Lessons of the week

Lesson one:   Pepper is not ready for only two sheep.
Lesson two:  The more sheep, the better.
Lesson three:  Latch the gate.  Especially if you are going to have Sprite fetch the sheep and want to keep the puppies from "helping".  

No major disasters but I thought I might write about some of the problems of the week.   Lesson one, I actually did start with three sheep, but I approached from the wrong angle and one of them ducked through a gate which has a gap that I have yet to fix.   I sent Pepper, and for some odd reason then thought it would be a good idea to have her drive the two sheep instead of going and getting my other one (or more) back from it's hiding place.   She pushed too hard, the two sheep split and ran, and she had to go around and bring one back from a dead end corner with trees, which she did, so I was not too unhappy, although I was mad at myself for setting up such a bad situation.   Then I did go back and get a bigger group, and kept them away from the gate, and she did fine.  Lesson two, was today, with all the ewes and lambs.   I worked with Pepper and she did really well.  She is learning "steady" and  "there".   We worked a little on scooping them out of a corner they really wanted to hang out in.  

And finally Lesson three:  this was just dumb.   A few days ago I was going to feed the ewes so I took Sprite to run out and get them.   Otherwise the closer ones coming running and the farther away ones don't see the grain bucket until it's too late.  Tessa, Sally, and Dodge were in the yard, but I thought, this will just take a second and didn't latch the gate behind me.     So of course, in comes Tessa to the field and scatters the sheep that Sprite has just brought.   I told Sprite that'll do and she ran off to find the water pool while I got Tessa under control.   Tessa got them grouped back together right away and then she was pretty easy to catch, but still, I don't need my daily dose of excitement that badly.     Sprite has come a long way from when she was the instigator of havoc to being willing to leave when I told her she was done.   Some day Tessa will be a big dog too and not a silly puppy.