challenges?

[Tea]

Each dog is different.
I guess my challenges with Sweep is stay very calm and slow myself as he is a fast powerful character that likes to work on his own.
And get the stop.

With Taw it is just trust. Taw is a very quiet slow kind of dog that can move stock with a turn of her head. This may sound pretty darn stupid but I have JUST now figured that out. So with her it is mostly watch the stock and trust the dog.

[Pam Wolf]

The challenges depend on many factors here. I have woods, trees a creek(well it is dry this year) and cliffs on which the stick may go to avoid the dogs. The biggest challenge is probably the goast. They can sense a weak dog in a heartbeat!. They can get trhough a mouse hole and often go wandering which involves hunting for them in some pretty rough terraine and this is where the dogs come in real handy. When they get on the cliffs and challenge a dog it is nice to see the dog take charge and get them moving without anybody falling down below (anywhere from 20 to 50 feet).

The creek can present it's own set of problems when it isn't so dry. It has never been dry before this year. But it can rise fast and high. When it is rising, sometimes the stock may have to swim to get across and I'd prefer they be near the house at night and ti iis nice when the dog can convince them to cross without me having to drive around to the other side of the farm and get themin a vehicle.

As for training challenges, the dogs MUST learn out of sight outruns as our ground is small hills but enough so the dog cannot see the stock over the hill even at relatively close distances. And I love it when a dog starts to track livestock, it really helps in finding those darn goats.