Winter Hibernation

I'm pretty much planning to take it easy for the next month or so as far as trialling.  The plan is to focus on the training issues that need worked on.

For the most part I will be looking at Z's driving and we will drive and drive and drive some more.  With that I plan to walk a lot to get the power steering and gears installed. I'm trying to get much more smoothness instead of the stop start we have been having lately.  Also I am working on opening up his inside flanks a little bit more.  As alway still working on keeping him back and getting him relaxed behind the sheep.  He really likes to goose the bubble and has a hard time letting them go a tiny bit to use the draw to our advantage.  I'll be setting up situations to work on this.

The next thing I will work on a little is smoothing out the shedding.  He almost understands this well.  So I plan to solidify it a bit more and start asking him in more difficult situations.  I will probably not work too hard on this right now as driving seems to be more pressing.

I'll make an attempt to work on his look back too.  We did few sessions on this in the late summer and he's got the basic idea.  He's turning back and taking off in the direction I want, but sometimes it takes a little work to get him to let go of the first group.

I'll be heading out in Dec. for a trial in Idaho, but after that probably not trial again until the end of Feb.  With any luck I'll be able to keep Z reasonably fit and we wont be too behind the ball when we start shaping up to go to North Dakota in June.  Hopefully we get into the trial! Take a look here.http://www.slashj.com/