Today I went back out to my ducks after a month-long break. To be honest, I was a little worried about it. I really didn’t want Rippa to be over ducks forever, but I was resigned to it being a possibility.
I tied her up and used Fury to get them out. We’re down to seven now as apparently Jennifer found one of the drakes dead the other day, no explanation. Ducks! I’m hoping the learn to brood some of the eggs the ladies are dropping or I’ll have to buy more in the spring just to balance out the ratios there. I read somewhere that it’s good to have all drakes, but Jennifer and I agree it’s good to have eggs, too.
Fury was a good little animal. I worked on her commands off them and she took them nicely, working the little guys much less stressfully that I would expect for her having to take over the job of moving them out of their pen and into the center. She’s learning to control her instinct a LOT better.
Then I put her up and got Rippa out. I went into it feeling soft, not asking for much, just that she doesn’t bowl them and I got that. She took advantage of me being soft at first and wasn’t honest with them at all, but once I gave her some correction, she started thinking again. I started her wrong. Must remember that.
The ducks, for their time off, are more subtle and take more thoughtful handling as they’re less inclined to move toward me, which is what I wanted anyway. It was really fun! I didn’t say a lot to Rippa and she worked out the problems as she needed to. I could see the obstacle work with Shannon really paid off here. I put her up quickly while she was happy and eager and brought Fury down one more time.
By then, the ducks had had it, so I just put them back up. I do need a bigger flock if I want to keep working. I could have divided them into two small groups, but I figured it was better to turn both dogs on with a bigger one that would be more forgiving.
Anyway, it was pretty great. I couldn’t be more happy with the dogs right now.
And then we went riding with V through a ranch adjacent to the ducks!
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