In & Off
Posted 6/22/2008 7:43pm by Eugene Wyatt.
When I’m in New York at market, Poem spends the day in her kennel that faces the noisy pond. Because she will be there all day Saturday with nothing to do but listen to the frogs croak, I try to work her before I go, and then again when I come home. Friday I took her to the ram paddock with me; I wasn’t expecting much more than commanding and correcting her as is usual with a young dog.
But instead of running ahead and making me stamp my foot to get her attention, Poem surprised me by staying at my side as we approached the sheep. I stepped over the fence, then she jumped over following me. “Sit,” I said and she did. Rather than cast her around the flock of rams to the left, “Go round” or cast her around them to the right, “Go over,’ I let her choose her direction by simply telling her, “Go back.” She went “round” to the left; but what amazed me is that she went wide around the flock (correctly staying off the sheep to not scare them) rather than coming in too close as she usually does.
How did she do that? For months now, I had wondered how I would teach her to stay off the sheep on the cast. I called her back to me for another cast; she went wide again, perfectly. Poem, we should quit winners. I called her back to me, bent down and stroked her; I told her she was “good dog,” but it wasn’t enough. Dogs love you by letting you know your love for them is not enough.
Sunday I took her back to the rams. On the first cast, rather than going around the sheep—staying off and out wide—she came in to cut the flock in two and began running the small group of five bucks just for dog fun.
"O Poem," I sighed; then shook my head and loudly yelled, "come behind." She came off the sheep and to my side; panting, she looked up at me with her wild brown eyes, then wagged her tail. No, it’s never enough.
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