Herding Instinct Test

On Saturday, June 13 we woke up early (I at 5:30am and Matt at 6:30am) to drive Luna down to Roy, WA for the Cascade Pembroke Welsh Corgi Club's annual herding instinct certification at Ewe-topia.

It took us about an hour and half to get there. It went by quickly mainly because there was no traffic at that ungodly hour!

Luna was excited to be there even though I am sure that she had no idea what was going on. That was the longest car trip she has ever taken with us. We were one of the first people there, believe it not, so Matt had fun walking around petting all the other corgis. The ones to the left are some random ones that he fellin love with.

Before Luna got a turn to herd the sheep they gave us a talk on what to expect. We were the 6th ones up. Matt watch from the sidelines when Luan and I went in to herd 3 sheep. I warned the instructor of her past, former show-dog and that she has really good food-drive but lousy toy drive. He assured me if she thought of the sheep as food that she would go after them.

Instead, she went after me who went after the sheep! They instructed the owners to grab and chase the sheep so Luna just ran after me and took an occasional lick at the sheep poop. They brought in a boy corgi to try to help. Luna didn't care. She just kept running in circles.

The picture on the right is not Luna, but it might as well of been although she focused better than this little girl.

Since she failed at the sheep they let her have a go at the ducks. We waited another hour or two for our turn with them, which was no big deal because we visited with the other corgis and their parents. They had an off-leash dog park there that Luna LOVED romping in.

When we got our turns with the ducks, she only wanted daddy who was on the side lines videotaping. Once he joined us, she was very interested

and at one point the instructor said she was herding them. I tried to call them kitties because she herds the kitties at home, but I must have been making a fool of myself because Matt told me to stop. The instructor, Joe, let her sniff at one a couple of times, but it didn't take long for her to lose interest again.

When all was said and done we did not pass. Oh well, we plan on sticking with agility anyway! No herding trials for us! Luna and I took a nap on the long drive home and then we all crashed for a few hours after that. We had lots of fun and it was an experience to remember.

Now we're getting ready for Luna's grandparents to invade!