Fate had the best lesson yet, each day seems a quantum leap from the day before. She went out into the field, turned the flock, kept them together.  She beat back a rebellion from Liam.

I let her run with them for a few minutes, I don’t want to wear them out or have her lose focus and get into chasing. She has not yet grasped “come bye” or “away to me” fully, or perhaps I should say I have not yet clearly explained it to  her. Otherwise, she is on fire, especially given that she turned 15 weeks this week. She was lying down from about 50 yards,  and quickly, she has trouble holding the position, patience will come a bit later.

The “lie down” command is critical now, because if I can get her to drop down or slow down, we avoid the chaos of a rodeo rather than a training session. And that keeps the sheep from running too fast for too long.

Fate is beginning to grasp “stay” better and she held a stay from a long distance for more than a minute. When I get a dog to stay for three minutes, I’m satisfied. She has stopped eating the sheep poop, a sign she is getting comfortable out there. Liam stepped forward to challenge this presumptuous puppy, as he often did with Red (and sometimes still does).

And that was the remarkable thing to watch, Fate just went into the crouch and stare, she advanced very slowly, got into Liam’s face without charging or biting, she backed up the entire flock step by step until they turned and tried to run, but she went into an outrun and headed them off. You could not ask for more than that during the second week of training. Susie, one of the ewes, charged her and ran over her, Fate backed up, turned and got right back into her face. Susie backed of, I could see Fate’s confidence – already quite strong – growing.

The morning is the best time for us to work, the sheep are rested and so is she. And so am I. I am getting a good workout, too. This is a thrill for me to be doing with a dog like this, Karen Thompson has done it a gain, paired Maria and I up with a dog that is so right for us. What a gift that is. We’ll go out again this afternoon. I have to figure out the directionals, but not until next week. And I want to go slowly and keep the lessons on a very high note, as this morning’s was. I also want to make sure Fate is strong and long enough to outrun the sheep. I don’t want to put her in a position where she can’t physically do what she wants to do.

Although so far, I haven’t found anything that she can’t do physically or mentally. Great fun. Fate is fulfilling her destiny, I can see that, nothing gives me more satisfaction.