Got one set of holding pens mostly done - good enough for classes at least. Took Malcolm,Gonna,Brick and Powwow with me out there - they zoomed around and had a good time peeing on the perimeter to show those neighbor dogs and foxes whose territory was whose.

Well - Malcolm and Gonna figured out how to go through cattle panels. This was quickly followed by application of new knowledge by first Gonna then Malcolm getting into the arena with the ducks and sheep and herding up a storm. Malcolm called off. Gonna would look at me out of the corner of her eye as she whizzed past. Finally caught her when she went into mud the depth of her elbows. Slowed her down enough that I could grab some fur. This doesn't bode well for Sunday, when they have their first herding trial, although it'll look not much different from Brick's first HCT test, and well, Pow failed his.

Pow. Failed his instinct test at 6mo old. Yeah. Believe it. He was working as far as he could and still work, trapped in a round pen with a lady who was grouchy and had a rake. He was sailing around the outside of the ring, as fast as he could go, still trying to get his sheep somewhere. I wasn't experienced, so I let her work him. Mistake. Real common mistake with farmcollies and corgis - handler centric. Needless to say, I knew better than to believe he failed, and never looked back. He certainly never lacked drive to work.