Dog stuff: I’m doing some training work with Izzy and Rose. They work well together. Rose is very generous about sharing her work, and Izzy has a soft touch. They seem to enjoy moving the sheep, and they slow one another down, which is nice. The sheep know them both well, so there is little panic and drama.
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 Re: Frieda. I was training her to heel yesterday when Maria called on the cell and I answered it and she went up ahead of me, then took off after a rabbit. Three hours later, she came staggering back, exhausted. Safety is as important a training practice with dogs as with people. If you are going to train a dog like Frieda, you have to be vigilant and responsible. There are many fawns out in the woods, and Frieda is one of those dogs that would definitely run a deer, which is unacceptable for all kinds of obvious reasons.
  So I’m halting all off-leash  training. We’ll train inside the fence, and then when we train outside, it will always be on a leash. When this happens, it’s important to accept responsibility. It’s not Frieda’s fault, it’s mine. We’ll work it out.
  One of my major training ideas is to never give the dog a chance to fail. My fault.