understand how exciting it is to walk toward an agility field or how exciting the sheep are.

I got myself a little Christmas gift, I got my own flag for herding. The flag is what Robin has us using to sort of get the dogs attention and let them know when they need to move further back-a sort of extension of your arm. Now that I have a flag and am working with my own dog does that mean I am a herder now? LOL, who would have thought?

Next we headed to the beach. It was a bit on the chilly side, and I am sure the water was cold so I wanted to just let Cricket play on the beach and experience the sights and sounds, I was grateful to Breeze for being a great ambassador and showing Cricket the beach is a fun place.



It turned into a VERY LONG day when the GPS in my phone sent me into he middle of nowhere when I tried to find a Trader Joe's on the way home...first off there was no Trader Joe's where the phone said there was, and then when I plugged in to have it show me how to get home it sent me into the middle of NOWHERE. YIKES, my gas gauge was near empty and I had no clue where I was then and I could not find a gas station. The lady in the GPS in the phone is going to get coal in her stocking from me! I have to say I was pretty scared until I could find my way back to a freeway and found a gas station.