Penelope Ravenpaw

October, 2002

So far, we've only worked with sheep and ducks. She is calm, upright, likes to flank (and gripping is fun too, but it's just "flossing", nothing serious). She prefers to work close, although I don't know how much of that is just inexperience/lack of confidence. She is typically quiet, though when things get moving really fast I'll hear an occasional "woof" -- usually just at the point when the stock have all turned where she wants them to go, sort of like she's saying "take THAT!" She has some eye, which is particularly noticeable in small spaces/pens. In more wide open spaces she likes to use her body/ movement, in a more loose-eyed manner -- flanking, bumping, etc.

I would guess the biggest difference between Raven and Shooter is that she's more of a worrier than he was; she's naturally a less bold dog. She probably takes instruction better than he does (more biddable), but also more easily discouraged. He, OTOH, is probably better at acting on his own -- for better or for worse. Just guessing...

She gets bored when we're "drilling", so I have to train her by doing "jobs" -- put them in the trailer, take them out, move them to the field/pen/etc. We can't just set up outruns (for instance) and do it over & over... she loses interest (as do I ;-).

She is *very* fast, but we don't do real well with flighty sheep at this point -- when she's revved up and at a distance from me, she likes to blast straight through the group to turn them, as opposed to sweeping around the outside in a nice flank. No doubt, an experienced handler would have straightened this little problem out, but with me, things tend to get out of control...

Mary Peaslee Raven (what do you mean out of control???... that's when it starts getting FUN!)

My Mom,Brighton
My Dad, Chaz
Mirror Image Pups
My Brother, Shooter
More about Raven
Poem about Raven
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