Livy's keen!

It's official. My baby puppy had her first go with sheep yesterday at 5 1/2 months old. Well, her first legitimate session. She'd squeezed through the fence once when she was only about 12 weeks old, but that was because she was jealous of me working Ella, she showed no interest in the sheep at that time!

Anyway, we had a group of ewes and lambs, maybe about a dozen in all, put up in the feedlot. I'm not skilled enough to work an experienced dog while trying to turn a pup on, so Christine was out with one of her youngsters who was more than willing to get in there and mix things up. First Liv sort of floated around the outskirts of the group, having a look, sniffing the ground, watching the dog, etc. We encouraged her for any sheep interaction, and then the funniest thing happened: she walked up to the group and started whining and dancing in place! I could see the wheels turning, she wanted to do SOMETHING, she just didn't quite know what. And just like that, she kicked into working mode. Tail down, eyes locked, and circling. She mostly preferred to go away but did manage to switch directions. There were times when things got a little yeehaw due to the other dog being super into the "lets jazz up the puppy game", but Liv showed no fear. If a lamb squirted off from the group, she got it and put it back in. If a ewe looked at her, she walked directly in and once even nipped one right on the nose! And when there was a lull in the action, she went looking for hocks to nip. She didn't show any inclination to dive in and bust them up, instead her main focus was to keep them together. I did nothing other than let her have fun, and boy did she have fun!

I wish I had some photos, but we weren't adequately prepared. Bummer.

But as you can see in this most recent shot, she has some admirers.