Another Spring day

We had our usual Tues. working dogs day at McLeods' and lucked out with some nice sunny weather, although the wind was very cold! Julie took a break from the agility clinic and came over to work her dogs as well as Margaret and myself. Lynda stopped by on her lunch hour with a truck load of SPCA dogs....one of whom was a gorgeous BC. I have posted pix of him as he will be up for adoption shortly through the Maple Ridge SPCA. He is about 12-14 mos. old and very friendly, good temperment, keen on sheep. No papers but obviously from good working lines. We named him 'Chet' as he comes from Chetwynd in northern BC. I've also posted a couple pix of Wyatt getting spoiled by Julie during her visit here.

Downriver Farm

My friend, Lynda and I spent Sunday afternoon training our dogs at Downriver Farm in Hope, BC. Luckily Lynn Leach was home so we got in a nice visit as well. Lynn was my first herding instructor with my ACD, Wyatt. Lynn is often away teaching all-breed clinics all over the world - scheduled to travel to Switzerland, Germany and Sweden this fall. She is also judging the (AKC)B course $2500 Bonanza in OK in Sept. that Jodi posted about.
When we arrived Lynn and John Carter were trying to save a little orphan ram lamb. So we pitched in to help tube him as he wouldn't take a bottle. It was a beautiful warm sunny day so he was staying warm on the wood flooring of the flatdeck trailer parked in the field. Lynn's female dogs, Pepsi the Boss of Downriver in particular, had licked & nudged him trying to stimulate some life but he was in pretty bad shape. However once we got some nutrition into him, he survived the afternoon at least. I haven't heard from Lynn if he made it through the night.
As you can see in the picture, Blair would have nothing to do with him. Dusty completely ignored him as well. Jayne was very cautious then curious a bit. Wyatt was intrigued but looked like he thought the little ram would make a nice dinner.
Lynda and I did some set out for each other. She has entered young Lark in Nov/Nov in a couple weeks and Lark had never picked of a person/dog before. She handled it very well; didn't even look at us. Jayne on the other hand had a bit of trouble. The bigger distance, new sheep/field and very sticky to Lynda's knees through her off. First time she didn't take a steady or anything so came round the top at full speed and bust right through them. Next time I sent her closer and ran up the fetch line so I got a good hold of her and she was much better. A little later I sent her the distance again, she took a steady, stopped on balance and tried to lift. But they didn't move quickly enough so her patience ran out after a few seconds....bust in and gripped. So God help us in Nursery in two weeks! I smell a few very quick runs.
I didn't train Dusty as I didn't enter him in the upcoming trial so I just used him for set out and to change out a different group of sheep. Typical Dusty, he worked like a seasoned old Open dog - gathered the sheep, held them, covered, paced himself, did everything with little or no command. Impressed John so much that he asked to lease him for the summer to work in Saskatchewan. Needless to say Dusty is not going anywhere! ;-)
Blair of course did really well too. If only I could get my handling act together, he would do pretty well in trials this year. It was very nice to get out to a different place to work our dogs and such a treat to have shirt-sleeve weather. Downriver Farm is just over an hour away otherwise I would go there more often.

House Guests

I haven't posted much all week because I have company. They are here to attend Susan Garrett agility clinics but had today off. So, of course, we went to work our dogs. Luckily the rain held off but the wind made it rather cool. Julie has a littermate to Dusty, plus a niece of Dusty and a Scrimgeour-bred dog from Byrnes. Pam's split-face Titus is deaf so doesn't work sheep but he is also related to my pack. That is Dusty beside him looking through the fence.

Water Boxes

Here are some pictures of these very handy and practical dog Water Boxes. I will have some available at trials in BC. $40.00US
Or order from: http://www.helsleyranch.com/newspage.php
Above photo is Jeanie's Cole beside the new improved version. Holds 2.5 gallons of water.
Stores nicely between tailgate and wheel well.
I keep it in my truck. This one is 4 years old and hasn't been cleaned up lately.(ever)

I usually tuck the black cap into the hand hold indent. As dogs drink from bowl, it refills.
When done, tip back upright and water from bowl flows back inside. Ready for next time.

Owen's first week at Sterling Acres

Lee reports that Owen's balance seems quite nice, he is reading the draw and wanting to head the sheep from running which is good. He is going both ways off my body and seems to be bending off on his flanks quite nicely. Yesterday he was getting the tail up and tending to buzz a bit when he felt like he might not be able to head them but today he was more relaxed about it and was keeping a nice distance off his sheep as he flanked around. Lie downs are good close up of course so we'll see what happens when we increase the distance and the sheep are running!
He gathered the whole flock today; at first he was quite bewildered but quickly re grouped, brought them to me, then circled a couple of times around them, keeping a nice distance and came in right on balance. He is being a good boy; looks like he has some nice natural talent and is trying to please so can't ask for more than that! He loves the runs in the big field of course and has made good friends with a female who just came on Sunday. They play and play in the run as she is only 14 months old, so he is getting lots of exercise. He is eating well and all in all is doing fine.

Cloudy, sun, wind, sun, nice, cold.

Blair and his truck.

