I Got a Drone!

Meet the newest member of the SpryDog team - a DJI Air2S drone

I’ve been itching to get a drone for quite awhile now. Mostly because flying them looked really fun. And you know what? I was right - it’s wicked fun!

Mostly, I’ve just been zipping it around the yard learning how to fly it. So far I’ve only crashed it once. It survived (thank God) but I’m glad I opted for the extra propellers…

Anyway, that was fun and all but I was excited to take it to our herding lessons to try and get some footage of dogs actually doing stuff. I had no idea how the dogs or the livestock would react. As cool as I think they are, I’ll be the first to admit that drones are kind of creepy. It can be a bit unnerving to see this futuristic craft buzzing around - so I can only imagine what animals think of it. I was excited to see that after some initial skepticism, most of the dogs and goats seemed to adjust and pretty much ignored it. I’m not so sure about the handlers. Thank you Mike, Donna & Lucy for being good sports!

I’m working on getting my FAA Part 107 drone pilot’s license. Without that I can’t actually use the drone for client work, only for recreational purposes. So for now I’ll be working on my flying skills and brainstorming how I can use it to help showcase awesome working and sport dogs!

Check out my video of practice footage