Amber's big day

Yesterday was all about Amber. I loaded her up and drove up to my friend Janice's place, where she got to meet new dogs- Janice's 2 collies which are a daughter of Reba and a daughter of Tess- and Tucker, a big yellow lab. Amber wasn't too sure about that!  She wanted to hide behind me, but eventually figured it out that they weren't going to pester her. I left her tied up so that she could go in  the truck if she wanted, while I spent some time with Janice in her greenhouse.
After that, it was time to take her to meet sheep. We went to the beautiful Pine Butte Ranch, where  we met up with George, to assess Amber's attitude and aptitude as a stock dog.

George had his 2 dogs with him; Kate, who is a champion, and her daughter Nan, and he sent Kate out to bring in the sheep. He asked me about Amber, and asked what I wanted to learn about her, which basically was whether or not I would be able to handle this dog or whether she would be too hard headed for me.
Once the sheep were in and penned, George had Kate move them a bit, slowly and quietly, while we watched Amber's reaction. He put her on a 50 ft. string, just in case he needed to get her attention. She did look at them, head down in good Border Collie style, but spent a lot of time roaming around the pen, sniffing all the dried up sheep poo and occasionally stopping to watch the other dogs. While we were doing this, we worked on her recall, which I have been having trouble with. George is very soft spoken, and he would just say her name, and if she ignored him he would give a tug on the string, say her name again, and when she looked at him he would praise her. It worked great; he only had to tug a couple of times before she got it and would come walking back. Everything was kept low key, no excitement and running around.

Meanwhile, the sheep were just standing still, carefully watched by Kate and Nan. After a bit, Amber really started looking at them.

She made no move towards them, just lay there and watched them.

Amber watching, as Kate flanks.

The result of the day's assessment is that Amber is very smart, independent, has natural ability and desire to work. I need to work on her recall, and it's time to separate her from the other collies at home, so that I can keep her focus on me as the one who provides her with the activity she needs, which will help her to get over that independent streak. I also need to get a good lie down on her.

It was a good session. After that, the dogs took the sheep to another field where there are 2 large rocks that George uses as a marker to move the sheep between- practice for moving sheep through gates or panels.
He worked both dogs individually and I found it really interesting that each dog knew when not to work, even though George was giving whistles or vocal commands to the other dog. He says it's all about intent, which is the mental communication between handler and dog. We talked a bit about that, and compared it to horse training where there is a lot of mental communication; but with horses, it's direct; the handler is in physical contact or close to the horse and with dogs you have to be able to have that communication at a distance.

Kate watches while Nan works.

Lovely Kate! She is related to my dog Tess- her mother is Tess's grandmother.

Anyway, I'll work on those basic things with Amber, and probably take her about once a month to keep her looking at sheep, and in the fall, I should have enough basics on her to actually get her started working.
Won't be too much of a hardship coming to this beautiful place!