Took Wings with me to do some work for a friend today who has goats. Wings 
has had some exposure to goats, but not much, and these goats are NOT tame, 
except for the babies, who think they are labrador retrievers... She was 
surprisingly not very interested in them until one of the other dogs (a BC) 
decided the goats had been pesty enough and began to move them out of the 
area I was working in and back to the other side of the large field. This 
appeared to flick some switch in Wings' brain- "You mean, I'm ALLOWED to 
look at those?" and we had a nice practice session of her helping the BC 
move them to the far side of the field and then bring them along with me 
back pu to the house. 

Wings is very familiar with directional commands for SD work- she knows a 
directed retrieve so I can have her pick up items that she doesn't know the 
name of and it was very interesting to see how she translated those 
commands. She's VERY light on the goats- mostly just trotted along behind 
them JSUT close enough to keep them moving at a nice slow, steady pace, and 
while I would like to see more confidence from her, this is actually kind of 
a welcome change from Indy (Cardigan Corgi), who likes to go 'bowling for 
goats' and charges into the middle of a group, splitting them everywhich 
way. (He does, eventually, round them up and do what I want, but he will 
have his little jokes first... little creep.) and Skye ("I think I'm a 
greyhound, look how fast I can make the sheep go.") Both of them showed more 
innate interest but Wings was a LOT more biddable. We've played around with 
ducks before, but we're down to about 6, all of which hide in the pond when 
they see me come over the fence.... next herding-practice critters will be 
PENNED.....We didn't work for very long- about 25 minutes- but we got all 
the goats put away without help from the BC or my friend (who I *swear* was 
snickering at us from the livingroom window, but she says not) which usually 
takes me a LOT longer, so....

Househunting proceeds apace (I have NO idea what that expression means, but 
I like it.) It looks like we will end up in SW Missouri, about 2 hours from 
the place I currently lease, and we've looked at places with anywhere from 3 
to 10 acres. The real estate agent who is helping us look is actually the 
lady whose sheep I went to look at last weekend. After interacting with her 
sheep some, I think that I'm not ready for sheep yet- at least, not anything 
as flighty as shetlands and not as cute as border leicesters, becuase 
otherwise I will end up with like 20 pet wethers... (What's a really UNCUTE 
breed of wool sheep that's nice for handspinning?) DId fall in love with 
several angora bunnies and may indulge my fiber obsession that way and could 
then justify having hair sheep for herding only which are sufficiently 
uncute, but still... )


Cait & Wings PSDIT (I *told* you I could do it, Mom.)
-- 
Current fosters in the orphanage: Ceara (pb Golden SD washout, 9 months)