slow down

Today and yesterday Kola and I worked on slowing down and building distance between herself and the sheep. Yesterday I said eeeeaaassssyyyy a lot and then eeeaassyy-sit. I was hoping that she would think of "easy" as a prelude to "sit" and thus slow down in anticipation of the sit which then wouldn't come if she slowed down. I have two modes for saying easy, the relaxed one which was more eeeeeeeasy. Then the disciplinarian one "hey! eaSY!" I'm trying to use the former as much as possible but only the latter tends to get a response. Oh well. Mostly what gets her off the sheep is asking her to sit. Not because she sits, mind you, but because she wants to compromise. Instead of sitting she'll just slow way down like I wanted her to in the first place. "Why isn't that good enough mom? We both know thats really what you're after."

Kola is starting to get the idea though. She is much more relaxed while at the same time using a lot more eye to boss the sheep. It feels a little dishonest to work such heavy sheep because they're going to try to use me as a shield even if she's fairly well off. It was strange though, when she took her eyes off them sometimes they started to run off, even though her distance had increased. I'll have to ask Dave about that.

We did a little bit of fetching practice. That crashed and burned like nobody's business. Basically it went like this:
I asked Kola to come by and she started vaguely going in that direction but with her eyes on the sheep. You could practically see the wheels spinning in her little pea brain.
Ooooh, sheep, I wanna get closer.
Hey, they're starting to wander off in the wrong direction, I'd better head them off.
Oh, something spooked them, now they're starting to run in the wrong direction. I'd better run faster to catch up with them.
Damn those sheep are fast, but I'm faster!
Wheeee! I'm going so fast!
Stop sheep! Woof!
Sheep are headed for mom. Mission accomplished. (Think big sign hanging on an aircraft carrier)

Now at this point she's cut in front of me and run all the way to the other side, basically going neck and neck with a nervous sheep. Finally overtaking it and then barking at it. They all come running to me for protection from the crazy animal. Yay, sheep fetched. Right? Achem.

So I send her around again, much closer this time and that goes great of course. I guess I started from too far off the first time. Oh well.

Overall I'm actually really pleased with her. We'll see how long that feeling lasts come Saturday and the wild sheep in the giant pasture.