It's really fun to get confused sometimes...

Yesterday we had a new kind of trainingsession.

Our local club is one of three neighbourclubs that have a yearly competition. This competiton is all about teamwork.

Everybody in all three teams does one individual race first.

When that is done every team choose two pairs. These two pairs are now supose to herd one flock of sheep each. They have to take the flock the same way as they did induvidially. The only 'probleme' is that now it is two dogs and their two 'leaders' on the field.

Our club came in last. The prize is not a trofy. It is just the pure joy of having beaten the other two teams. And the winning team is also the one that is hosting it the year after.

We do not want to come in last again so that is why we had this practice.

Roland and I was competing last year but we didn't do the teamherding. We want to do it this year and if it goes like it did yesterday... LOOK OUT!!! hehe

Everybody else have only Border collies on their teams. We have Toddie. I love this dog.

I was a bit late to practice yesterday because I had to wait for my brother to come home. He was mine and Kate's taxi.

First we had to wait for him and when we came down to the ferrycrossing the stupid ferry had just left. We had to wait for that to.

When we arrived I was afraide that everybody had already teamed up. They had not so Roland asked me if I wanted to team up with him and Toddie.

When it was our turn, Sture told us which way to go across the field. While he was placing out the sheep for us we decided who would take the right side and who would take the left.

I already had Kate on my right side so I chose to send her from the right.

Sture was done with the sheep and we sent out our dogs.

Kate did what she allways does. Right before she reaches the sheep she sneak in right infront of them and rounds up on the other side.

Toddie looked a bit surprised. He was not used to have a small black and white rocket swooshing right infront of him.

Luckely nothing happend. Both Kate and Toddie are a little 'speciall' towords other dogs so we were ready for everything with these two on the field together.

They drove the sheep to us and now we discoverd that Kate didn't take my commands. AT ALL! She took Roland's commands. The ones he told Toddy!

I had to step in and sound really angry at her. That worked. She took my commands again.

The dogs worked perfectley together! No stupid growling or anything.

When we came up to the pen I grabbed the gate, opened it and sent Kate out to the left. Two seconds later the sheep were inside the pen.

We probably looked like two fools when we walked of the field. Our ears was the only thing that stopped our smiles from going all the way around our heads.

After a break, with lots of talking and laughing, it was time for me and Roland to go out again.

Don't know what happend this time but we got a bit confused.

I sent out Kate to the right again (and she didn't cross over :-O) and everything was fine.

Just until the dogs started to drive the sheep towords us.

The sheep were suposed to round us on our right side before the dogs could drive them away from us.

Kate was working great behind the flock and so was Toddie. Suddenly Roland commanded Toddie to push them to our left side. I thought that he just said the wrong command so I sent out Kate to the left side to push them back.

He kept pushing the sheep to the wrong side. Kate although had more preassure then Toddie so she managed to push the sheep the right way.

After they had rounded us he started to push them to the right. Now I had to stop and ask what he was doing.

He had managed to forgett which way we were suposed to go.

Now we were just standing still. Well, not completely still. We were shaking because we were laughing so hard.

We agreed what way we were gonna go and now everything went mush easier.

Kate pushed the sheep in front of her and Toddie blocked so the wouldn't get away.

We were very greatful for our dogs because they worked better than we did. We were still laughing and we did that for a while even when we were done.

The rest of the group asked us what the h... we were doing out there. 'Well, just a diversion to fool the other teams.' haha

We decided to do this again. We had so much fun and it was great to 'play' with the dogs not just practice for the regular competitions.

This is something we really recommend if you want to know how much controll you have. Not just over your dog but also over your self.

It's not easy because now you can't fix every angle yourself. You have to work together with an extra dog And person.

We didn't have to much control the last part of round two but that was because we were laughing so hard. It was the dogs that got the job done.