Will winter ever makes up it's mind! Even today it couldn't decide what to do; sleet-like rain on the way to McLeods', then the sun came out, then wind came up and a dark cloud, then sun again. But we spent a nice afternoon taking turns working our dogs. Rose gave us a big group so I was able to do some good shedding work with Blair; split the group then worked the shed off ones, then a couple flanks all the way around them, then a 'Look back' and circle all the way around that group. Young Jayne did really well on this group too. She was taking inside flanks, short quick commands, driving with more flow and less stop, look at Mom. Maybe we have made more progress in the last year than I thought! ;-)
I'll upload some photos of Jayne, Margaret and Paige, Rose and Meg & Jana - I am still trying to figure out how best to do that. Can anyone tell me how to upload photos better? I can't seem to put captions 'under' them or place them in the right place.

Working Jayne

Flanking on the fetch. Now if only we could do all of this at Nursery distance!
Finishing the outrun even though sheep have left.
Some of the cross-drive.
Driving with a steady flow.
Good pace on the fetch.
Almost to my feet and about to turn the 'post'.
About to come in on a shed.

Rose and Margaret working their dogs.

Rose changes out a new group of sheep for us.













Rose's Meg













Margaret's Paige
















Rose's Jana. If you look closely at pic below, you can see how long the snow line is on the mountains.

Snow as Predicted

Yes incredibly we got more snow today. It wasn't even raining in the morning, not until Rose and I got over to Ona's place and then it changed to snow. We were there to do some dog breaking of her sheep. It turned out to be very good work for the dogs as one ewe wanted no part of the group and would turn on the dogs. But with patience and/or a little help from handler, she would move off & rejoin the others. So it was a good confidence building exercise. No pictures as my camera would have gotten too wet.

Westcoast Magic

Great day to work dogs today. We've had our wonderful westcoast weather since the snow silliness on Monday; clear blue skies and almost tshirt temps....except for just below zero each night. But that has meant no mud in my yard so far - YaaHooo!
Today was excellent. I worked Dusty and he was Mr.Perfect-can-do-no-wrong as usual on McLeods' sheep. Took every command...even adapting to the change in whistles to Blair's. Nobody was around so I worked Jayne right after and she did well also. I worked on getting a definitive stop at the top when I asked as well as some quick flanks which she handled pretty nicely. I figured the other gals were either inside playing with Jana's 4 week old pups or out back in the barn with the newborn twins...but turns out they were all in the house working their butts off for the upcoming Flyball Tourney next month; making up and wrapping all the raffle items. So I spent the next couple hours helping/watching them and drinking coffee, eating cheese&crackers. I've volunteered to help out at the Tourney in April so that should be interesting....
Only sad note to the day was sending Owen off with my generous friend, Maureen to deliver him to Lee Lumb's care for the next 2 or 3 mos. for his sheepdog education. I miss his fat head and blue-eyed freckly face already. :-( Funny, when Jayne went up there last year, I had puppy Owen to keep me occupied and busy, this time there is a big hole in the family.
When I'm not playing outside with the dogs, I've been enjoying watching the Brier and the World Baseball Classic! Go Team Howard! Go Team Netherlands the underdogs+.
For all you non-Canucks, the Brier is the Canadian Men's Championship Curling tourney. Our second national sport after hockey. LOL

Musings

The snow finally arrived, two days late. Only a few inches but enough, I am sure, to foul up rush hour. It was -4c on my deck mid-morning and still snowing. It quit by 11:00a and now the sun is shining in a bright blue sky. Go figure.
I made some updates on my laptop's screen saver; created a new photo album for it to scroll through. It was sitting on a TV table next to my chair in the living room. Dusty begged his way into my lap for some cuddle time and next thing I knew he was intently watching the screen saver. I have to wonder what he thinks when he sees photos of himself and his pack? I don't think he recognizes himself but what about when he sees Jayne, Blair, Owen and Wyatt? What goes through his mind? Obvious interest and focus when he sees them working sheep. He has also been very keen to watch TV when there are sheep on it - next to impossible to try to watch Derek Scrimgeour's video with his big fat head blocking the screen. But he usually only watches TV when there are dogs or sheep. Owen on the other hand watches all kinds of programs and commercials. Blair gets upset when there are animals on TV, he jumps out of bed and wants to work them I think. Wyatt and Jayne ignore it all. Curious.....

Bowling for dogs

I bought a new toy yesterday; it is hard rubber & shaped like a bowling pin. It's squeek is kind of 'deep' sort of like a duck quack. It is not nearly as annoying as another prized toy which Dusty chomps non-stop. I only let him have it on occasion during the week when the neighbors are mostly at work. But this new one is not as loud nor high pitched so they can have it 24/7. LOL Surprisingly Owen is the one that has taken a great delight in it, barely letting anyone else even briefly check it out.
I stayed home from Dirk's trial for nothing yesterday! The snow they predicted did not appear. Last time they said 3-5cm but we got 10cm so I didn't want to chance getting caught coming home in a storm. It is another beautiful day today with mixed sun & cloud so far. I caught a few snowflakes attempting to come down through the sunshine. ;-) I am very happy to have the time change today - now it will be daylight until 7:00pm! My favorite time of year as the days get longer & longer until June.