Banksy’s legally ready for USDAA.

I’m not ready for Banksy though. And instead of getting more ready, working on contacts and recalls and off switches and just every single agility thing in general, I found myself driving out in Hollister to the dusty sheep roundpen again.

I handled Banksy more on my own this weekend with the sheep. Not pictured here! Some of the time my turns went a little bit better. Once my bad timing and poor positioning resulted in her splitting off that cute little paint style baby sheep and scaring the beejeebus out of me that she was going to bite him.

He was so cute and little! He had spotty legs and a sweet face! I don’t even especially like sheep that much. But when I’m in charge of their safety, and I let them down, poor little guy!

That’s the thing about herding as a sport that I am not loving. Those poor sheep. They are stuck out there trying to find safety from the human and if the human messes up and the dog gets going, ruh roh little sheep. George is really great, he protects the sheep. I’m trying, but once Banksy gets going, it can get a little dicey.

There are wooly little mammal faces attached to my learning curve.

The dogs don’t choose to do this, just like any dog sport we do. Banksy and some of her friends love it. LOVE IT. I think sheep are exactly up there with agility and pond tennis balls of favorite Banksy things ever now. Sheep and agility, Banksy’s Very Best Things.

If you were to ask her, you wanna go see the sheep? Do some agility? I can guarantee you, without a doubt, her answer would be YEEEESSSSS!!!!!! Unequivocal. Definite. One hundred and ten percent. She’d vote for Donald Trump if it got her a ticket to one more turn in the round pen with the sheep.

Hussy.

Some of her border collie friends have just said no to sheep. Either scared of them, or they just don’t care. No big. They don’t have to go back in there if they don’t want.

The sheep though, they don’t get a vote in this at all. This is the part of it I’m not quite sure about. A little bit like roping. They have no job except to just get chased.

I’m trying to learn quick to protect my stock. Trying to show Banksy EXACTLY how to move them around, which is quietly and slowly and NOT SCARING THE SHIT OUT OF THE SHEEP, Banksy. Apparently, the only way to get better is to practice, how about that? She’s pretty good at it already, she has a somewhat unconfident instinct at work. But for me to show her how to do it a little more confidently and mannerly, I need to get a lot better. Not sure if I’m comfortable scaring sheep to get there though.

I’ll let you know how it goes. Because we’ll be back there in a couple of weeks…