Puppy in Training

 What you should know:

1. We've been putting it off for months. 
2. We are ridiculous. 

I saw a post on Facebook the other day. It read, "I've just completed a task in 20 minutes, that I've been putting off for 5 months. I will learn nothing from this". It sounded more than a little familiar. 

You know those things that you just hope will disappear from your to-do list but never do? You'd think that by this age, I'd have figured out that they just get bigger and bigger until one day your brain is screaming, "Just. Get. It. Done!". 

Yesterday was one of those days. On yesterday's morning walk, the puppy was paying a bit too much attention to the sheep on the farm. The pup usually has a bit of a look then gets distracted by a clump of grass she's never noticed before and moves along. 

"Oooh grass"

Yesterday she had her nose pressed up against the fence, making my brain leap from zero to catastrophe in three seconds flat...

"What if the puppy chases the sheep and gets shot and Ivie will blame me and I'll blame Ivie because we've been talking about putting her in with the tups since before Christmas and we'll fall out and I'll have to move into the spare room!"

Ever since we got the pup (in the first week of October), we've been saying that we should make her scared of sheep. Lambing is fast approaching and the last thing anyone wants is an over-excited dog getting in the way causing mayhem. The slight issue is that both Ivie and I have a tendency to think we've loads of time until we're in a mild panic about whatever we're supposed to have organised. 

When we should have done sheep training

There's a quote from the composer Leonard Bernstein that sums it up perfectly:

"To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time."

So, yesterday afternoon we set off to the top of the farm to finally tick something off our list. We were quite the merry band - Ivie driving the quad, Drew sitting on the front, me on the back clinging on to a 10kg jumping bean and Isa the collie snapping at the tyres. 

Drew and Isa moved last year's remaining lambs into a pen and we added a six month old spaniel to the mix. I was slightly hoping that she'd get a kick or two to really put her off - but getting up close and realising how big they were seemed to do the trick.  

The good news is that this morning she didn't even glance at the sheep. A meeting with the tups is still on the cards, which should put her off good and proper. We've loads of time to get that sorted out, though. 

Gratuitous puppy shot