Jig’s Journey ~ Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked

Or, in Jig’s case, that should read, “Too Much Rest Makes Her Wicked.”

After nearly two weeks of slim to no training brought about by a combination of heat & humidity, followed up by a week and a half of severe congestion/sinusy/snot filled head/shit, I finally got back out there with the girl. You don’t realize how important breathing is until you have to chase down a young dog and your nose and lungs are compromised. Man o’man was she naughty!

On the plus side, she’s getting much more confident.

On the down side–pushy, grabby, ignoring me, diving in, splitting–the list is far too long to get into.

My friend Deb likes to talk about the balancing act between Confidence and Control. Well, I think the board has definitely tipped to the Confidence end. Time for me to take back a little control. We had a couple ‘discussions’ involving a shaker bottle (or three), and my pushing her back off her stock all the way to the fence. I’d like to say that after that she settled, but…

Let’s just say that she toned it down a little. By ‘a little’ I mean she behaved so long as I didn’t turn my back on her for too long.

It wasn’t all bad. She did a decent take pen into the big arena. Okay, the first time she chased out Red, an idiot whether, and then I had to get after her for harassing him. The second time she nearly killed me because I had just made a move to step in when the sheep made a move en masse to hastily exit the pen due to Jig’s insistence that remaining within it spelled *cue music and echo effect* Certain Doom! But, third time’s the charm, as they say. She went in calm, got around the back, downed when I told her to, and the sheep came out at an easy trot. *round of applause*

Lesson to be learned? No lengthy stretches of time off for Jig. She can’t handle the lack of entertainment.