Holding the Line

This was a mess today! We did a novice level outrun (100 yards or so) and it was beeeeeeeaaaaauuuuttttiiiiiifffffuuuuuullll but the fetch was... horrible! Soda has a hard time holding the line and she isn't naturally good at covering and these sheep wanted desperately to be somewhere else. They were pretty flighty sheep.

I ended up with 2 sets of two sheep each and a confused looking border collie standing on the far the side of the field. I had to laugh.

I talked to my trainer about teaching Soda to hold and line and she said she would never trust a dog like Soda to hold the line on her own because she's so loose eyed but that she can be taught to help hold the line and the rest I would need to handle. That's okay with me! Hopefully that will make me a better handler. So that's another training goal:

6.) Help Soda learn to keep straight lines and work on my own handling to help her with this
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You know what I want? A dog that drives more naturally. It's such a struggle for Soda and I know we'll make progress but this is the most difficult thing we've done so far and I have a feeling it's going to be the ultimate limit to her abilities. I'm not giving up, I'm willing to work and work and work but it'd be nice to not have to fight so hard!

Paige

PS. wish us luck on our trial saturday! :)