I promised Holmes that when he completed his Championship, he could do fun stuff. Even though AKC hasn’t officially posted his status, I can count and he is finished. So, today we trekked up to Edgewood (about 55 miles each way from my house) and met up with Corgi-herder Ellen Gerwin. This was all about instinct and I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. I will say it was blistering hot. The ground was so hot that I thought Holmes had picked up a sticker, or two, because he was limping. He seemed to forget about the serious case of hot foot once he saw the sheep family.
Holmes’ first sight of sheep on the move:
Second part of the first run
Then Holmes went and stood on the grass and Ellen turned on the hose to cool his feet — that ground was so hot. Once half his tongue was back in his mouth, we headed to the pen for round 2:
Always leave ’em laughing. Ellen stopped Holmes in the second run while he still wanted to play:
So — here’s the plan. Holmes and I are both going to take lessons from Ellen — but not together (at first). Ellen will work with Holmes and I will work with Ellen’s Herding Champion. Hopefully both Holmes and I will learn to do some things right independently. After a few weeks, he and I will begin working together to get ready for the August trial in Colorado. I hope you enjoy these videos of Holmes-puppy doing what he was bred to do — and doing it so happily.