vaider 24 months
Well in a couple of days Vaider will be 2 years old, it is hard to believe. He is very comfortable to work. He tries so hard to be right and is very kind to his livestock.
We went to his first trial the other week at Widbey Island. I ran Ty in open and Vaider in ranch. It was not our best trial but we did have fun. The set out had the sheep very settled as we went to the handlers post so there was no motion up field. When I sent Vaider I felt he was going a little narrow but let him go. It turned out he got drawn by the motion of a vehicle going up the road, when I tried to redirect him he started for the sheep in the exhaust. I left the handlers post to help him find his sheep. Once he found his sheep he lifted them very nice and held the fetch line well. His drive was good; he held the line and made all the panels. We ran out of time at that point but I was quite happy with what he did. I was glad it was a training trial so even though we retired on the outrun we were able to keep going and still get to show him. I truly was not expecting him to not see his sheep as that is something that he has never even hinted at doing. With more experience he will have a better idea where to expect his sheep, even though we have been stretching him out, this trial is the first time he has had to go for sheep in a new field that we did not set the sheep before we started his outrun.
Vaider helped me with the rams today. They come and knock the llama’s grain off the post so she does not get any unless we hold the rams off. I was pleased with Vaider, he controlled the rams well and showed force when he needed to (something we have been working on). He is so kind and patient with his stock yet he was able to handle the rams, moving them away from the grain and llama when that is where they wanted to be showing both force and cover.
Vaider is more and more able to fill in for Ty which gives Ty the rest that he needs and I hope that will allow me to trial them both more then we have been able to the last few years.
Vaider has nice eye being able to hold his stock but not holding them so hard that he draws them back upon himself. He is beginning to hold drive lines for some distance (how far he will hold the line varies depending upon how freely the sheep are moving, free moving sheep allow the line to be longer). He is putting herding principles to work, being able to preform tasks he has not been asked to preform before.
Vaider is still a nice dog to hangout with and as he matures he just keeps becoming a nicer and nicer dog to herd with. The way he interacts with me is very similar to my old Border Collie, Nikki. He helps me relax and not take things so seriously (though Trudy would tell you this is still my ONE weakness haa haa).