Herding Ranch Dog I

I've got my sights set on the HRDI title for Kola. The trial is October 30th and 31st. I'm skipping Friday's informal trial because of logistical concerns and because if we qualified the first two tries then we'd have to move up and we're not ready to move up so it would be a waste. The course is above.
The stylish way to leave the round pen would be to have Kola hold the sheep off the gate by flanking her off balance so that she's to the left of the gate. Covering the draw but still holding them close. We've done something like this before. Then I flank her to the come bye side just a little bit and the sheep file out in an orderly fashion. Then Kola gets upset because the sheep are leaving. She might keep her head about it if we practice a little.

If we have her left of the gate when the sheep come through I'm hoping that they'll want to head out away from Kola and take a left as they're leaving. That would set us up for the tricky part. Getting the sheep into pen I without anyone getting upset. If I walk to my sheep and then call Kola to hold them to me, I can walk everyone to the next gate. Again the stylish thing to do is have Kola hold the sheep just off the gate this time on my right as I face the sheep. Open the gate, let the sheep slip through by giving Kola just a little Away to me flank. I will move through the gate and straight into pen I. The hope is that the sheep move with me and then I call Kola to come along. All the gates will be open so its up to Kola to act as the closed gate. Then there is the narrow alleyway. I'm predicting the sheep will bolt down the alley to the draw of the grass and the open field and away from the nutty dog. If they don't run then its pretty straightforward. If they bolt I need to set Kola up to fetch them back to me by stopping her, moving towards the sheep a little, and then sending her for them. If she holds them to me again, then its back to being pretty easy. I get to walk through the panels and all the way to the pumpkin. Then its just a matter of calling Kola off and setting her up for the outrun/lift/fetch. Back through the panels and then into field three.

There is some risk the sheep will want to run to the alley. If they do then I need to bring Kola around the outside and see if we can push them back. If not we'll go to pen I and then J and push them through again and it will be slow. We've only got ten minutes. Hopefully there will be too much pressure in the alley and they'll prefer to go through to field three. Just in case, I'll try to have Kola cover the alley entrance a little bit while pushing the sheep into field three.

Along the fence all the way to the re-pen shouldn't be too much trouble. Kola will want to be too close but she'll still get the job done. If I'm proactive keeping her at her proper distance it shouldn't be too ugly.

In other news, Kola is starting to get the hang of the weave poles. We're doing six poles now and probably wont move up to twelve until she can run through six. That will take a while. She still has trouble getting all her poles if I don't walk along with her. If I'm in front of her she watches me too much. My timing with the clicker is terrible but good enough to be helpful I think.