Quill on Goats Christmas Day 2024

Surprise! I went herding again this afternoon! This was our last few minutes of a drop in at Billie Richardson’s - only 10 minutes away. It’s Quill’s and my 4th time on the goats in the round pen - 2 lessons and 2 drop-ins.
Today I tried to stick to the perimeter to advise Quill. As well i tried to keep the goats along the perimeter. This is a missing piece and im so excited to work on it and progress with her drive.
I spent the first bit of the drop-in telling her to GET OUT OF IT every time she turned a drive into a fetch. Not in a mean way but firmly waving a rolled up feed bag.
Quill tries hard and catches on fast. She also tends to process after a session to be better the next time. She has her flanks and a Here and a There! Plus the starts of inside flanks.
Having said all that I watch this and realize I didn’t enforce every lie down. 😖 I’m not even sure why. She was stopping and standing and I was happy with the goat’s direction. I just did not want Quill fading off to the gather side (12:00 to my 6:00). 🕕
This is seriously hard on the untrained brain. Quill has no idea what my goal is so she has to listen to my advice.
It’s like asking chess pieces on both sides to move to achieve a strategy, seeing ahead what may happen and having the right commands come out of your mouth. Whistles are better and she has some whistles but I won’t try adding them yet.
Add to this the goats were quite sure billie might be gearing up a tractor to put out fresh hay and so i worked extra hard to keep them on the left away fein thr pen gate. Theres no way to explain this to Quill she just has to take my comands to be my partner.
I think I made a subconscious decision to choose the flow, but I have to go back to enforcing the down tomorrow because she can be FAST and has busy feet. Dud not ready to make her own decisions on this!
That’s why this exercise is so amazing for her and me. So many thanks to Billie Richardson. She’s been Quill’s biggest supporter this year (letting us drop in and now some lessons to plus the holes in my bucket!). Otherwise I mostly train alone!It’s the long road. It’s been very rewarding and I’m learning a lot.